Dancing With Miss C

Hey Folks,

You may have noticed that my previous post was a little convoluted.  It was actually a draft that I saved that I never managed to get back and finish.  So rather than try to polish it up I decided to just post it as is and start over with a new post and a promise to try and be more diligent about keeping it up to day.

You may also have noticed that I did not mention my disease or treatment in my previous post.  That could well be because I really don't spend a lot of time and energy thinking or worrying about it and that is probably because I really don't feel sick and there have been no side effects so far from the treatment.  However, the truth is that I do have stage four malignant metastatic melanoma (the three "M's") and so I thought I would speak more about that and my treatment in this post.

Somewhere in my past I must have had spot on my skin that has since disappeared.  Before it did its Houdini act it sent out little messengers into my body to find a new home and procreate.  They now have a new residences in my lungs, spleen, liver and adrenal gland.  I asked Dr. Hanks what the end game was with this disease and he basically told me that the greedy little melanoma cells not only build a house for themselves but a whole neighbor hood that takes over the encroached organ until it just gives up.  Of course the good Dr. Hanks has other plans and is hopefully in the process of serving an eviction notice on these little buggers and thus save the neighborhood.

The current weapon of choice is called Yervoy aka Ipilimuamab aka "Ippy" (cute little nickname don't you think?).  Ippy is encouraging my immune system to attack those nasty cancer cells and give them what for.  I have had three treatments so far (God bless my angel of a daughter who flew up from Texas to escort me on my third trip to Duke.  While here she was an invaluable help to Helen and me in more ways than I can count)

Me and my Angel

  The Ippy is infused into my arm via some very fancy plumbing assembled by the wonderful oncology nurses at the Duke Cancer Center

Fill "er Up

I am scheduled to have my fourth infusion on the 12th of June.  Another angel, my sister Nancy, has assured that this will be a special occasion as she and her husband John have arranged for us to stay in a very la-de-da bed and breakfast including a gourmet dinner.  Two weeks after the fourth treatment I will have a PET/CAT scan and finally have a chance to see if the cancer has disappeared (BIG party), shrunk (small party), is the same, or worse.  If it is the same or worse (and there is an 80% chance that that will be the case) I will move on to a clinical trial treatment with a drug called PD-1.

The "PD" in PD-1 stands for "programmed death" - don't you just love it.  Of course the death that this drug tries to program is the death of the cancer cells.  According to my vague understanding, it works by making it easier for the cancer cells and my immune cells to get together and do battle.  Like Ippy, I will get an infusion, once every two weeks this time, and the side effects are very minimal.

Once again I want to thank the many, many people who have bestowed blessings uncountable on me.  I will do my best to keep you posted down the road.

J