“David Foster's Kicking Kidney Cancer’s Arse”

The Nexavar Gimp

So in 1862, I think it was, my great grandfather went with Braxton
Bragg to tour Kentucky and hunt up a few Yankees. Well, they enjoyed
the walk and did find some Yankees in Perryville, Kentucky, but the
bluecoats were not that happy to see them and spent a good deal of
time rolling up the welcome mat and rolling out the cannon. Granddaddy
found himself running up a hill with all intentions of sending a good
old boy from Illinois to Yankee heaven when that good old boy shot his
heel off. He limped back to the Confed lines and they took one look
and told him he was done "a-soldiering," gave him a crude crutch,
pointed the way South and home he went, walking almost every step of
the way to Fayette County, Georgia, about three hundred miles. Well,
come the spring of 1863, he put in a crop, picked up his rifle, took
up his heel-less self and rejoined Bragg just in time to return the Yankee
favor at Chickamauga.

While I have heard that story much of my life, I never really
appreciated it until I got on this Nexavar stuff. My Lord can it do a
number to poor old tootsies. Man, does it hurt to walk ten feet, much
less three hundred miles with a filthy bandage around your foot--and
every step must have been wretched--and still want to go back and do
it all over again. I am told they called great granddaddy Old Gimp for
the rest of his life, a title he carried with some pride, ever ready to
tell how his foot got uneven.

So here I am walking a little gimpy myself because of the medicine and
I will tell you if you do not have your feet, you don't have much. But
I do think of old great-granddaddy and his ability to shrug much worse
and go risk himself all over again. Keeps me a little humble and not
much for complaining.

The good news, however, I am now off of Dilantin (hip, hip, hooray)
and the Nexavar has no other side affects. I am now hearing from a
number of folks that have recently learned they have cancer and it has
been most fulfilling to help them fight their war as I feel I have a leg
up on mine.

As for the hurting feet, well, let 'em hurt. If granddaddy could fight
his way through his wound, which was trying to kill him, I can damn
sure fight through this since my "wound" comes a medicine that is,
seriously, saving my life.

All the best. Hot as blazes here. But Wyoming sings its siren song.
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Dave

Nexavar

Dang, did I have one of those what the heck days or what? Went to the Doc
this morning and learned that I will be on Nexavar, the cancer med, until
"you die or we find something better." What? Until I die? He says, "Well,
with Nexavar you die of a nice ripe old age; without it, well, you just die. Which way you want to do it?"

OK, so here's the deal: Cancer still doing just fine thank you. Some eight
to ten tumors remain, scattered behind the stomach, near the once resident
but since expunged left kidney, in the lymph nodes between the stomach and
chest and a little one ("about the size of peanut") has found its way BACK
into the right lung (it appeared gone until about a month ago). Nexavar's
job is to keep them from growing and/or spreading--if we (uh, me) get very
lucky it might--did I say MIGHT--shrink them, but don't count on it.
But that's not the bad news. The bad news is that the side affects of this
stuff are just awful. Feet hurt (as in can you spell hobble), high blood
pressure (can you spell no more...well you know what no more of); fatigue
(how many naps can one man take a day?), and the list goes on.

Truly, when it comes to this disease do not laugh at someone who says he or
she doesn't know what's worse, the cancer or the cure.
The good thing is that Ibuprofen does help the feet, the fish will be
biting in Wyoming later this summer, and Gracie (my Brittany) and I are
counting down the long hot months of summer to that magic day in November
when quail season kicks in once again. That and a good shot of Scotch gonna
keep me going for a long time.

So the Nexavar can handle the cancer and I, my friends, will handle the
Nexavar.

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers. I know this thing drags on and
appears it will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. You have no
idea how much it means to me that you have hung in there with me through it
all.
Dave