Vomiting is definitely the PITTS.

I know it has been one hellatiously long time since I got a chance to put something up on this blog....far too long.
Well...I guess Ol' Interleukin 2 knocked the livin' crap outta me. I ended up doing a short time in the chemo infusion room at the cancer center after the first cycle of IL-2 so I could get hydrated by IV along with getting some anti-emetics (man, I needed those!!). Over the last couple of months I have gotten so tired of nausea it is not even funny anymore; like it ever is. After my second round of IL-2, the one where I was able to do a whoppin' 6 baaaggs, I wound up in the hospital due to very high temperatures. One time my temp got all the way up to 104.5, and another it was 103.8...Sooo, I was admitted to the hospital once again to check everything out. The doc also figured he could get all the tests done on me in a more timely manner if I was admitted and staying in the hospital. Sooo, I got another CT scan, an MRI of the head, neck and spine, and...I think that was it...Of course, that's enough, right? heheh.
Thankfully, my MRI showed that as of right now, my brain is free of melanoma! I did have a couple spots in some cervical mets (my neck) and of course, all the ones that have been mentioned here before.
The doc also stated in his honest opinion, that for me, the IL-2 didn't appear to be working....My melanoma was still growing despite the IL2.
NICE.
My doc then offered up the Dartmouth Chemo Regimen as another treatment that may knock this crap down some...Something...Anything. Beat that SHIT back!!
So, shitty as this is, on June 2nd, my beautiful son's 7th birthday, I was in the hospital getting a chemo infusion that will hopefully keep me around for a long, loooong time....

I have never spent one of my kiddo's birthdays away from them...It was hard...but something I absolutely had to do...
That whole couple of days when I was first admitted this time, I felt like my emotions were running a torrent. The doc was very nervous about how things were progressing. He thought, obviously with my melanoma being so fast growing and aggressive, there was no time to waste with this chemo treatment.
So, Bring it ON!
The Dartmouth Chemo regimen is actually a few chemos put together, and is apparently very aggressive and harsh a treatment in its own right. I was actually kept in-patient at the hospital, which kinda confused me since I thought most people had this treatment done out patient, but oh, well. The nurses there are great, the docs are great...very nice and on top of things.
It can be harsh. I believe it now.
Lord, I feel like I have been sick, loopy, nauseaus, out of it, fatiqued...you name it....Ended up back in the hospital once again to get IV fluids and along with a more serious problem: Hypercalcemia.
Apparently, since I have so many bone metastases, quite a bit of calcium was spilling into my bloodstream and was making me sick. Dr. Biggs decided to give me an infusion of Zometa early on when I was first admitted, then, of course, upping the IV fluids. But there was also another new development since the last time I was admitted and discharged from the hospital: some of my lung tumors had grown enough that they were pushing down on my airways and obstructing my breathing; this was making me short of breath/winded all the time. Since my O2 saturation (oxygen content in my blood) was a little bit too low, I was ordered up some Oxygen to go home with and was put in touch with the company who would be supplying me with it for as long as I needed it...
Now the main object is to get me healthy, or at least very close to normal (my blood counts, or at least some of them, are still a bit low), so I can get another round of the Dartmouth Chemo. At first Dr. Biggs was saying it didn't look like I was having any response to this one too...He thought it was growing despite out best efforts to stop it.
After hearing his opinion, we figured it couldn't hurt to go to Philly and get Dr. Sato's (or Dr. Mastrangelo's) opinion on everything. Dr. Sato was of the opinion that it was still too early....wait a little bit.
Well, as it turns out, at my first follow-up visit with Dr. Biggs after being admitted for the hypercalcemia, he told Ed and I that he would like to show us my X-ray. He then pointed out a few darker and clearer spots in my chest where the melanoma looked as though it has shrunken or maybe even....some of the little guys may have been obliterated? HOPE. It is a powerful thing.

Aside from all the more heinous things that have been happening around here...there have been moments of sheer joy and happiness...

Friends and family have come together for us, gone out of their way to help us in any way that they can...I am amazed. I am thankful for all the things so many of you have done and I don't even know how to repay them in my lifetime...The cards, the gifts, your time that so many of you have given us.

There just isn't enough to say except Thank You and wish so much it was more!