Happy New Year's Eve everyone!
(If you are new to reading this Blog, start from the very bottom :-)
Updates:
1) My appt. w/ Dr. Kim Margolin yesterday went well, we learned about the treatment options I have for post-surgery: Interferon injections, a clinical trial or observation. As for a final decision on the best treatment, we will have to wait until after surgery to see how it all turns out. We need lots of prayers that the lump on the outside of my knee is a superficial lymph node and not an in-transit tumor. That way, when Dr. Byrd brings his "A" game to surgery on 1/12, he will be able to remove ALL the melanoma in me in one shot. When he does that, there is a slight chance I may be eligible for a clinical trial called "MAGE vaccine trial" that is going on right now in 5 cities including Seattle. Again, this will be based on the outcome of the surgery -cleaning me of all melanoma, the pathology results of my lymph nodes and some other qualifying criteria - a long shot, but maybe I will qualify.
2) I got an MRI on my right ankle on Monday and the results came back yesterday that revealed I completely tore my anterior and inferior talofibular ligament and partially tore the inferior band of the deltoid ligament...ugh! I have been walking with a boot for a few days which has helped and now I have an appt. on Monday 1/5 with an Orthopedic to see what I will need to do - hopefully just keep wearing the boot for a few weeks as opposed to a cast or surgery.
We have been enjoying the holidays here at the Kirton house! As for our family visit, Scott went back to Calgary on Sunday and Doug's parents, sister and niece go back to Toronto on 1/5. It has been great to have them with us!
Thanks again for all your support and comments on this blog! We will update it again in 2009 :-)
Cheers!
~ Keri
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Update #2 - 12/27
Hi :-)
We hope you all had a wonderful Holiday. For us, Christmas Eve was fun with my side of the family (McDonald and Rankin families) and then Christmas morning, with us 4, Buddy, mom and Scott was really nice - nothing like a true white Christmas! Then later Christmas night, the Kirton clan (Doug Sr., Norma, Angie and Isabella) made it from Toronto to Seattle safely. We have had a great time enjoying the snow, sledding, making snowmen (see profile photo of our snow art), ice skating and we had our traditional Christmas Turkey dinner tonight with all the fixings, while Kourtney (12) made the dessert - Apple Crisp! Yummy!
As for my update:
I will meet with Dr. Kim Margolin on 12/30 for my initial appointment and discuss my post-surgery options.
Then I heard on Friday that I have been scheduled for surgery on Monday, 1/12. Dr. Byrd performs surgeries on Mondays and Thursdays, and with the holidays taking up 2 Thursdays 12/25 & 1/1, that was the soonest date available. I told the scheduler that I am ready to go anytime, in case someone cancels, which is unlikely, but you never know.
Next update will come if there is any new news after my 12/30 appointment.
Thanks again for all your well wishes and prayers. I am so blessed to have such wonderful support!
Cheers!
~Keri
We hope you all had a wonderful Holiday. For us, Christmas Eve was fun with my side of the family (McDonald and Rankin families) and then Christmas morning, with us 4, Buddy, mom and Scott was really nice - nothing like a true white Christmas! Then later Christmas night, the Kirton clan (Doug Sr., Norma, Angie and Isabella) made it from Toronto to Seattle safely. We have had a great time enjoying the snow, sledding, making snowmen (see profile photo of our snow art), ice skating and we had our traditional Christmas Turkey dinner tonight with all the fixings, while Kourtney (12) made the dessert - Apple Crisp! Yummy!
As for my update:
I will meet with Dr. Kim Margolin on 12/30 for my initial appointment and discuss my post-surgery options.
Then I heard on Friday that I have been scheduled for surgery on Monday, 1/12. Dr. Byrd performs surgeries on Mondays and Thursdays, and with the holidays taking up 2 Thursdays 12/25 & 1/1, that was the soonest date available. I told the scheduler that I am ready to go anytime, in case someone cancels, which is unlikely, but you never know.
Next update will come if there is any new news after my 12/30 appointment.
Thanks again for all your well wishes and prayers. I am so blessed to have such wonderful support!
Cheers!
~Keri
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Update #1 - 12/23
Thanks for all the well wishes, comments on this blog, phone calls, texts and emails! I feel so fortunate to have all of your support!
I had my appointment today and it lasted about 3 hours (1-4pm). Doug and my mom were with me while my dad took the girls Christmas shopping at U Village.
Dr. Byrd explained his diagnosis of my PET CT results and then we discussed our plan for the primary treatment, which is surgery.
