Dec CT Scan Results – All Clear

In mid-Dec I went in for a new CT scan (the PET was declined) as part of stopping the Interferon which they compared against the first one I had in June and everything looks good.  No signs of any tumors or anything which concerned the doctors.  Granted Melanoma can spread quickly even at the microscopic level and the recurrence rate is high for stage III patients, but things are off to a good start.  For now it’s a wait and see pattern of regular self checks and appointments with the dermatologists and oncologists.  The first several months to 2 years are the most crucial as the chance is much greater initially, then after several years it declines to something not too far off from an average person. 

I was also able to get in for Grid Photography finally which is a great tool for a dermatologist to use in comparing changes in moles over time.  Also since I get to keep a set of photos it’s also really good for my self checks.  If anything does come back the biggest help will be finding it and identifying it quickly.  The photo process involves taking 30 pictures of all the different quadrants of the body and is something like a clinical playgirl shoot.  <Insert comment here /> 

The Interferon effects are finally almost all wearing off, I still have some minor lingering issues and sometimes these can last for a few months but it looks like nothing will be permanent.  I had almost a month long series of colds as my natural immune system and white blood cells got back to full strength, at least they were real colds though and not the pseudo-flu I’ve had for months.  You can’t easily get sick while your on Interferon and it was a much different feeling (luckily one that didn’t involve needles).  I’ve never been so happy to get a cold as it marked the end of the treatment and was finally something my body could get rid of.

Thanksgiving Update

We’re back online, it only took a month and a half to get internet service at the new house. Not too bad actually, our old ISP told us we’d have to pay to dig a new phone trench to the house. Luckily before you could say ‘HelloClearwire’ Qwest felt differently about whose responsibilty it was and started right away.

For Thanksgiving we went back to Colorado for an important first family holiday without Ed and to see Meggan & Jon’s beautiful baby girl Macy. That was one bun that wanted to get out of the oven ASAP. There are some pictures of her on our Flickr account and lots more on Bug’s blog.   Here Lucy and Nessa are preparing with Melissa’s help to take an inappropriately adorned Conor on a creekside snipe hunt by the old teepee.   We always love spending time with these two trouble makers but need to make sure that he doesn’t get too caught up in their princess parties.  Poor boy, too many girl cousins.

We all enjoyed a big Thanksgiving meal and a great turkey day, the first I’ve seen that didn’t involve clay pigeon shooting off the back porch and possibly the last one at the old house. Although Luie’s new place does back to a golf course so I guess we can shoot golf balls out of the air? Have to check with the local police on that one, that is if they aren’t over there shooting too.  At least Hygeine Fire Dept won’t complain..

Hopefully you all had a great Thanksgiving too with lots of friends and family.  Now for Xmas with Melissa’s side of the family and our first guests in the new second bedroom.

RIP Casey

Sadly my cousin Casey passed away Nov 20th in Las Vegas after fighting leukemia for several years at many of the best medical institutions including Calgary, UCLA and the SCCA. After much more pain and hardship and with greater character and humor then anyone I’ve known, he lived past the doctors’ conceptions of what a leukemia patient can live through. Many called him the miracle patient and after the mutliple rounds of chemo and bone marrow transplants, some books on the subject will probably need to be rewritten about what leukemia can do to the body over time. A lot of it was unchartered territory due to what he’s been able to live through and experience as the cancer progressed.

Aside from being a great blogger he certainly inspired and set an amazing example for me and numerous others, he was a great patient’s advocate and he also taught all of us, including his doctors and nurses, that anything is possible and no one can be written off easily (in his case this may be due simply to being Canadian or praticing a Kimball tricks based life-philosophy?). He was a great tribute to our family and will be dearly missed by any who knew him and were subsuquently helped by him. Any honorary doctorate degrees in Oncology for teaching so many doctors can be directed to his family.