I have cancer

Interestingly enough, the most asked question in the whole Bible- from Genesis to Revelation- is How long, O Lord, how long?" And the most repeated command from God is "Do not fear" or "Do not be afraid." The people of God consistently cry out for relief, and the God of love bids us to trust him. 

Scotty Smith, Objects of His Affection

       I`ve been wanting to write some more information for awhile and just haven't brought myself to do it. I went from first researching just what melanoma was, to what it meant to have it removed, to then the scary facts of having it in my lymph. It seems the more I read about it sometimes the scarier it gets. So I had to stop myself and take a step back, trust my doctors and go through with the surgeries and steps it took to resect the cancer. I've started to be disciplined enough to read as far as what questions I need to know to ask, and then stop once I get into statistics and facts into the future. Honestly that part is unknown for me anyway, no one of us knows the future.  After the past many weeks of talking to people, answering questions, and trying to inform I wanted to write a post so that everyone knows more about Melanoma, more about my melanoma. Melanoma is very individualistic I`ve leaned. No one case completely mirrors another and there are many, many unknowns with this scary cancer.  Its not just skin cancer, its cancer. And for me this cancer is very likely in my body where we can't see it, and my healthy cells are going to fight it and hopefully keep it at bay, more about all that in the next few paragraphs. This cancer can show itself at any time and never lets those of us melanoma survives stay at any peace of mind. Melanoma is staged by 4 stages, 5 really because one is called in "situ" meaning its not yet stage 1. Stage IV means it has metastasized to another organ in your body, and the other stages in between are unique and complicated. Stage 1 and 2 are based upon the original tumor size and lots of details. If your cancer cells move outside the tumor to the lymph system (like me) it becomes metastasis malignant melanoma. At this stage and beyond the cancer has spread into the body sometimes where it's hard to detect at first. The staging is all very complicated and involved but it gives the melanoma specialists a great deal of information when diagnosing and treating each individual case.

Here are some basic facts about melanoma:

One person dies of melanoma every hour (every 57 minutes).

An estimated 76,100 new cases of invasive melanoma will be diagnosed in the US in 2014.

An estimated 9,710 people will die of melanoma in 2014.

The skin in the largest organ in the body.

Melanoma accounts for less than two percent of skin cancer cases, but the vast majority of skin cancer deaths.

Of the seven most common cancers in the US, melanoma is the only one whose incidence is increasing. 

Between 2000 and 2009, incidence climbed 1.9 percent annually

1 in 50 men and women will be diagnosed with melanoma of the skin during their lifetime

Melanoma is one of the fastest growing cancers in the U.S. and worldwide. 

In 2009, there were approximately 876,344 men and women alive in the U.S. with a history of melanoma.

Survivors of melanoma are about nine times as likely as the general population to develop a new melanoma.

Melanoma accounts for six percent of cancer cases in teens 15-19 years old.

Melanoma is the most common form of cancer for young adults 25-29 years old and the second most common form of cancer for young people 15-29 years old.

The overall 5-year survival rate for patients whose melanoma is detected early, before the tumor has spread to regional lymph nodes or other organs, is about 98 percent in the US. The survival rate falls to 62 percent when the disease reaches the lymph nodes, and 16 percent when the disease metastasizes to distant organs.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the U.S.

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  The survival rate for my stage: Stage IIIB: The 5-year survival rate is around 59%. The 10-year survival is around 43%. (But I will not be a statistics, this is for all you who need to know facts.) 
• Below us s chart showing the high rate of some tyoe of recurrence for stage IIIb. 
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  About Me and my individual case: This info following is specific to my melanoma. 
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• My Melanoma was found on my left thigh, small but dangerous, even though caught early. Melanoma is measured by the depth of the tumor. The deeper the tumor the more dangerous because it then can possibly penetrate into the deep layers of your skin and into your lymph system and blood which lies beneath your skin`s surface. In my case the original tumor was large enough, although small, to get into my lymph and travel through my lymph into my lymph nodes in my groin. Meaning cancer cells traveled through my body to a location other than the skin. I had a micro-metastis found in my sentinel lymph node. (the first lymph node closest to the cancer) A micro metastasis is very small yet takes likely a billion cells to develop toward starting that teeny  tumor. Why is this so scary? because those cells started a teeny tumor and that was billions and there are likely many other cancer cells traveling through my lymph individually that have not yet or may never amount to anything. A singe cancer cell cannot be detected by any scan, PET, CT, blood work, etc.. So this is why people at my stage 3B do treatment. It is the hypothesis that the treatment goes into my body and revs up all the Tcells to fight off any and all remaining cancer cells so that they will never amount to anything anywhere else in my body. At my stage of cancer and where I sit on the "charts" right now the likelihood or recurrence is very high like shown above. Maintenance of regular scans, regular appointments to a melanoma specialist dermatologist oncologist, surgical oncologist, and scans, bloodwork, and remaining on top of my health are huge goals when dealing with melanoma. You never know when this sneaky little cancer may rear itself again, and if it does I will fight then too, but beyond what I`m dealing with now in a worse scenario, melanoma is very hard to fight. Thankfully things are really picking up in Melanoma research, lots of new drugs are being released and lots more is being learned about this cancer. I am blessed next week I get to see one of the top melanoma specialist in the country. It can run rampant all over your body, showing up where and when you least expect it, and we "survivors" will fight it the rest of our lives. Even if it never shows itself again, its likely at any time my body could be fighting it. There are not many treatment options for my scenario besides interferon, which we will find more about Tuesday when it is set in stone that that's what I am facing ahead. You can read more about it yourself if you desire, its brutal, ugly, and hard, but I will fight this cancer out of my body for more reasons than I have room on here to write about. 
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• This may have been way more information than anyone wanted to come upon. Before we meet with my oncologist Tuesday and we have our concrete game plan I wanted all my prayer warriors and supporters to know what I'm facing and dealing with. Melanoma is not something that is cured, or ever goes away in my stage. I will live for NED at 3 month increments likely for the rest of my life. Everyone diagnosed with Melanoma has a different case, but we are all living for NED (No Evidence of Disease). It's hard to write this down and go right out into the open with it. Please read with grace of my knowledge and plans from here on out, I humbly tell everyone so that those of you who are in my army of support can have the best knowledge of where we are going from here. I am learning so much, and it's hard to own this as my life. It's not one bit easy to open up online and share these intimate details. Every appointment is overloaded with way more information that I want to know and you want to read. My hope is this gives everyone a general sense of my more detailed case and stage and that it will help as we move on from here. I am praying for my doctors of oncology that they are in place for me for a reason and that from here on out they will give me the knowledge I need to continue on. I trust that everything happens for a purpose and at the perfect time, and that time is not decided by me. I feel Gods love and Grace surrounding me as we learn more and walk through the treatment ahead. 
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