Still around

HA!!! since Chris never writes, I will. All looks good. Chris visits NIH every 3 months or so. The last 2 very deep tumors are gone...so he is all clear. Kaiser doctor says he looks healthy now.
Lucky is fine but her age is catching up. She's 13 and won't go it a dark room anymore. Lights have to be on. Chris is really really spoiling her...she eats left over food now, and Chris makes sure she gets egg, sausage and toast on the weekend. She also licks the bowl clean from whatever Chris has for dinner. I say not to do it so he waits till I leave the room. Both looking forward to the warm weather and some bike rides! So nothing is really new here :)

It's mid February. I went into NIH last Monday and Tuesday. The Dr's say they can now say they have successfully treated me for melanoma. The tumors they took out are definitely negative. The CT scans last Monday show that the tumors that are deep by my hearing canal are smaller now than in December. They are now saying it appears that the tumors have become benign and are being absorbed by my body, much like scar tissue. Benign? Negative for Melanoma? Smaller? Absorption? It was good to be hearing that the only word they didn't use was Remission. I do believe that is the next word to follow. Work is going well and it looks like Naples and New Delhi are coming very soon after my trip to Costa Rica. I'm looking forward to that. So Next time I'm scheduled back to NIH is 2-3 months. Hear that???!!!!! Observation in 2-3 months. Wooo Hooo!!!

I have been so bad. Molly was right: It seems like anyone treating you for Melanoma never gives you all the news. We've figured out that there is so little good news they don't want to give you all of the bad news. Well, HEAR THIS: We have GOOD NEWS. December 14 they did surgery to determine if the tumors contained Melanoma. The tumors shrank to pin-head size, but they didn't go away. What Molly was saying was that NIH told us at first there were 2 tumors, then admited there were 3 and at the end of the discussion, we found out there were 4 tumors total that they could see. Anyway they were afraid of doing a biopsy on them because the biopsy can spread the melanoma, making it worse. So they went in and cut out the tumors and did the biopsy in the lab. The tumors were NEGATIVE FOR MELANOMA. This means the growths have been reduced as small as they are going to get and have been turned into scar tissue. Most likely, they will leave the two tumors deep by my hearing canal. So now we move onto the bucket list. I am planning to do some things before I kick the bucket. The last of February, I am heading to Costa Rica to go on an ECO-Tour. I have always wanted to do one of those excursions where they put you in a repelling harness, snap you onto a 2 mile cable and send you through the canopy of the rain-forest. I am fascinated by hummingbirds, whales, frogs, volcanoes, scuba diving trips, white water rafting and Costa Rica has it all. HOOORAH!

Chris

12/6/07

Molly here....Another update....they found 2 deep tumors when they went in...not 1. so now we wait for the results of the biopsies on the 2 removed. One of the newly discovered ones is very close to the ear canal. I told the doctor our house was already designed for the deaf, but some how he thought I was just weird. Can u imagine that?

They lied...9pm 12/4/07

Just a short summary of the day....there are not 2 tumors there are 3 :( the 3rd one is deep and close to the ear canal. They will take out 2 free floating ones tmr and leave the 3rd. Once they study to 2 they removed we will have a better idea of what the 3rd one contains and what to do....in a month they can also run a scan see if it glows :)

December update

Folks and family: Well it appears the last two tumors don't want to leave. They each have shrunk to the size of a pin head. They were the size of a marble, last year so the treatment is working and they have not come back. The tumors have not attached themselves to any muscle or anything...they appear to be freefloating. So next WED (05 DEC 07) they are going to excise them in a minor surgery. Molly is going to be there for the surgery. Dr. Yang says Melanoma does not play fair, so there is no reason to play fair with it.

More good news

While it's not complete closure to my treatment protocol, it continues to go in the direction we want. NIH did CT scans, MRI's and blood chemistries this week. The blood levels were exactly where they want them. The 8 lower tumors are gone. There are two that remain, but they have lost their definition and thickness, meaning the tumors are deteriorating and have gotten another 40-50% smaller and thinner from last month. The last two tumors are no longer attached to the underlying tissue. So let's re-cap the issues: The other 8 have dissappeared completely, the last 2 are getting much smaller both in width and depth, the exterior of those is breaking down, my energy level is coming back at a realatively high level, and my weight has come back to about 85-90% of what it was before treatment. I think, and more importantly the Dr's think this is now under control. The pain level on the vast majority of days is well under control. It's just going to take a little longer. Now I'm OK with this. Chris