Welcome to the amusement park

This last week has been a bit of a roller coaster. Wednesday and Thursday were doctor days.

Wednesday we met with a doctor from the UCLA group. Great doctor, very knowledgable, but I have to say I felt absolutely overwhelmed when I got out of his office, and even a bit hopeless. Not necessarily his fault - John and I ask him some very loaded questions. I guess I just wasn't ready to hear the answers. We made it through, though, and pulled ourselves together.

Thursday we went to see a team of doctors from the John Wayne Cancer Institute. First we saw Dr. Ray, who is a fellow who works closely with Dr. Morton. We saw him from 8:30 until about 10:00. This guy is a gem. He explained everything and told us we were allowed to forget everything he told us and invited us to call him any time and he would explain it all again. He also stressed two things. First, we must believe in our doctor. He said no matter how good the prognosis, if we didn't believe in and trust our doctor, there was just so much they could do. On the other hand, no matter how poor the prognosis, if we partner with our doctor, there is so much that can be done. He then went on to tell us that it was imperative that we get the order of our treatment right the first time - surgery first followed by systemic treatment, or a systemic treatment first and then surgery if needed.

Then we met with Dr. Morton. There was also a dr. from Japan there who had a machine that could scan moles and ascertain whether or not it is melanoma. They checked one of my moles and it was OK :). Dr. Morton believed that because of my advanced case that I should be treated systemically first and he got us in immediatly to see his colleague Dr. O'Day who works with their sister institution The Angeles Clinic. Look these guys up online - pretty impressive. Dr. O'Day was another incredible individual. He suggested that I was a good candidate for one of their clinical trials which I will describe another day. Anyway, this is the group of doctors we are going with, I'll be doing the clinical trial and I'm very excited about it.

Lots more to tell, but at least this should catch you up a bit. In the morning (Monday) we'll be back in Santa Monica to begin the screening process for the clinical trial. Doing a brain MRI first thing, then a CT scan and lots of blood work. If all goes well I should begin treatment no later than next week. More details later. Love to you all.