Inspiration and Hope

Karen Velasquez is a member of MPIP and gives all us melanoma warriors hope. She was diagnosed stage 4 ten years ago today! Beating the statistics to the ground. While she isn't NED, somehow her tumours have been kept in check by treatments and her body and have not been fatal. Karen has been an outspoken melanoma activist, warning people of the dangers of the sun and to be aware of any changes on their skin, even appearing this year on the Dr. Phil show to warn people about the dangers of tanning beds. She is a true inspiration.

Here is some of her history in her own words taken from her MPIP Patnet:

"I was dx in 1992 with the primary mole on my back, clarks level 3. I
had WLE and was told everything was OK.
In Oct of 1996, I was dx stage IV with mets to my jawbone, lymph
system (32 tumors) and spots on my liver. I was treated at The
National Cancer institute with high dose IL2 with GP100 Vaccine as
well as the Flowpox vaccine. I did nine rounds of IL2/vaccine combo
and all the disease went away with the exception of the jawbone, I had
my jaw removed and reconstructed. My NED time lasted 2 years. Since
that time I have not had any other chemical treatment, but have had 4
additional surgeries for lymph tumors, and had radiation to a bone
marrow met to my left femur. This disease seems to have become more of
a chronic disease rather than a fatal one for me. The IL2/vaccine
combo seems to have slowed things down. I am scanned every three
months for follow up. I believe that this is the key to maintaining
long term survival. Without that constant monitoring, these tumors
would likely have become a bigger issue."

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Another inspirational person everyone in cyberspace should meet is Heather. Heather has not posted on her blog in 2 weeks and I, as well as everyone at MPIP are very concerned. I'm not a prayer (prayerer? huh?) but I do hope she is ok. I'm so worried. Heather, if you are reading this, we are all thinking of you!!

http://livingwithmelanoma.blogspot.com/

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I have surgery on Thursday to remove the tumour my surgeon missed. Just as well he missed it because I just found 2 more curious lumps on my upper arm. Damn. Hopefully he'll take those out too. It just comes out of nowhere. I can't believe how fast my tumours grow. Whatever.

On a brighter note, my pain seems to be under pretty good control with the Methadone and Percocets and my mood is good too besides the frustration and anger towards the medical community right now.

And, on an even brighter note, my beautiful fur-babies Misty (brown) and Mojo (B&W) make me smile and warm my heart every time they are near (except when they scratch the couch and whine for food before the alarm goes off in the morning!).