keepin our heads up and smiles on our faces!!!-Marcus scheduled to start IL-2

well, yesterday we met with dr. kim to discuss the plan of action!  marcus has to go back thursday to do several more baseline tests, before he will be admitted into the hospital for 7 days-starting Oct. 5 to begin his 1st round of IL-2.  he has to make sure his heart and lungs are strong enough (doing stress tests and pulmonary test) and then another CT of the chest to have the most recent images of the tumors in his lungs.  he will be admitted monday after they insert a catheter into his chest for easier dosing.  he will begin the IL-2 treatments around 9am tuesday morning and they will give him up to 3 doses a day for 5 days, or until his body cannot handle it anymore.  that is why he has to stay admitted, so they can monitor his heart and all other organs-they will constantly being doing blood tests and checking on everything.  if anything starts to go south, they will reduce or stop the treatments.  he has to stay in the hospital 2 days after his last dose is administered, so they can make sure he is recovering properly-hence the 7 day admission.  then after he is released, he will get about a 14 day break and start back again Oct. 26-for 7 more days.  after that 2nd round, they will redo all the scans again and see if there is change (stable, shrinkage of tumors, growth, etc)...if it seems to be working, either by stabilizing or shrinking, they will schedule him for a 3rd and final round....if it is not working, then they will go back to the results from the gene mutations tests (they are actually testing for 3-B-RAF, C-KIT and NRAIS)-please excuse me if i labeled those wrong, i haven't researched the other 2 mutations, i only knew about the B-RAF.....and look into clinical trials...pretty much every trial marcus looked into that he was interested in, required him to at least have tried the IL-2 first...so he was ready to get this under his belt.  but we are praying and trusting that God will heal him with IL-2 and we won't even have to look at those trials!!!!!


meanwhile, we are trying to get everything in line for us to be gone for 7 days...thank God for my mother-in-law Debbie who will be taking care of the girls for us !!  this makes me less stressed and more capable of taking care of marcus while he goes through this....we have discussed with the girls what daddy has to go do, and i guess in their own ways they understand.  i just pray this works and we don't have to deal with this anymore!!  i know marcus is ready to be DONE with melanoma!!!!!

so, as you see in the picture of us from last week's lamar lady cards soccer game-we are keeping smiles on our faces-we know God has a plan for our lives and we are holding on strong and following His great lead!  we believe that God is the only one that can get marcus through this rough treatment and heal him-and we expect nothing less.

and as gary allan sings it, "life ain't always beautiful, but it's a beautiful ride"

thank you all for your continued prayers and support-we love you all!!

butter nose!!

Happy 9th B-day Sela Kaye!! In our house, there is a tradition-passed down from my mom's family-to butter the nose of the b-day person to wake them up!! I used to hate this tradition and really didn't want to pass it down-but when Sela was younger-she LOVED the idea and begged me to continue it! So here is my butter nose Sela this morning immediately after daddy put the butter on her nose!! I can't believe she is 9 years old!! Little moments like this one, remind me of how we need to truly cherish every second.

Finally home!!

I have attached a you tube video that I would like to share...as I was waiting the past few days for Marcus, I have been searching for new christian artists on iTunes and I found Jeremy Camp's music-I quickly realized I needed to buy his album!!  I LOVE the songs in this video and had to share-plus the messages and scriptures included are awesome!


So, to update you all-the brain ct and abdomen/pelvis ct came back ALL CLEAR!  THANK THE LORD!  The biopsy did confirm Melanoma in the lungs-so at least now we know for sure what we are dealing with.  Dr. Kim is having cells from the original biopsy done last year tested for a gene mutation-V600E B-raf-if he tests positive for this mutation, they are suggesting he get into a clinical trial that includes AZD6244 and Dacarbazine.  Sucky part is, this is a double blinded study-so 50% of patients will get the AZD6244 plus Dacarbazine and the other 50% will get Decarbazine and placebo :( We are not really thrilled with this option-since Dr. Kim said Dacarbazine is a standard chemo that he would offer if Marcus was 80 yrs old and in poor health-not the 1st choice for a young 35 yr old man in otherwise great health- SOOOOO, at this point we have to wait to see if he even tests positive for the gene mutation-if not, then our next option is IL-2-with a possible combo of Dacarbazine to it....


In the meantime, we are asking for more prayers-none of these options have great statistics for cure-but we believe that God will work with those numbers for us :) BUT we need your help with prayers-please don't stop-keep them coming :)


Marcus is also looking into trying to create a more alkaline based diet-there is tons of research to support the fact that cancer thrives in more acidic atmospheres, so the theory is to create a more alkaline atmosphere in your body to help fight this-so if anyone has info that may help, please email me.  I am currently following the blog of another Melanoma warrior-who is currently in Mexico, at a Gerson clinic-I am praying he has good results to help us :) check him out on my blog list-he is under sMelanoma....


thank you all again for your continued prayers and support-it feels so good to be home and we know we are truly blessed to have all of you in our lives-thank you so very much!


marcus & mindy

Mighty to save

****DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT YELLING MY POST-MY IPHONE IS GIVING ME TROUBLE-I CAN ONLY POST IN ALL CAPS OR THE  CRAZY UPPER/LOWERCASE COMBO-SO I DECIDED CAPS WAS BEST :)****


I HAVE HAD THE SONG "MIGHTY TO SAVE" BY HILLSONG IN MY HEAD SINCE SUNDAY AT CHURCH-IF YOU HAVE NEVER HEARD IT-I ATTACHED THE YOU TUBE VIDEO LIVE VERSION WITH LYRICS-ANYWAYS THAT SONG HAS HELPED ME SO MUCH OVER THE PAST FEW DAYS-I AM SO GRATEFUL.....


