Glow in the Dark Andy

Today I went and had a nuclear scan, I am waiting for the cool mutant abilities to start. Maybe I will be able to fly, or turn invisible, or eat large amounts of food and get fat.. oh wait...., Anyway,... I had my scan and it took forever! But no side effects so I'll take that over taking a long time any day. Now we wait.
The technician came and got me and asked me the normal questions, how much do you weigh, how tall are you, have you had any surgeries, hospitalizations, procedures.. 45 minutes later (j/k) we got to the prep for the scan. He then leaves and comes in with a lead encased syringe, and tells me don't worry, this is perfectly safe. What!?!?! Did I mention the lead encased syringe?!? Its encased in lead! and its Safe!? It really wasn't a big deal but I gave the guy as much crap as I thought I could get away with, he was still smiling when he left so I think I'm ok. Then I got to sit in this weird gravity recliner chair, that once you're reclined you need help to put the chair back down. There is a reason for that, they don't want you to move for an hour while your body lights up, really, while your body spreads the radioactive isotopes through your body sticking to the cancer. It lights up like a Christmas tree on the scan, wherever you have cancer the isotopes stick. ok, enough of that.
We will be meeting with our Radiologist next week to develop a plan. Since I was already at Huntsman, I snuck up and talked with Dr. Joan, and the nurses in the ICU. They pretended to be glad to see me..., no they really were glad to see me. We talked for a minute, but like always they were really busy. Keep up the good work! You guys/gals are awesome!!!! So now you know about as much as I do. In conclusion, Merry Christmas and have a lovely day.
Love Andy.

A call for help

Ok, I will finally admit it. I can't do everything on my own. It is a humbling experience when this realization hits. We have talked with the doctors recently and one of the promising options we have left, and we don't have many left, has the propensity for the highest costs. From what we have been told it can cost as high as $40,000.00. So we fall upon the good graces of our friends and family. Just for an update, I will be having another scan on Friday, Dec 17th. This is a new scan out of the normal cycle. My doctors, Grossman, Kokeny, and Samlowski, have been talking back and forth about the possible combination of treatments. These may prove more beneficial if done in conjunction, and could have some really good results. But health wise may beat the crap out of me. The scan will hopefully shed more light on the situation. There have been so many things discussed between the doctors that I am still unsure what the next step outside of the scan is. They have assured me once the scans have been read, they will meet with me and explain what is going on. So until then I am sort of in the dark. But that's ok, its easier to pray when the lights are off. And isn't it always darkest before the dawn? Merry Christmas and Have a lovely day.
Love Andy.
P.S. We have a new way to donate-- via Pay Pal. Also we will be sending an email out with donation information, and information about some fundraisers we will be doing in January. If you would like to help feel free to send me an email. adlayne@yahoo.com.

Radioactive Andy.....Dum dum dum.......

We met with Dr. Kokeny today. She is very nice and it was a very informative meeting. To make a long day into a long story, we left early and waited at the Doctors office. When we finally got to meet with Dr. Kokeny, she did a quick check up and got some clarification on my health history. She then talked about what options we have been given. We discussed the options that have been shared with us and the risks involved with all of the options. It was an interesting conversation. She was very intent on us understanding all the risks involved with the different treatments. Some of which we understood, some were new to us. The risk involved with the radiation therapy was higher than we were to believe, while the surgery option was a little less than we were originally led to believe. The conclusion we came to was; more information was needed. So we will be following up with her sometime in the next week or two.
We then went to meet with Dr. Grossman. It must have been a crazy day for doctors, we waited there too. When we finally had Dr. Grossman and Dr. Caroline together we talked a little about the meeting with Dr. Kokeny, and the options we had gone over with her. And the conclusion there, was pretty much the same, lets wait and see. Now while some of you may think this is a frustrating and dangerous thing to do, just to wait. You are mostly right, except that for the time being, my tumors have stabilized and are hardly growing at this point. So until we have some different news the plan now is to wait until the end of January for scans to get a look at the tumors and see whats going on. Now this may change if we get some enlightening news in the next two weeks. So for now the plan is to enjoy the holidays and plan for a wonderful new year. So (finally season appropriate) Merry Christmas and have a lovely day.
Love, Andy.

Thanksgiving Hai-ku

Ok its not very good, but it meets the criteria 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables. Here goes:

Cancer really sucks,
Many great blessings observed
Love and Friends abound.

So give it a shot and let me know what your thanksgiving hai-ku is.

Merry Christmas and have a lovely Thanksgiving.
Andy

Some Good News, no information just news

This just in......We now have a confirmed appointment with the radiation oncologist. My list of specialists is getting longer and longer. Not a collecting habit I encourage anyone to take up. We will be having a meeting on Dec 1st with Dr. Kokeny, and Dr. Grossman (my original oncologist.) I hope to have a lot of answers from these meetings and a clear path forward for the near future. So there is the news update, and that's about it. so..... I guess....... later..?.?.
Merry Christmas and have a lovely day.
Andy

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.

Oh, I almost forgot...

There was so much going on this last weekend, I forgot to mention I had a scan on the 29th. I had to be medicated so I didn't have too much of an allergic reaction. So Friday morning Peg and I headed down to the University of Utah medical center. She drove because I was "medicated" on benadryll. We got there and the scanner person asked if I had been following the predose instructions of benadryll and prednazone. I smiley told her I was not supposed to have prednazone so I took zantac instead. She was not happy with it, and kicked me in the head,(not really) So she got the doctor and he had to call my doctor and while all the doctors were talking I was laying on the cold hard table. Any way, I was right neener neener neener, and we proceeded with the scan. Then I went to the MRI room and waited and waited, oh yeah, I waited some more. Then I had the MRI, and it seemed to take forever. Then they let me go and my arm started to get blotchy, so I took some more benadryll, did I mention I don't like benadryll. So I took a medicated forced nap and pretty much that is how my scan day went, the end. I feel like I just did a grade school show and tell kinda thing. Probably not as entertaining or fun, but informative none the less. I will have the results of the scan around the 12th of Nov. So there may not be much activity on the blog until then, but you never know I may supprise you with some crazy adventure or something. So Keep the faith, remember who you are, and get your finger out of your nose. Merry Christmas and have a lovley day.
Andy