HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER, 2008...*sigh*

Hey, All,
I was just struck by the though that you have entered into my journey at various points in it. Thus, I thought a recap of the whole deal might be useful to some.

Nov. 05 - initial diagnosis of malignant melanoma from a mole on my back. 4 sep surgeries at same time: massive hole created in back around mole, sentinel lymph nodes removed from under each arm, skin graft from left thigh into back. Cancer Free was diagnosis from all of that.

Between then & now - regular visits to my excellent oncologist in H'burg & to dermatologist there. CT scans every 6 months.

January 08 - routine ct scan finds 3 spots on my lungs. A vast array of medical tests follows:
multiple CTs, brain MRI (which did, in fact, reveal that I do have one of those), xrays, echocardiogram (which revealed that I have one of those too!), 2 different needle biopsies (there's a good time...a needle being slowly jammed into your lung...with no anesthesia...got to do 2 of thosebad boys...),...
Then in May, Dr. B. referred me to MDA for a consult. Note: I've long believed that one mark of a good Dr. is enough humility to ask for a 2nd opinion himself!

(what follows are descriptions of each of our trips out here; I can't keep all the dates straight)
1st week in May - initial appt. w/ Dr. Homsi out here. He's a medical melanoma specialist, not to be confused w/ the surgical melanoma folks here, nor with the dermatology folks here...specialization is good in this bidness! Dr. H's lab guy suspects this is adenocarcinoma. Thus, I get instantly referred to Dr. Kim in that dept.

appt. w/ Dr. Kim; he suggests a radical surgerical procedure called VATS - video-assisted thorascopic (something); this is scheduled for the next week, and will (a) diagnose and (b) remove a fair amount of my disease.

VATS Surgery performed by Dr. Mehran. Removes 3 spots from left lung; diagnosis is very clear: metastatic melanoma - total bummer! There's not much good news when melanoma returns like this.

Followup with Dr. Homsi. He lays out several options, and then recommends high-dose IL-2. This trtmt protocol offers a small chance of very good news. When it works, those folks tend to livr tumor-free for years & years. ("Lord, I want to be in that number...")

round 1 of high-dose IL-2 @ MDA. I made it thru 6 doses, which is about avg. Zero fun, sir!

2 weeks of R & R at home. Then this week. See "Zero fun, Sir!" But, I made it to doses this time. It's quite unusual for one to go farther on dose 2 than dose 1.

For future possibilities, see my post of 7/28; scroll to bottom under "long range possibilities."

Whoomp, there it is...I thought you know...*grin*