Yes, I understand that every life must end...As we sit alone, I know someday we must go...

SPOILER ALERT:  Eric's Post-Surgical Report, a Thank you, and a Sad Farewell.

Yesterdays surgery went beautifully. Surgery last a little over 1.5 hours. Dr. Solomon was able to ablate all visible disease in the left lung. There was one point where they were concerned his lung was collapsing, but more time, oxygen, and meds ensured this did not happen. But more then that, I think at that near that exact moment, an Angel was watching over him, you will read about that below.... Eric had to have 3 post surgical xrays and stay in the PACU until 4pm. Surgery started at 8am. It was a long day but he did awesome. his body responded so well to the surgery that Solomon ok'd him to have the second surgery on the right lung in a mere 3 days. The right lung is a little more concerning, as he has had fluid in that lung very recently.

So back we go again to NYC for an appointment Monday and surgery on Tuesday. I think to save some time and stress, we are just going to send Monday night in the city.

                               Eric Right before being wheeled back to surgery...
          I told him the hair net reminded me of the opening of Laverne & Shirley



Also, I would like to say thank you to those who attended the last min benefit at Maggies on Thursday. Eric had a fantastic time, and was really surprised and happy to see so many friends there to support him. It was just what he needed to gear up for surgery the next day. I want to share with you a message he put about the night on his Facebook page. Please ignore the spelling errors and grammatical errors, Eric wrote this last night when he couldn't go to sleep.

Eric F Dial
8 hours ago via mobile

Ugh can't sleep again. But anyway had giving me good time to think. About how to put into words about lastnight at maggies. Sorry for the late responds. The last 24hrs have been very crazy. For those of u that know me I'm not big on speeches and I'm a shy guy. But here goes. I would like to thank Maggies john Nagele and I'm not sure of the others that put lastnight benefit thing together. I greatly appreciate it. But you didn't have to do that for me, I'm sure there is more deserving people people out there more then me. I can't out into.words how i feel. With the love and support everything has giving me and my family. Its was a great surprise coming and seeing all.the support of good friends and people i didn't even know. It was really heart warming. Especially since i had no clue what was happening. And glad i was able to.attend. but anyway don't want to bore anyone with along message. Just wanted to.say THANK YOU. From the bottom of my heart. Love u all. And may god bless each and every one of u like he has blessed me. ♥ ...u know what this cancer is the best thing that could if happen to me in a sick way. It was a reality check to me. To not take things fir granted. And appreciate the things in life u have. And it actually made me a,better person then i was. I take every day in stride one day at a time and live life to the complete fullest. And i think the world be a,better place if everyone did the same.

Finally, I would like to take a moment to pay my respects to another Cancer Warrior who lost her battle with Breast Cancer yesterday. I never had the opportunity to meet Linda Furlong Hill personally. She was a coworker/friend of my friend Jenn. Her husband is a Philly police officer too, so Jenn thought we would have a pretty good connection. Linda was a nurse at Arias Torresdale who found out she had breast cancer while pregnant with her now 2 year old son. Jenn suggested I "friend" Linda, and I am so very glad I did. She became a DAILY inspiration to me. Her spirit and determination to live left me in awe. After her diagnosis 2 years ago, surgery and treatment, she enjoyed several months of remission before cancer reared its ugly head and spread to every part of his body. Even when it hit her brain she STILL WOULD NOT GIVE UP!!! Linda didn't lay in bed and feel sorry for herself, she pushed herself to make the most of what time she might have left.

She wrote the following on her Facebook about me section, and I think it pretty much gives you an idea of what an amazing person Linda was:

"Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

I am a wife and mother of 3 beautiful children. I lost my Dad to colon cancer in 2004..I myself was diagnosed with Stage III Triple Negative Breast Cancer this year. It was found during my pregnancy in my left breast. I also had a benign mass in my right breast...that also had a 25% chance of turning into cancer so on top of having a radical mastectomy with 7/14 nodes positive removed I also opted to have myright breast removed as well...to be proactive in my treatment. Plus my breasts were so large I would have been very lopsided. My double mastectomy was exactly one week and a day after having my son, due to the aggressive form it was. And I was allowed 4 weeks to heal prior to starting my chemo. 8 rounds...4 with Adriamycin and Cytoxan...and the next 4 with Taxol. So far 5 rounds complete and 3 to go.I also tested + for the BRAC 1 gene..so the removal of my ovaries are also in my future due to the high risk of Ovarian Cancer. And my fear is that my children now have a 50% chance of having the mutated gene. But the GREAT Part is...is that they are now 10 STEPS ahead of cancer and now they can prevent it. Due to the POWER of Knowledge!!! I no longer look at Cancer as something all bad...cause as I see it...it may have attacked me...but it will NEVER take my children or their children...ALL because the POWER of knowledge. My Breast Cancer has SAVED my legacy!! I had my head shaved by my hubby after the 2nd round. Had fun wig shopping....but for the most part I rock my bald head at home and pretty nice hats out in public....and the wig sometimes. It has been a whirlwind of emotions in the short time since I was diagnosed on June 17 2010. The Life Events I have experienced in this short time...I know most people don't in a Lifetime. But I know that is what makes me a strong person and soon to be a survivor. I know the war will never be over but I expect to win the battle over and over again. I try not to think of the "what if's" anymore because I have no control over them....but I do try to just live my life and do me. I have alot to LIVE for...and I refuse to let cancer take that from me. Afterall I am one Tough Bitch....

