Right after Hopper was born the dotors found a melanoma on my chest, stage 1, 1.3 breslow scale, they took a lymph node to check and it hadn't spread, so the past 2 years have been scan, check, repeat every 4-6 months. About a month ago, I started getting nauseated a lot, and when I was in North Caroina for a family thing, I got really sick and had a huge bruise come up on my side. The er docs did a brain and abdomen scan and found 2 lesions on my brain, 2 in m chest cavity, one on my lung and the one on my side. We've come back home to memphis, so I can have treatment around friends and family, and that makes me so happy. All of this has really become a reality filter, things I used to think were important seem so ridiculously unimportant now. We're are all very positive and I'm setting my first short term goal to see Hopper graduate from high school. It's gonna happen.
So today I met with my oncologist here in Memphis, Dr. Greg Tian, he was really great, positive but pragmatic, which is good for me because I tend to get ahead of myself sometimes. He got me into the Neurosurgeons office at 7:30 am tomorrow. Looks like the first course of action is checking into the Gamma Knife procedure for the brain lesions. We believe they are small enough to be really helped by the GK procedure. Hopefully that will take place very soon. I've been on a high dose of steroids to control any brain swelling, but they make me feel really wore out, don't get me wrong I LOVE a good nap, but this sleepy is just ridiculous!
After we see how the brain thing goes, we'll start phase two on the abdomen stuff, Dr. Tian mentioned some new chemo and also immunotherapy like interferon or the like.
So today I met with my oncologist here in Memphis, Dr. Greg Tian, he was really great, positive but pragmatic, which is good for me because I tend to get ahead of myself sometimes. He got me into the Neurosurgeons office at 7:30 am tomorrow. Looks like the first course of action is checking into the Gamma Knife procedure for the brain lesions. We believe they are small enough to be really helped by the GK procedure. Hopefully that will take place very soon. I've been on a high dose of steroids to control any brain swelling, but they make me feel really wore out, don't get me wrong I LOVE a good nap, but this sleepy is just ridiculous!
After we see how the brain thing goes, we'll start phase two on the abdomen stuff, Dr. Tian mentioned some new chemo and also immunotherapy like interferon or the like.
Danielle- I'm so glad you are doing this blog! It should be a great place to organize your thoughts and keep track of all the info you're getting plus an outlet to express your feelings and the amazing insights you are having. It's also a huge gift to us who all feel honored to be in the loop as you guys take this journey. Lots of love- Kippy
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