vegas baby!!

I have to be honest with you all. I have been back and forth on how to update all of you. I am very good at the robotic explanation of things and show little to no emotion (whether verbally or written). However, I have been floating in a bubble of joy and contentment. Here's how the trip went down. Andy and I left after taking Morgan to school on Thursday. We had several stops before really getting off to Vegas. I needed to take a test at Weber (by the way I did excellent)then meet Marion (Andy's mom) in Layton. We then took off like the wind. We made it to Mesquite and stayed the night. Andy decided I needed to try the slot machines. I got a players card and he commenced on instructing me on the how-to's. I must tell you I think playing slot machines is the most worthless thing anyone could do. I can see how people can become addicted but seriously why? You sit there and push a button, while the stink of the casino clings to your clothes. Yeah you can meet some nice people, but that wouldn't bring me in and waste my money like so many do. I sat down next to Andy and after a whole 8 mins. I was done. BORED TO DEATH!! Andy said I needed to go to the tables but that doesn't seem any more fun. Cards have some thought process going on, but not much though. After the joy of gambling, we left to Vegas. On the way we found out that U of U hospital didn't take labs when they did the scans two weeks ago, and we needed to go directly to the clinic to have labs drawn. We then screwed off for four hours until our appointment with the Dr. We didn't go to another casino (thank goodness) we went to the Bass Pro Shop (arghhh) then to the Attic Mall of America (fun).
We were brought back into the room to talk with first Amy (nurse, nutrition)and while in the room a new Dr. came in and was talking with us about diet and exercise. Then the grand man himself walked in. He gave his two bits about the subject then we go to the nitty gritty. Here it goes the information most of you have been waiting for. The scans have show slight growth (less than 3 mm)and no new tumors..... is this good, you are all asking yourselves. Yes, this is a positive step. With melanoma it grows exponentially and clusters throughout the body once it has attached to the internal organs. Andy's tumors are, in Dr. Samlowski's words "stabilized". This is good! Now for more news. The Dr.'s also feel that Andy is a good candidate to have a new form of radiation. The method is different than the standard radiation that the other cancers are treated with. Typically radiation is ineffective with melanoma, and causes more problems than success. They have in recent years tried a new approach of radiation on melanoma patients that have a few small tumors that are isolated to one organ. Andy falls in this category, especially since there are no new tumors from the first diagnosis. Now we don't know if Andy is doing this. There are many factors and we need to meet with the oncologist that is over this treatment. This will be done in Utah and hopefully before the new year. We have no information on this so we are unable to answer questions yet. The next and last thing is Andy will have scans again in another 9 weeks and then do another round of "ippy" treatment in Vegas (even if he does the radiation). All this seems like nothing is different, but it is. We have struggled so much this last little while that we needed positive news, and we feel as we have been given a small opportunity to fight again and harder. It is not much but we are satisfied with it.
I almost forgot. The extra Dr. in the room when we were talking to the nutritionist was not another oncologist or nutritionist, but a psychiatrist. We had a shrink among us and we didn't even know until the end of the appointment. He was a great guy. We asked him if we needed mental evaluations. His reply was that we were well adjusted. I don't think he was listening. Just kidding. Well this is longer than I would normally write, but there was a lot to convey. So I want to remind you all of our love for you and we pray daily for each of you. Thank you for your prayers and support.