The second dose of chemo is now doing its work, and so far, so good.

The doctor says the tumor that has cracked the collar bone is shrinking, and the abdominal swelling caused by the accumulation of cancer rich fluid under the lung appears to be shrinking. Thanks be to God. We pray it continues to work its powerful chemical miracles.

The doc also wants to expand from 2 rounds of chemo to as many as 6 or 7 if Dad can take it. That would extend the chemo into March. The family is not so thrilled with that idea, obviously.

Dad's got a great attitude, my sisters continue to be champs, and Mom is exhausting herself.

And we are all puzzled by something. The only way the doctor can evaluate if the chemo is working in this first month of treatments is by palpitation and visible inspection. He's said he'd like to do a scan, but it seems that Medicare will not pay for a CATscan right now because they did one in connection with diagnosing the cancer 6 weeks ago. They want the doctor to wait at least 2 months between scans. Here's my question...if Dad's tumor wasn't in a bone that is close to the surface and palpable, how on earth would we know how things are going without a scan? Such an arbitrary rule seems nuts to me.