During my surgery, he will perform a wide local excision of the shin area with skin grafting since the shin area doesn't have a lot of extra skin to spare. Then he will perform a lymphandenectomy, removing most of the lymph nodes in my left groin area, the affected lymph node deep behind my left knee, and then a (possible) transit tumor or superficial lymph node on the outside of my left knee. At this point, he believes I am in stage III C.
Dr. Byrd is going to work me into his surgery schedule as soon as possible, and we will know the exact date of surgery later this week.
For the adjuvant (additional) treatment after surgery, he has recommended me to a well respected melanoma medical Oncologist, Dr. Kim Margolin, who has recently joined the SCCA team from Los Angeles's City of Hope - Comprehensive Cancer Center. We are very hopeful that I will not need chemotherapy, and both girls are happy that I will not lose my hair. I will wait to meet with her before we know exactly what treatment will be most effective post-surgery.
Please know we are all in good spirits and excited for the holidays. We got a good laugh during all of this when the Dr. also told me that the X-ray on my sprained ankle showed that I did not break it, but that I do not have the ankles of a "normal 39 yr old" and I have degenerative joint disease and multiple bone spurs, most likely due to all the soccer I have played in my life....under normal circumstances, that would have been a blow, now we just laugh....I have always wondered, since college, if that constant cracking noise I have heard while walking was doing damage ;-)
Thanks again for all your love and support and have a very Merry Christmas!!! The next update will be posted once we know the surgery date.
Cheers!
~Keri
PS We picked up Doug's younger brother, Scott, from the airport tonight. He made it all the way from Calgary without a hitch and we are very happy to have him with us for the holidays!
I had my appointment today and it lasted about 3 hours (1-4pm). Doug and my mom were with me while my dad took the girls Christmas shopping at U Village.
Dr. Byrd explained his diagnosis of my PET CT results and then we discussed our plan for the primary treatment, which is surgery.
During my surgery, he will perform a wide local excision of the shin area with skin grafting since the shin area doesn't have a lot of extra skin to spare. Then he will perform a lymphandenectomy, removing most of the lymph nodes in my left groin area, the affected lymph node deep behind my left knee, and then a (possible) transit tumor or superficial lymph node on the outside of my left knee. At this point, he believes I am in stage III C.
Dr. Byrd is going to work me into his surgery schedule as soon as possible, and we will know the exact date of surgery later this week.
For the adjuvant (additional) treatment after surgery, he has recommended me to a well respected melanoma medical Oncologist, Dr. Kim Margolin, who has recently joined the SCCA team from Los Angeles's City of Hope - Comprehensive Cancer Center. We are very hopeful that I will not need chemotherapy, and both girls are happy that I will not lose my hair. I will wait to meet with her before we know exactly what treatment will be most effective post-surgery.
Please know we are all in good spirits and excited for the holidays. We got a good laugh during all of this when the Dr. also told me that the X-ray on my sprained ankle showed that I did not break it, but that I do not have the ankles of a "normal 39 yr old" and I have degenerative joint disease and multiple bone spurs, most likely due to all the soccer I have played in my life....under normal circumstances, that would have been a blow, now we just laugh....I have always wondered, since college, if that constant cracking noise I have heard while walking was doing damage ;-)
Thanks again for all your love and support and have a very Merry Christmas!!! The next update will be posted once we know the surgery date.
Cheers!
~Keri
PS We picked up Doug's younger brother, Scott, from the airport tonight. He made it all the way from Calgary without a hitch and we are very happy to have him with us for the holidays!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Keri's Recent Health News - 12/19/08
I know this might be a suprise to most of you and I am sorry you have to hear about it this way, yet we decided to create a blog to help us update everyone on my most recent health news. I have been diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer this week.
I had a small group of new freckles on my left shin for about a year (I think), nothing too out of the ordinary due to my skin type, yet part of it did start to get darker over the last 6 months. Then about 1 month ago, I felt a small lump in my left groin (lymph node) area that slowly started to get bigger. So last Friday 12/12, I went to the doctor and had both areas biopsied. The doctor said that she would call me with the results on Wednesday.
Tuesday night, I played indoor soccer with a few friends (moms from Alexa's soccer team), and ended up spraining my right ankle. Which I haven't done since high school. Ouch! It was (and still is) swollen and purple and was a good reason to work from home the next day.
On Wednesday morning, 12/17 @ 10:00am, to my dis-belief, the doctor called and told me that I had melanoma and that both areas came back positive with malignant cells. Luckily, I was at home with Doug and the girls, since schools were closed due to snow (even though there was no snow in Sammamish). My doctor scheduled me for tests the next day and then surgery on Friday to remove the melanoma from my shin area and the affected lymph node in my groin. My mom then decided to fly back from Hawaii Wed. night.