Linda T. Furlong Hill

3/12/77- 7/20/12

"Fuck Cancer"

Linda, you fought long and hard, and now you are free. Cancer can no longer hurt you...

The 10 o'clock News.

CEA levels went down from 13 to 9. Clearly the infections raised the levels significantly from the 6 it was the week before. But 9 is still high indicating an increase in the disease. Dr Kemeny has decided to wait until after the lung tumor removal surgery to resume chemo. Clearly chemo must be resumed to keep disease at bay.

We are here.in NYC to see the pulmonary specialist. Eric was conditionally cleared for surgery next week as long as the wheezing in his lungs had subsided. We are here today to get a complete clearance. Mondays pulmonary function tests revealed that.Eric's lung functions have decreased 35% since last year. Not a good thing, and clearly demonstrating how the metastasis of the disease to the lungs has effected him.

The first of 2 lung tumor removal surgeries is scheduled for July 20th. They will remove disease from the left lung. Approximately 2 weeks later (date to be determined) he will have surgery on the right lung. Both surgeries at this point in time have been denied coverage. We have decided to go forth with the surgeries regardless and appeal the coverage denial. We risk paying out of pock for these surgeries (tens of thousands of dollars) but I don't want to gamble with Eric's.life and face the possibility of the disease continuing to spread while we wait for it to be covered. His CEA level continues to steadily increase clearly indicating that the disease is spreading. I want every tumor visible to the eye to be removed and chemo to resume ASAP so that we can finally get ahead of it.

As always thanks.for the.love and.prayers

And for a little laugh, here is E's facebook status after today's clearance:

Past 2 months in 2 minutes

I haven't updated since May, mostly because not much had happened, then life became a clusterfuck. Eric went through 5 rounds of Xeloda before being hospitalized for chemo toxicity. Well that's what they think it was, because they really had no idea. We were stuck at Abington for 6 damn days. I was down the shore for the Fallen Heroes M/C Ride. Eric was supposed to participate, but felt so sick he went home. The next day my Dad took him to the ER, and I rushed home from North Wildwood. It was a long 6 days filled with fever, lost of some bodily functions and horrible blistering skin. And then 8 days later he was hospitalized again.

 The 2nd round of hospitalization this month was kind of weird. We went for a routine visit on monday and Eric felt fine. He had an abscess on his face that had started as a blind pimple. But if you know E personally, this is nothing new with his eczema and history of staph. But when the bloodwork came in the the numbers were not good. His WBC had jumped to 34,000 and Kemeny insisted he be admitted. He had brought Logan to this appointment with us, so needless to say we were not prepared for a stay in NY. Eric was pretty upset they admitted him, especially considering the fact that he had just gotten out of the hospital. Plus it was somewhat of a deja vu feeling, as Eric was hospitalized for 4 weeks right before the 4th of July.

Logan and I stayed at a hotel room that night, and my dad saved the day by coming up to NYC, meeting me on the train platform, and taking Logan home. During this stay Eric felt ok up until he was about to released, thus causing his stay to be extended. He ended up having a staph infection, a rare skull bone infection called mastoidosis (effects 0.004% of the population in developed nations)and ended up with c-diff. (if you look up c-diff it super sucks and is highly contagious). But we were able to get the meds for him to come home, where he will spend 4 weeks on antibiotics. Man can't catch a break.

CEA level had more then doubled in 2 weeks, which concerns me greatly. Eric is not on any chemo right now, and his surgery to remove the lung tumors has been pushed back twice because of infection. His numbers have not been this high since pre liver resection last year. If you scroll down below you can see the CEA level trends since he was diagnosed. Hoping that the reason behind this was the brewing infection, and not more disease growing elsewhere in the body. I do know that the neck/head/brain are good. He had multiple CTs of that area during his stay last week. We have an appointment in new york tomorrow, so I guess we will find out what the next plans look like. Surgery to remove the tumors from the one lung is scheduled for july 20th, with the following lung to be at a date after that. In the meantime we continue to pray. I will probably write more later, but I figure this is the quick update.

 These are pics of Eric when he was up at Sloan.

We passed the time talking about our Respite trip in January care of For Pete's Sake Cancer Respite Foundation