One night in the hospital and already feeling better!

I talked to Mark this morning and he sounded like a different person. I couldn't believe how much better he sounded! I haven't heard him with that much energy in a few weeks now. Granted, it was because of the drugs they are giving him but it was just great to hear him with energy. He said he now understands why athletes like steroids so much because he feels great on them! I asked him if that meant he was going to start lifting weights now and he said yes, starting tomorrow. :)

Now that they have him medicated and feeling better, his appetite is back which is good, except he's not allowed to eat anything until after they run all of his tests this afternoon. He said that is a little frustrating to finally want to eat something for the first time in weeks and not be able to.

When he was admitted to the hospital last night, he was greeted by two nurses who helped him during his IL2 clinical trial 5 years ago. It was the first time he had seen them since and they recognized him right away. They couldn't believe he was still alive after all that he has been through and the entire experience of seeing them again was very touching to Mark. He said it really made him sit back and think about how much he has overcome in the last (nearly) six years and how much he has accomplished. I think he is finally starting to realize what an inspiration he is to others.

The Melanoma survivors are few and far between at the James so Mark is pretty well-known there. One of the nurses told him he is even on a poster in the hospital somewhere! They were trying to find it and bring it to Mark so he could see himself on the poster. I hope they can get a picture of it if they do see it so I can share it with all of you!

Mark told me he's been doing a lot of soul searching over the last few days and he's come to a few important decisions. He does not think it would be a wise choice to follow through with the fourth infusion on Monday. He knows that his body doesn't have anything left to give at this point and it's in his best interest to just focus on gaining his weight and strength back. I was so relieved to hear him say this. In all of the six years he's been battling this awful disease, he's been so determined to complete the treatments by any means necessary to stay alive, but I think he realizes that the best thing he can do to stay alive this time, is give his body time to recover before giving it another infusion that will make him so sick.

He also agrees that rather than push so hard to get out of the hospital (which he doesn't regret doing for Christmas and would do it all over again, he said) he knows he needs to stay there as long as the doctors think it's necessary. He knows that he can't afford to go home and not be able to eat or drink and lose more weight as he has no weight left to lose. I felt like I was talking to a different person when he was telling me all of this. It made me so relieved to hear! He is really listening to his body and knows what he needs to do to take care of himself.

I will let you know the results of the tests this afternoon as soon as I hear anything. In the meantime, Mark strongly urged me to still travel to Pittsburgh to spend time with family and have fun for him since he wanted so badly to be there and can't. I'm sure he would urge you to do the same thing. Enjoy the last night of 2010 and celebrate all that 2011 has to bring! He said confidently this will not be his last New Year's Eve. If he didn't believe there would be other New Year's for him after this one, he wouldn't be fighting so hard to stay alive. He truly believes it and I do too!