Cancer cells have a way of moving the goal posts! So, sometimes numbers that may have mattered last week are old news this week.
You Never Know What Will Happen
It makes me want to share a quick story with you. Years ago, a guy was traveling in rural Montana on one of those endless stretches of highway, with a million stars guiding him through the late evening. He really wasn’t paying close attention when a mountain lion raced in front of his pickup. He slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. He ran into the mountain lion, killed him, and just felt horribly because the lion was such a beautiful creature.
He had no intention of just leaving this 90-pound cat in the middle of the road. It took awhile, but he was able to maneuver the lion into the back seat of the pickup before starting out to the next town where there would hopefully be a Vet and he could officially report to authorities what happened and apologize.
He couldn’t have been more than 20-miles from where he struck the mountain lion, when he swore he heard a deep groan coming from the back seat of his pickup. About 5-minutes later it was a lot louder than a deep groan and to make a long story short, he didn’t kill the lion, just knocked him out. Now it was only a matter of time before that nice, little kitty was going to regain full consciousness in the back seat of his pickup and probably eat him for. But the story has a happy ending. Neither of them wanted to be there so the man stopped the car, opened the door and off went the lion.
Unexpected News Reason I tell you this story is because something similar happened yesterday at Providence Cancer Center. The 8-week experimental drug therapy program was a bit disappointing, especially considering the side effects and high expectations. But, in reality, we hadn’t seen much change over these past 8-weeks. The melanoma tumors were about the same size they were when we began the experiment and my doctor’s were very careful to explain those things happen sometimes and there are other options available.
I was O.K. with that and prepared to do whatever it took to win this fight. What I wasn’t prepared for is discovering the melanoma has now spread into my brain with 5 different lesions detected by the scans and MRI’s taken last Friday.
In all the months of this fight, with Rita’s hand squeezing mine, I’m not sure I had come this close to giving up. Fortunately, I have a skilled surgeon, Dr Walter Urba, who heads up the Cancer Center. Almost as skilled with words as he is with a scalpel, he was able to say something that completely changed the direction of the conversation.
And as I sat there, I remembered something that was said at church on Sunday, when one ovarian cancer survivor said, “Whatever they tell you, whatever is said, you rest it in God’s arms to sort things out.”
The Options Ahead
But check this out -- if this isn’t one of the craziest things in the world. There is a very popular drug maker seeking FDA approval for treatment of melanoma cancer that has had tremendous success -- so much success that it’s almost a slam dunk for approval.
And get this! There is absolutely no way anyone could be included in this study at this point, unless…they had small enough melanoma lesions in their brain. The treatment has had recent success in dissolving brain lesions, stopping the spread of the cancer in the rest of the body, shrinking tumors that already exist, and preventing them from coming back again.
It would appear I am eligible to be involved in this 4-week study that begins next week. If it works we’d continue. If not, there are still more options on the table including something called The Gamma Knife Radiation and a few months in the hospital with injections of Interleukin 2 Chemo.
All the calls are being made today. Rita and I have had non-stop conversations about what we should do and while time does appear to be running out, there are major miracles being done in medicine, unlike we’ve never seen in our lifetimes -- the same kind being used for Ted Kennedy.
Stories of Hope
The stories I’m hearing give me hope when, just a few years ago, there was little or none. Apparently, when these biological experimental drugs work…they really work well. No guarantees, no promises, but you just want to get on your knees and give thanks to all the doctors and warriors before me, who are making this all possible. As for the people who work at Providence Cancer Center…simply unbelievable.
Needless to say, it’s been a long few days and there’s a chance, if I enter this program next week, we may have to wait a couple of weeks before we can communicate again but I just want to share what my day was like yesterday and let you know how powerful your messages of support will be to get us through.
We do live in a wonderful world, where miracles happen all the time, and I just thought you should know that. There are some who think I’m nuts, and it would be difficult to argue with that, but you mean the world to me and we’ve been through a lot together over the years.
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