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!!
6 comments:
Hey Mindy - Thanks so much for the update! It sounds like a great plan and I hope that Marcus tolerates the treatment well. I'm so glad that you will be able to be with him the whole time. I know it's going to be hard for Sela and Sloane, but it sounds like you have a great support system. Take care and keep us updated! Love you!
Kerri
Marcus, you are a very loved man, not only by your family and extended family but also by God! With him on your side he will see you thru this and home to your beautiful girls in no time.Due to our fast paced lives, the girls don't know us as good as they should, but i am just a phone call away anytime we can help, we would love to have them! Im sure between me and Granny we could make them comfortable and happy, and let them play with there cousins. If your parents want to go to spend time at hospital we are here to help in any way we can. Mindy,you have grown into such a beautiful, strong, supportative,courages and caring wife and mother.I am so proud of the person you are inside and out and very proud to call you my niece! Keep your faith in God and he will get you all through this and home together in no time...WE LOVE YOU ALL!! Please keep us posted even just thru texts, we are praying for each of you!!!
Hi Mindy, Kellie sent me your blog and I just wanted you to know what a great service you are doing for others by sharing your story. My prayers are with you, Marcus, and your precious girls. I pray that your "beautiful ride" takes you to great places. Keep the faith!
Hey! Our prayers are with you - we know what you are about to go through - stay positive - make the best out of a tough situation. Oh, and take off any rings on Marcus' fingers, 'cause the treatment will cause some tremendous swelling!(Don't worry - it goes down quickly during the breaks between treatments...) Post when you can & take care of yourself, too!
--Shawn&Adam
We love ya'll so much and will be praying and keeping in touch constantly.I too thank God for Debbie she is a GREAT help for ya'll and if she needs our help with anything we are here. WE HAVE AND ARE KEEPING THE FAITH!!!
Hi Mindy ~ My name is Amy Brockey, Mike Brockey of www.smelanoma.com is my husband. I have been meaning to write to you for awhile now, things have just been super crazy at our house. I see that Marcus is scheduled to start IL-2 today - I just wanted to wish you luck as you start this very hard journey. IL-2 really did a number on Mike and it wasn't easy to see him go through all of it. The side effects of IL-2 were really down played to us so we were not expecting what happened (the second time we were much more prepared). We had wonderful nurses and hospital staff and I wish the same for you all. I do hope that Marcus is able to power through and get most of doses. Please if you need anything or if you have any questions during all of this feel free to email me at amy.brockey@ent0.com. Keeping you all in my thoughts over the next week. Much like you guys we have decided to stop worrying everyday about the threat that lies over our heads, rather we have decided to go on with life with smiles and perhaps a much great appreciation than we ever did before :)
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