Happy New Year!

Hi,

I have added an update near the bottom from my birthday, January 7th.

I haven't said much this month because I've been busy creating another blog about my McDowell ancestors. Remember the big photo of Fallingwater River that was at the beginning of this blog? It's decorating the "McDowell Family of White County Tennessee" now.

The new picture on this blog is from the Mission Inn in Riverside, California; it seems evocative to have my journey symbolized by a stairway and a door. (LOL. Don't read the sign at the bottom, or you will find out the door doesn't lead anywhere. Just pretend there is still a garden at the top of the stairs.) The photo is from our anniversary dinner at the Mission Inn in 2009.

I am doing well. My next oncologist appointment is not until February. I am convinced that the tumor in my liver is smaller than several months ago. I had a little Chardonnay with a Christmas luncheon on December 21, and it became a demonstration of how small my tumor had become.

In January 2010, on my birthday I drank one inch of Reisling (a white wine) with my dinner. I knew there was a possibility of having a reaction to the alcohol with a carcinoid tumor in my liver. I wasn't sure what was going to happen, so I drank just a small amount of wine. I have read of every reaction to alcohol from turning red to having a carcinoid crisis.

In the middle of the night I woke up drenched in sweat. My hair was wet and my pillowcase was wet. Somehow the alcohol in the wine stimulated the carcinoid so that it poured hormones into my bloodstream that produced excessive perspiration.

Last week on the 21st, I drank about one inch of white wine from a white wine glass. I slept through the night just fine. When I woke up in the morning a single trickle of perspiration ran down my chest. That small reaction tells me that the cancer has shrunk; it was too small to produce much hormone, so my reaction was less than 11 months ago.

January 7: When I went out to eat on my birthday, I tried a glass of Reisling with my dinner. This was a larger glass of wine, probably because the restaurant was charging $7.25 for it! Since I don't drink very often, I can feel the effects after only a few ounces, so I stopped at half a glass. That night I had no unpleasant reaction to the wine at all!

So now my scans, blood tests, and my body's own reactions match! The tumor is smaller than it was at the beginning of 2010. That's a good way to end the year! Thank you, Father. I love you.