Update #12 - 2/28 - Treatment confirmation

Hi there :-)
After a roller-coaster week of tests, results and appointments here are the updates:

1) I asked Dr. Thompson of SCCA to have a radiologist compare my first (Dec.) PET CT with my most recent (Feb.) PET CT/CT to see if the right shoulder and right groin were on the first PET/CT as well to ensure I actually have re-occurrence and Stage 4 Melanoma - meaning it has spread beyond the regional area. After doing that, to his surprise, he said yes those areas were not new or re-occurring cancer, they were there from the beginning. So the shoulder area could be a false positive and the right groin area could be stress on the nodes from tearing ligaments in my right ankle in Dec. Though due to the different types of tests, he cannot measure them to see if there is a difference in their size from Dec to Feb.

2) I then decided to have an MRI of my abdomen, chest and pelvis on Monday, with the advice of Dr. Kaplan from Swedish Medical center, to help clarify if those areas were actually melanoma tumors or not, and the good news is that the MRI came out clear. So according to Dr. Kaplan, I am not at Stage 4 since the MRI didn't confirm the PET CT /CT results. Yet he said that I still have a very high chance of re-occurrence due to how aggressive it was in my left groin area and he would still recommend high dose Interleukin 2 - normally used for patients with metastasised melanoma. Interferon is only used when there is not metastasized tumors and he doesn't want to risk it by not going aggressive enough the first time out!

I was not very happy with the lack of thoroughness with the SCCA team and their recommendations of treatment seemed not to make sense plus Dr. Thompson was leaving for a conference on Thurs/Fri and wanted to delay my treatment decision until the following week. So when Dr. Thompson called me on Thursday and said that due to the updated information with the MRI, that I do not qualify for his ALT-801 trail, as there needs to be confirmed, measurable metastasized melanoma, and the MRI didn't show that, I quickly thanked him and said that I would continue treatment with Dr. Kaplan at Swedish.

3) I had my appointment with Dr. Kaplan yesterday and I am scheduled to go into Swedish Medical Center on Monday for High Dose Interleukin 2. I will not be in ICU unless I need to be. I will be in there for 14 treatments, spaced about 8 hrs apart. I will come home once I am able to - which could be after the last treatment, or a couple days later, once I am recovered. I then go back in for another round of 14 treatments the following Monday (about 9 days later).

I am not sure how my body will react to the toxic drug, hopefully I will just breeze right through it and be home for the weekend. Along with Doug and my mom helping, my very good friend Sharon will be visiting me March 9-13 to help at home and with the girls.

Thank you all for all your love and support and I look forward to getting through March as quickly as possible.

~Keri