Dad and Marilyn came to visit Friday afternoon. Dad had a long, tough week of appointments last week. Pet scan, biopsies, ultrasounds and then bad news. Right as he was driving into Knoxville, his surgical oncologist called with the news that his Melanoma had returned and it's on his stomach... internal!
This is not good!
The interferon treatment that Dad suffered through last year was suppose to drastically reduce the chance of recurrence... or to at least provide a greater length of time before recurrence.
So, it's back under the knife for Dad on March 24th!
He seems to be taking it far better than I ever would have thought! Marilyn not so much! Dad thought he was gonna have to take her to the ER after getting off the phone with the doctor. She pretty much had a panic attack and then fell apart totally when they got here.
She almost thought she was having a heart attack!!
We did a lot of research yesterday online. We don't know much yet... not sure if he's gonna do radiation again, interferon... hoping that immunotherapy might be an option. Results seem to be phenomenal with immunotherapy!
I'll update as things progress!!
But, I will say... the prognoses for recurrence so quickly and at a distant location (his original melanoma was on his scalp and Stage IV)... this melanoma is inside his stomach. Not sure what stage... but the statistics are grim.
Funny thing... Izzy on Grey's Anatomy has just gotten a grim diagnosis of Metastatic Melanoma. Her odds of survival more than a few months in TV land is less than 5%. But as one of her interns pointed out... the survival rate of getting the hiccups is 100% and a patient died on the show from the hiccups.
Strange things in life happen. We never know whats around the corner... what tomorrow holds.
None of us are promised tomorrow. But hopefully, my dad will have quite a few!
LA :)
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