Back for scans in preparation for clinical trial

So on Friday I will go back to Huntsman and have another MRI scan in preparation for the clinical trial. The clinical trial will start, if everything gets approved, on the following Wednesday. It will be nice to start treatment, even if it is the placebo.

My face is healing pretty well. I went back to the doctor because I had two lumps in my cheek. The one lump was full of fluid and the other was full of blood. They are going to test the blood just to make sure.

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When People Think You Are Dying

I received an interesting email from a friend this week. It said he had heard I had relapsed and he wanted to get together and go to lunch. I was really appreciative of the invitation but started to wonder why he thought I had relapsed. I spoke with this friend who told me that he heard through someone else that I was "terminal" and that I only had a few months to live. He also told me that this message had been received by many in an announcement made at a meeting. I was a little shocked! First that someone heard I was dying and second that I mattered enough to have it announced! I assured my friend that I was doing just fine and that I was not "dying". I told him that I had no new re-occurrence of melanoma and that my treatments were going just fine. This made me start to think about life in general and how we communicate! In regards to communication, I learned how this information was obtained. It was taken out of con...

So, maybe I am in a fight?

Ok, so maybe I've been in a little denial. This happened with my last bout but it took a little longer to happen. Here is what I mean. I was diagnosised, I had surgery, I had test and everything said the cancer was gone. I then began treatment to "prevent" the cancer from returning or to catch it as soon as possible when it did return. But, in my mind, it was hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I was "sick" or "fighting my disease" because, in my mind, I was cancer "free". That all changed after this last infusion. I went up for my fourth infusion and last of the first quarter. I have been getting infusions every three weeks for the last three months. After this infusion, I will get infusions once every three months. Nicole and I went up early to get the labs done so that they would not hold us up for the treatment (we have learned that labs ALWAYS hold us up in starting infusion.) For the first time, the nurse w...

Umping - Doing One of the Things I Love!

I had a great opportunity to umpire the BYU Alumni baseball game Friday at BYU. I have not worked a game in a while and have not used three man mechanics in a while either. It was a very great night and the view is awesome! They decided to play 14 innings straight so we used two crews. The first crew worked the first 7 innings and my crew worked the second 7 innings. I worked behind the plate which I find awesome to begin with and a lot of fun. I have worried, since my surgery, that umpiring behind the plate would be difficult. My face is still numb on the right side and my right ear is really tender. I worry that taking my mask on and off would irritate that side of my face. I also worry that if I get hit with a ball on the mask that it would cause unbearable pain. I learned that neither was true! I am glad that I took the time to let my face heal as much as possible but I am also glad to get out and umpire and run around a ...

My Life's Journey with Melanoma

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