Hate this hate this hate this. I started an oral chemo med a couple of ( Read more... )

So, time has gone by and Tori and I have been trying to keep a handle on things while this therapy ran its course. I have most of my strength back and I've gained back about 13 pounds of the original 20. I got a follow up PET scan this last week to survey how things went with my IL-2 treatment. The good news is that the two smallest tumors(about ( Read more... )

I haven't updated here in a bit, honestly not sure when the last time I did was so here I am. I got home from the hospital from round 2 of the IL-2 treatment on Tuesday. God, that stuff is brutal. I remember the first dose and I remember after the doses were done but most of the rest is a blur. It's every 8 hours, throwing up, running a 101-103 ( Read more... )

Met with the oncologist yesterday. He said that the fatigue and most of the symptoms I am going through right now should pass within 2-3 weeks. Joy. It's hard to describe how tired you are ALL the time when you are going through this type of treatment. I feel like such an old man. 20 minutes at the grocery store wears me down. How does that work ( Read more... )

I've been home from the hospital for 3 days now. I'm slowly recovering from the effects of the IL-2. I am still tired, tired all the time. When I sit down I feel like I am being lazy because I'm not up doing stuff and when I am up doing stuff I feel winded really easily so go trying to figure that one ( Read more... )

My first dose of the day has been put on hold due to low blood pressure, low kidney function, and a couple other accumulative effects of the drug; we are waiting on what the doc has to say but both the nurse and i think I will probbaly be here today and home tomorrow sometimes. I still get bouts of confusion which I hope goes away as well ( Read more... )

Frieds we have in the local area have been wonderdful about helping with meals for tori and the girls and sitting for them so tori can come up and spend time with me. Out of the 14 doses of the medication most people get 10-12 and I get my 10th tonight so hopefully tomrrow or the next day I can go home ( Read more... )

So, went to see the civilian oncologist Monday about 1 pm. Nice guy, been doing this for over 20 years. He agreed 100% that the high dose IL-2 was my best shot at beating this. He said I could be admitted as early as tomorrow morning. Outstanding! Let's do it! So I go back to the office, basically drop all of my work on other people and say that I' ( Read more... )

Went to see the oncologist yesterday with Tori. He was very good, understanding, compassionate. I can't for a minute imagine having that job. He confirmed what was on the PET scan report and we went over the films to show me where the lesions were. He laid out a few options for treatment. He said, and I agree, that surgery is not an option. The ( Read more... )

After my diagnosis the surgeon ordered a number of follow up tests in preparation for me to meet with the oncologist. Most of these tests were aimed at trying to find a primary source of the cancer in the event that the adrenal gland wasn't the only place that it was located. This made sense seeing as melanomas in the adrenal gland are incredibly ( Read more... )