Hello friends! It's been quite a while since my last blog. I have had my hands full with so much going on. Back in November I started having pain in my chest (in the place where my port used to be). They did an ultrasound, x-ray and bloodwork and came up with nothing. Finally they diagnosed the problem as Costochondritis, a condition where the cartilage around my sternum became inflamed and was rubbing against the bone. They said it was not uncommon for someone that had had radiation where I did. Unfortunately it took them 5 weeks to figure this out, and I was on Advil & other pain killers to get me through every day of it. They put me on Celebrex and it seems to be managing the pain, but the pain is still there. I also developed anemia (my hemoglobin went as low as 8.6, and my doc was pushing for a transfusion. I didn't want it, and took the Aranesp shot to boost my levels instead. It worked. I'm now back into the 10.7 range and holding (still low, but ok). Thursday will complete round 5 on Gemzar, and my doc would like to do another PET scan the following week, but now we have run into another issue. Aetna has decided they don't want to pay for my PET scans ($3300 each). It's interesting that they pay for PET scans on other types of cancer, but for some reason they consider PET scans to be "experimental" when it comes to my rare "thymic" cancer. We are already at the second-level appeal phase. Please keep us in your prayers, because I need these scans to make sure my treatments are still working and monitor my current situation. I have been feeling fine through the chemo, with minor side effects that haven't really hindered my lifestyle too much, so I'm very thankful to God for that. I'm hoping to get a PET scan soon and some more good news to go with it! I'll keep you posted...