Ten years ago this week I received a call from Dr. Lund telling me "Your biopsy came back positive for melanoma and I have zero clear margins".   I had no clue what melanoma was, and/or what was coming in the next week before Christmas.   5 days later I had met with Dr. B and had a fairly big surgery and was preparing to start interferon.  Four recurrences and every treatment option that was available and I'm thrilled to say I'm 15 months  cancer free!    You see, the time between my recurrence was getting shorter (4 years, 2 years, 1 year and 10 months ..read more

Saturday was one of those rewarding days that don't come along often enough.  A year ago I was asked to be on a patient panel for a MD Anderson Melanoma Symposium in Houston.   It went ok, nothing earth shattering came of it, and I was glad I participated.   A few weeks ago I was back in Houston for my first round of PET scan and brain MRI (all clear!!!) and Dr. Patel mentioned that they were taking the Symposium on the road, to Austin.   (Austin Tx...........God's country, where the smell of national championships hangs in the air like Aaron Hernandez..........too soon ..read more

Psalm 69:30 Let me shout God's name with a praising song, Let me tell His greatness in a prayer of thanks. I'm very thankful for many things in my life and I've done a poor job of expressing my thanks and appreciation over the years.   I'll try to be succinct in this post, in order to hopefully let my prayful thanks be the lead. Dasha and I headed to MD Anderson Monday night for appointments Tuesday.   I love getting to see Mindy, Dave and the kids and I'm blessed to have them in Houston for a place to stay!    9:30 am sonogram of my neck, and we headed upstairs to wait ..read more

It's been a while since I posted so I wanted to give a quick update on everything. Some people count sheep.......I count aardvarks.   For the last 6-8 weeks I'm averaging 3-5 per day........every day.   A couple of weeks ago that number got to 12, and Mindy and Dasha convinced me to go to Plano Presby ER.   Six hours later I'm heading home not knowing much, other than "your blood work looks ok to head home".   A week later my count is back above 9, and I'm heading to Legacy ER where they did an abdomen CT scan, IV for fluids, and ran tests.  (thanks to Thumper and Dr ..read more

After getting home to a big "Welcome Home Daddy" sign Saturday evening and seeing the Jackson's off to Lubbock Sunday morning I was exhausted by the time we got home from church.    Hanging out on the couch most of the day, taking it easy was the plan.   Unfortunately, I had taken the horse steroids for 4 days, then stopped while waiting for my script to be filled for 24 hours.   NOW I know that aardvarks don't like that inconsistently, and most of my Sunday looked like this (imagine aardvarks running): I had already cancelled my flights to Houston for Monday, beca ..read more

Escape From NY.........how it didn't win every award in 1981 is beyond me, great movie.   Snake Plissken, played by Kurt Russell is offered complete immunity if he can get the President out of Manhattan, where his plane was hijacked and crashed.   Oh, and Manhattan was made into a maximum security prison, walled, and abandoned to be run by the inmates and falls into anarchy.   VERY much like the scene at Plano Presby last week!!!!!!!! One of these scenarios is true.........you be the judge.  Scenario 1:   I've had enough of hospitals beds, and am ready to get out ..read more

I'm at the office on Monday, and I haven't been feeling great for the last week.   I have a really bad aardvark (see previous blogs if you just joining us) then another.   I call the boss (Mindy) and ask her if an aardvark is supposed to be red.   We google, and only see an aardvark that was cruelly dyed red as a prank.   Pool little guy.   Mindy says that is one of the 2 things that you drive straight to the ER for.   I call Dasha and hop in the car and drive to Plano Presby.  Get here about 3:15 and check in, and waited 90 minutes to be called back.   ..read more

Quick post to let everyone know that I'm not going to MD Anderson tomorrow (12/7) for treatment.   Side effects have been acting up in the last week or so, and I've been acting like they are no big deal.   But they have been getting worse, and bordering on what Dr. Patel would say is 'worrisome'.   Dasha said "Don't make me call Mindy".   That is the ultimate threat!!!!!!!   It's like President Trump getting ready to hang up the phone with North Korea, and saying "where is that nuclear football??" just loud enough so Kim Jong-bad haircut can hear him.  So I emaile ..read more

The last couple of weeks have been a blur.   My beloved Chicago Cubs....wow.   I woke the girls up to watch the last 3 outs, and they asked why Daddy had tears in his eyes.   I smacked them both in the back of the head and sent them back to bed.   (I kid)   I could do 3 blogs on the Cubs, but I'll save that for another time.    A beautiful wedding in Hilton Head for Samantha and Ryan could not have been more perfect!    Then I drove to the North Central Missouri to the Kossmeyer farm......my happy place.   This could be another 4 page blog, but ..read more

Quick update and an introduction to my new hero..... First of all, for those of you that don't get the title of the blog as fast as Jenny and Bart did, this is the Seinfeld reference... So a quick recap.........4 tumors total in my neck, with the largest being 15mm.   I could feel all of them, and the biggest I could measure with a cool digital caliper that I bought from Lowes if I twisted my neck to a really odd angle.   I could tell in the last 3 weeks that the biggest tumor was getting smaller, or at least felt like it.   But in the last week it seems to have shrunk by ab ..read more