Chemotherapy

My dad continued after his surgery and consultation with the doctor really well for a few months. He had healed exceptionally well from his major abdominal surgery, was slim again from having those masses removed, and claimed he never felt better. He said he would look in the mirror and couldn't believe he saw an "old man" looking back at him because he felt like he was 35. My dad had always exercised and continued to do so as soon as he was allowed after surgery.

Unfortunately, that didn't last long. He began to get tired and had occassional bouts of nausea. When we returned to the oncologist, we decided to start chemotherapy. He was to get DTIC, or dacarbazine. He was warned this may make him tired, nauseous, and was told he'd probably lose his hair. He decided to go get his hair buzzed off to prepare....which I thought was very brave of him! However, DTIC is only effective in about 15% of cases with internal melanoma. Internal melanoma is very deadly and there isn't much hope of survival, the average survival from diagnosis is only 7 months. He decided that he felt too good, however, to not give it a try. So, he did chemo and proceeded with absolutely no side effects. The bad news, is that he was not in the 15% that responded to DTIC. On his scan, the tumors spread, and were now in more organs including the lungs and omentum.

The Hospital Continued...

To continue back to July of 2009, after my father found out he had cancer, he had a very rough day the next day in the hospital. He was sore from surgery and I feel he was just mentally exhausted. His catheter was bothering him, but he would only talk to me about his problems. My mom and sister and I were all there, but he for some reason felt better telling me things when they weren't there. So, I spent some time alone with him and just watched the news or took care of what he needed.

Dr. Cline was optimistic that we could fight this cancer. He introduced us to Dr. Jalil, the oncologist. Dr. Jalil met with us and said we would wait until the biopsy returned to determine the next course of treatment.

Since my dad had major abdominal surgery, and now his entire internal abdomen needed to reshift due to the removal of those 2 cantaloupe sized tumors, he was going to be in the hospital longer than we had anticipated. We would wait for the results and see what we needed to do next.

Considering the surgery my dad went through and also the mental battle of knowing he had cancer, he did so amazing recovering from the surgery. He was home and back on his feet before anyone could believe it. We had received the devistating news that his cancer was melanoma. The oncologist/surgeon could not find an initial point where it had started on his body.

We had our meeting with the oncologist who decided that my dad was healing so well from the surgery, and was still functional and feeling well, that we would not undergo any chemo until he started showing symptoms. Since this was a terminal diagnosis, Dr. Jalil decided we shouldn't put him through the trials of chemotherapy when chemo wasn't guaranteed to work plus he may have side effects. We all agreed and we wanted to enjoy the good time we had left, and he only had 2 small spots in his adrenal gland and 1 small spot in his liver at this point.

Radiation starts

I need to continue the story of my dad's beginning, but I wanted to type about today. After spending most of last week in the hospital and discovering the cancer has spread to his brain, my dad started radiation treatment on his brain today. The hope is to shrink some of the tumors in his brain. We know we cannot get rid of them, and the oncologist says this is short term, but this is where we are. Unfortunately, the dexamethasone he is on (it is a steroid) is causing him to have uncomfortable hiccups, so after his radiation treatment I stopped by his oncologist's office. There might not be anything they can do to save my dad, but at least he needs to be comfortable, and as harmless as hiccups are, they are really bothering him. So, they gave him baclofen, and I think just knowing there was "something" he could do make him perk up a bit.

After the treatment, my parents went home and I stopped at Rite Aid to get his rx filled. I went back to their house and we ate a late lunch. My dad ate really well and even wanted some dessert, so that was great.

After we ate, he discussed what items he wanted to give to which grandchildren. He made me and my mom promise the right grandkids would get the right things. I had to leave them then since I am on vacation this week and I needed to pick the kids up from school. As I was ready to leave, he asked me to help him prepare his Living Will. I am going to go back over this week to do that with him.

Please, wear sunscreen.....no tanning beds.....wear your natural glow!