On Thursday afternoon, 2:00pm, I went in for a PET - CT (Positron Emission Tomography - Computed Tomography) which is a 3 hour test to help determine where else, if anywhere, the cancer may have metastasized.
Thursday night, 6:30pm, we heard from the doctor that:
1) She cancelled my surgery scheduled for Friday because there are lymph nodes behind my left knee and a bit deeper near my pelvis that are also showing signs of melanoma.
2) She was referring me to Dr. David Byrd, the Chief of Surgical Oncology at the University of Washington Medical Center, who is also the co-director of the Seattle Cancer Center Alliance Melanoma Clinic.
3)She had already called and left a message for Dr. Byrd about me and that we should call him on Friday to see when we could schedule an appt.
Friday morning, 12/19, I called Dr. Byrd's office, and now have an appointment on Tuesday, 12/23, to discuss my treatment options: surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, biologic therapy, or some other new type of treatment.
We are guessing that I will have to have surgery and hopefully he can fit me into his schedule in the next 2 weeks, but we won't know for sure until Tuesday.
At this point, we have shared all of this with the girls and immediate family. We are now beginning to tell friends and thought a "Kirton Family News" blog would be the easiest way to help share the news and updates. Look back around Christmas for the next update.
We are all in good spirits and are looking forward to getting this knocked out ASAP so we can get on with the new year :-)
Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes.
~ Keri
I had a small group of new freckles on my left shin for about a year (I think), nothing too out of the ordinary due to my skin type, yet part of it did start to get darker over the last 6 months. Then about 1 month ago, I felt a small lump in my left groin (lymph node) area that slowly started to get bigger. So last Friday 12/12, I went to the doctor and had both areas biopsied. The doctor said that she would call me with the results on Wednesday.
Tuesday night, I played indoor soccer with a few friends (moms from Alexa's soccer team), and ended up spraining my right ankle. Which I haven't done since high school. Ouch! It was (and still is) swollen and purple and was a good reason to work from home the next day.
On Wednesday morning, 12/17 @ 10:00am, to my dis-belief, the doctor called and told me that I had melanoma and that both areas came back positive with malignant cells. Luckily, I was at home with Doug and the girls, since schools were closed due to snow (even though there was no snow in Sammamish). My doctor scheduled me for tests the next day and then surgery on Friday to remove the melanoma from my shin area and the affected lymph node in my groin. My mom then decided to fly back from Hawaii Wed. night.
On Thursday afternoon, 2:00pm, I went in for a PET - CT (Positron Emission Tomography - Computed Tomography) which is a 3 hour test to help determine where else, if anywhere, the cancer may have metastasized.
Thursday night, 6:30pm, we heard from the doctor that:
1) She cancelled my surgery scheduled for Friday because there are lymph nodes behind my left knee and a bit deeper near my pelvis that are also showing signs of melanoma.
2) She was referring me to Dr. David Byrd, the Chief of Surgical Oncology at the University of Washington Medical Center, who is also the co-director of the Seattle Cancer Center Alliance Melanoma Clinic.
3)She had already called and left a message for Dr. Byrd about me and that we should call him on Friday to see when we could schedule an appt.
Friday morning, 12/19, I called Dr. Byrd's office, and now have an appointment on Tuesday, 12/23, to discuss my treatment options: surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, biologic therapy, or some other new type of treatment.
We are guessing that I will have to have surgery and hopefully he can fit me into his schedule in the next 2 weeks, but we won't know for sure until Tuesday.
At this point, we have shared all of this with the girls and immediate family. We are now beginning to tell friends and thought a "Kirton Family News" blog would be the easiest way to help share the news and updates. Look back around Christmas for the next update.
We are all in good spirits and are looking forward to getting this knocked out ASAP so we can get on with the new year :-)
Thank you for all your prayers and well wishes.
~ Keri
Holiday Family Visit
This year we are excited to welcome Doug's parents (Doug and Norma), sister and niece (Angie and Isabella) and brother (Scott)to the house for the holidays. They are arriving on Christmas day! Also, Keri's mom (Glenda) is back in town from Hawaii to spend the holidays with us too!
Our newly remodeled kitchen will get put to good use this season!
Our newly remodeled kitchen will get put to good use this season!
Welcome to the Kirton Family News Blog
December 19, 2008
Welcome to the Kirton Family News Blog. We are setting up this blog to help us best communicate with all of our friends and family far and near. Please enjoy!
We wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy Holiday Season.
Love,
Doug, Keri, Kourtney and Alexa
Welcome to the Kirton Family News Blog. We are setting up this blog to help us best communicate with all of our friends and family far and near. Please enjoy!
We wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy Holiday Season.
Love,
Doug, Keri, Kourtney and Alexa
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