Back in the saddle again. Well back in the hospital bed anyway. Kerry has a primo corner room with a beautiful view of the west hills and the clouds and storms rolling by. Its kind of nice seeing the nurses and hospital staff that were so nice last time. If they just didn't have to torture Kerry with the treatments, this would be like a really nice hotel (where you have to pee in a hat).
Kerry had his first dose this afternoon and he says that it is a lot easier to go through all of this knowing that it is working.
Thanks for your continued support.
Maggie
Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunday, April 15, 2012
April 15 - Beating the odds!
Sorry for the delay - Maggie promised I would provide details several days ago, but I am just now getting to it. One might think that such unexpected good news would result in a burst of energy, but I found the opposite to be true. I'm at a loss to explain it, but maybe its something like one might feel after running a race or carrying a heavy load for a while, then putting it down.
My last PET/CT scan happened on Monday, April 9. My radiation oncologist, Dr. Bader, offered to go over my scans immediately after getting them, but Maggie and I found ourselves in a position of wanting to know and not wanting to know, so we let 24 hours pass before I took a look at the scans myself. I had been feeling a bit more discomfort in the liver area in the previous week, so I was prepared to see worsening. I'm no radiologist, but seeing less black in the liver area and no new areas of uptake seemed to me like good news. Dr. Bader confirmed a positive response and added that the large liver tumor was showing a dramatic improvement for this early in treatment, even in areas that had not had radiation - strongly suggesting that I was responding to IL-2!. On Thursday my medical oncologist, Dr. Smith, said of the response "This is what I live for!", and gave me one of his rare smiles.
Part of my delay in writing this post relates to feeling totally inadequate to express my gratitude to all of you for the outpouring of love and support I have felt from you. I am pleased to report that your good wishes, prayers, cards, emails, visits, flowers, books, movies, music, and other expressions of love have totally overwhelmed my pessimism about the possibility of a good outcome to this.
The next step is to complete the remaining 4 IL-2 treatments. Each involves a week in the hospital with 2-4 weeks between treatments for recovery. The treatments have been pretty unpleasant, but knowing they are effective should make them easier to tolerate. With metastatic melanoma, one does not generally speak in terms of a cure, rather one hopes for a "long-term response", and the possibility of more effective and less toxic treatments in the future. None of us knows how much life we have left, but I seem to have been granted a reprive. Knowing that we have a community that is capable of incredible support in good times and bad is the best possible antidote to mortality. Thankyou! -Kerry
My last PET/CT scan happened on Monday, April 9. My radiation oncologist, Dr. Bader, offered to go over my scans immediately after getting them, but Maggie and I found ourselves in a position of wanting to know and not wanting to know, so we let 24 hours pass before I took a look at the scans myself. I had been feeling a bit more discomfort in the liver area in the previous week, so I was prepared to see worsening. I'm no radiologist, but seeing less black in the liver area and no new areas of uptake seemed to me like good news. Dr. Bader confirmed a positive response and added that the large liver tumor was showing a dramatic improvement for this early in treatment, even in areas that had not had radiation - strongly suggesting that I was responding to IL-2!. On Thursday my medical oncologist, Dr. Smith, said of the response "This is what I live for!", and gave me one of his rare smiles.
Part of my delay in writing this post relates to feeling totally inadequate to express my gratitude to all of you for the outpouring of love and support I have felt from you. I am pleased to report that your good wishes, prayers, cards, emails, visits, flowers, books, movies, music, and other expressions of love have totally overwhelmed my pessimism about the possibility of a good outcome to this.
The next step is to complete the remaining 4 IL-2 treatments. Each involves a week in the hospital with 2-4 weeks between treatments for recovery. The treatments have been pretty unpleasant, but knowing they are effective should make them easier to tolerate. With metastatic melanoma, one does not generally speak in terms of a cure, rather one hopes for a "long-term response", and the possibility of more effective and less toxic treatments in the future. None of us knows how much life we have left, but I seem to have been granted a reprive. Knowing that we have a community that is capable of incredible support in good times and bad is the best possible antidote to mortality. Thankyou! -Kerry
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Good News
News Flash -- the Interluken 2 seems to be working. Kerry's pet scan showed that the tumors are responding (one is almost gone and the other is greatly reduced in size). I will let him give everyone the details tonight, but wanted to let you know the latest.
Maggie
Maggie
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