Preparing for another battle

In December of 2009, Mark had a tumor removed from underneath his arm. It was wrapped around his nerve and extremely painful. They removed it and he returned to work very quickly (much more quickly than his doctor and surgeon would have liked). Since that time, he had clean scans in February and was doing really well.

Recently (unbeknownst to me), he started feeling pain underneath of his arm again. Even though he wasn’t due for his regular scans yet, he knew something wasn’t right and told the doctors he thought he needed them now.

On Friday morning, July 23rd, Mark had both a CT body scan and an MRI of his brain. That afternoon he received a call from a Physicians Assistant at the James Cancer Center informing him that there were new lesions in his brain, in three locations, and activity under his arm where he had his last surgery. It is the worst re-occurrence he has had yet. Unfortunately, his Doctor, Dr. Kendra, was out of the country at a Melanoma Conference so Mark had to wait until the following Wednesday to meet with her (not unfortunate that she continues to advance her knowledge of Melanoma, just unfortunate that he had to wait to get some answers, time is something Melanoma patients don’t have a lot of).

On Wednesday, Mark and my mom met with Dr. Kendra. I missed Mark’s call on his way home from his appointment and this is the message he left on my phone: "So, it's not as bad as I had anticipated. I need another brain surgery and then radiation of the brain. Then I'm going to start chemo therapy and I might need to start a new immune booster clinical trial for the other 6 tumors they found in my lungs and the other tumor under my arm. So, it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be."

Considering we didn’t even know about the 6 tumors in his lungs, and one of his tumors in his head is so big and swollen that he is running the risk of having a seizure right now, I would have guessed the appointment went worse than he expected. But Mark heard the doctors say, “It’s attackable.” And that is all he needed to hear. If the doctor that he knows and trusts, says he can try to fight it, he is going to do it. And to be honest, even if she said he couldn’t fight it, he probably would try to anyway! That is just who he is. And that determined, positive attitude is one of the reasons he is still alive.

As for the next steps, first things first. Mark needs to get rid of the largest tumor in his brain. He is currently taking steroids, at the recommendation of his doctor - something he usually refuses to do since it can reverse the effects of his original immunotherapy clinical trial. I guess when you run the risk of having a seizure without taking the steroids (and when the doctor says you can't drive unless you take them), it makes the decision much easier. We are just glad he's taking them.

He meets with a brain surgeon on Monday morning, August 3rd. Unfortunately, the original surgeon who performed Mark’s brain surgery 5 years ago, is no longer at the James Cancer Center. So the brain surgeon he meets with on Monday is someone he has never met before. Mark said he’s going to be evaluating this new brain surgeon just as much as the brain surgeon will be evaluating him. Again, that’s our Mark! After they meet (assuming the “evaluations” of each other go well), they will be scheduling his brain surgery. It will probably happen very soon, maybe even within the next week.

After the brain surgery, Mark (and his doctors, but mostly Mark) will then look at different options (which he is researching right this very moment) for treating the other tumors.

For now we will focus on getting the first tumor out of his head and pray that the surgery goes well and they are able to get it all out.

Thank you all so much for your thoughts, prayers, kind words and support. It means so much to all of us. Mark has a rough road ahead. He knows it and we know it. But he is willing to fight the good fight and we are committed to supporting him every step of the way. After all, Mark says he knows his time on this Earth is not done and we agree.

In the meantime, Mark encourages all of us to "Live Like We're Dying" (the only country song Mark actually likes, as cliche as it may sound). He says it's an amazing way to live life and he would know. He's been living that way for over five years.

I would be so appreciative if you would leave positive and encouraging comments for Mark and all to see on this blog. It's going to be a tough road ahead and I know he could use your support.