Hello all,

Jason was diagnosed with stomach cancer on May 17, 2023—six months and two days ago. We're so grateful for the excellent care he's gotten over the past half a year.

When his every-other-week treatments started in June, they threw lots of medications at his body (two chemo drugs, a third drug that makes one of the chemo drugs work better, and an immunotherapy drug ... not to mention the "extras," like anti-nausea meds).

Thankfully, the cocktail proved effective. His PET scans have shown dramatic reduction in the amount of cancer in his body. Over the past couple of months, his oncologists have gradually reduced the number of medications he gets, because it's important to limit the length of time we put so many toxic substances in his body.

This week, he had his 11th round of treatment. For the first time, he was only given two main medications: a chemo drug (5FU, which doesn't tend to have lots of side effects) and an immunotherapy drug (nivolumab/Opdivo).

What a difference. For the last five months, we've had to structure our schedule around "chemo weekends" (when he usually didn't feel up to doing much) and "good weekends" (the in-between ones). This weekend is a chemo weekend, but it felt better than most of his previous "good weekends!" He's acting like pre-cancer Jason, and it gives me joy to see him like this.

If you're the praying type, please pray that this reduced treatment regimen will be totally effective and that his scans will show continued improvement and, in time, no more cancer.

In the meantime ... we're living life. We went to Myrtle Beach, SC with the kids a couple of weeks ago, and it was wonderful to get away. We're planning to travel a lot more than usual in the coming days. Cancer has given us a gift: a sharp awareness of the fact that none of us knows how long we'll be on this Earth. We're committed to enjoying each other, appreciating our family, and celebrating our health, for as long as we can.

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have as much to be thankful for as we do.

-Beth and Jason

You're always welcome to look at past emails here. Just be aware this site includes my author and narrator newsletters as well as my emails about Jason; I can't split them up!