SO THE BIOPSY WENT GREAT YESTERDAY-NO COMPLICATIONS-THANK THE LORD-WE LEFT MD ANDERSON AROUND 4PM THEN WENT TO GET A BITE TO EAT AT A LITTLE MEXICAN RESTAURANT-THANKS TO APRIL-SHE BROUGHT MARCUS BACK FOR HIS XRAYS AND GAVE US PERFECT DIRECTIONS :)  ANYWAYS WE WENT BACK TO HOTEL SO HE COULD REST-AND ALL WAS WELL UNTIL ABOUT 2AM-HE WOKE UP IN A LOT OF PAIN AND HAD TO SIT IN THE CHAIR FOR ABOUT AN HOUR-I PROPPED HIS HEAD AND FEET UP AND HE SEEMED TO GET SOME RELIEF-I LAYED IN THE COUCH BESIDE HIM UNTIL HE FELT BETTER AND WANTED TO GO BACK TO THE BED.  THERE HE RESTED WELL UNTIL ABOUT 10AM-HE IS STILL A LITTLE SORE BUT IS DOING REALLY WELL-HE IS SO STRONG AND I ADMIRE HIM SO VERY MUCH.  THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR CONTINUED PRAYERS-WE APPRECIATE THEM SO MUCH! TOMORROW IS ANOTHER LONG DAY AT MDA-BRAIN CT, LABS AND MEET DR. KIM-THEY TOLD US YESTERDAY THAT IT WILL TAKE 3-5 BUSINESS DAYS TO GET THE BIOPSY RESULTS, SO WE MAY ONLY HAVE PRELIM RESULTS TOMORROW-BUT WE FOR SURE FIND OUT RESULTS FROM THE CT OF ABDOMEN/PELVIS AND BRAIN TOMORROW-SO I WILL KEEP YOU ALL POSTED.  UNTIL THEN-WE LOVE Y'ALL!!!    MARCUS & MINDY

Worry about nothing, pray about everything!!

so today was a wonderful day. starting off with an awesome soccer game, where sela scored 2 out of the 3 of the goals for her team!! then to a b-day party for our sweet nephew-all the while thinking about the scans yesterday and what next week holds. biopsy on tues, ct of brain on thurs....then meet with dr. kim to discuss everything-results, and discussion of when to start treatment. although it seems hard to not worry-i am trying, very hard, not to worry anymore. i have decided and realized, i have got to quit wasting the time i have now on earth worrying. when i worry, i am taking away my happiness from today-so what is the point of that? i have decided to give it all to God-really, give it all to God-and enjoy every second i have on this earth-every second i have with marcus, every second i have with sela & sloane. i will not let melanoma rule my thoughts or mood-melanoma is going to lose this fight-not marcus-and that is all i will think anymore.


so tomorrow we will go to church and thank God for every second He has given us-and we will ask Him to continue giving His grace so we can make it through each and everyday. i thank all our family and friends for their continued prayers, emails, calls and text messages. i feel so blessed and don't know how i would be holding up if i didn't have all of you. thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.


so join me now-let's worry about NOTHING, and pray about EVERYTHING!! :) that is what God wants us to do-He wants us to trust in Him-and He will take care of everything!!!

Labs, scans-how much can one man take?!?!?

well, today we met with dr. kim. he wants to have another ct done of marcus' abdomen/pelvis and brain, another x-ray and more labs done tomorrow! so back to hst we go!! after all those scans are complete-and confirmed that there is not any other mets (not doing the ct of brain until sept 17) then dr. kim will schedule a needle biopsy of one of the nodules to confirm we are dealing with melanoma and not another form of cancer-THEN he will schedule marcus to begin IL-2.....he said as long as marcus begins those treatments within a month, he should be good-he just doesn't want to wait 3-4 months because of the growth of the nodules over the previous 2 months-but he said a few weeks time would not make a huge difference-i am praying he is right! there are of course other options (trials and other meds) but dr. kim wants those to be left open after we see what the IL-2 does-i am praying we won't even have to go there, because i am believing that God will heal marcus with these IL-2 treatments, and we will leave melanoma in the dust!!!!!!

now the IL-2 won't be a picnic-it is given in dosages over a 5-6 day period-pretty much until your body can't handle anymore-then you get a break for a few days, then you go at it again!! marcus is ready to fight-we are just praying that he only has to go a few rounds and he will be a complete responder! so keep your prayers coming so we can fight his monster!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thank you to all of you that have emailed or texted us to check on things-we are so loved and we truly appreciate all your prayers and thoughts and words of encouragement. we know that everyone follows a different path in this fight, but we also know that our path would not be what it has been if it weren't for the love and support of family and friends! thank you all so very much!!

as soon as we get more news i will post again-but for now...we are in lab/scan limbo :)

love, mindy

MELANOMA TRULY SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i don't like to use the word hate, but right now, i HATE melanoma. with a passion. marcus went back to MD yesterday for repeat scans-in june they found 2 new spots in his lungs that were 5mm in size-but they weren't sure it was melanoma and wanted to do repeat scans yesterday to compare. well, now there are at least 4 nodules-12-15mm in size.....surgery is not an option because they are in both lungs and scattered. we go back sept 10 to discuss treatment with dr. kim-it will probably be a combination of chemos, vaccines, trials, we aren't quite sure yet.


marcus and i are both in shock. we just knew that the spots were some type of inflammation and would be gone. we were floored with the news. he truly needs every prayer he can get...he is so strong and is ready to fight this monster with all he has-and i am behind him 200%.....