The Good Fight

From Cape Cod to Boston, Mark is leaving the entire medical establishment baffled! Today, Tuesday, August 29, we left the house at 7 am and returned at 7 pm with yet another new twist.
We thought we were going to see a surgeon about the possibility of amputation of Mark's arm. It turns out that a thorasic surgeon, Dr. Ducko in this case, specilizes in the pulmonary/lung area! He wanted to have another CAT scan to look at that spot on the right lung the doctors had initially seen and then dismissed and surprise number two was that he arranged for it this very afternoon so we didn't have to return another day. Surprise number three was that the initial little mass is now gone and was probably just an infection. The shocker was that there are now more inexplicable little spots on the right lung and some tiny ones on the left lung! Mark's theory is that every time we visit a doctor, we come away with worse news. He had anticipated that we would leave Boston with more information about an arm amputation but now he is back to the possibility of lung cancer and if that is the case, there will be no decision to make about an amputation! If there is cancer anywhere else in his body, other than the area of the original tumor, amputating his arm will not solve anything. Dr. Ducko sounded like the doctors on the Cape when he began uttering, "very unusual, baffling, a unique cancer, I am consulting with many others on this case."
We also got a call last week from the dermatologist we saw at Brighams a few weeks ago and he claimed that two of the biopsies from Mark's face were simply basil cells but the newest one on his cheek was a squamous cell cancer. That doctor is arranging for another surgeon to perform a procedure called Mohs surgery to remove them. In this type of surgery, they go in and scrape the cancer out, make you wait in the waiting room while they perform a biopsy on the spot and keep repeating this procedure until they are confident the cancer cells are gone. Mark is not yet scheduled for that.
Now back to the outcome of our visit with Dr. Ducko today...a week from Thursday, September 7 (three months after this journey of doctor visits began), Mark will go to Dana Farber for a pre-surgery consultation, a PET scan and his first MRI. This MRI is the first look at his brain and if they were baffled when they saw the rest of his body, wait until they take a look at his brain!! Friday morning, September 8, Mark will be admitted to Dana Farber for fairly invasive lung biopsies that will keep him in the hospital for three to five days. The tumor, which gets bigger and more painful by the day, is on the left side and this surgery is on the right side so the after effects are sure to add to his misery. The last PET scan was now a month ago and we must be absolutely current to determine where the cancer is and what our options are. However, at this point, we are beginning to wonder what difference it makes because it will probably be everywhere by the time someone decides to do something about it!!!!
Mark is very confused, extremely depressed and in a lot of pain most of the time. Despite all this, we are planning to celebrate our 30th anniversary this weekend with a few of our friends and some of Gary's college friends who will be on the Cape. Then, on Sunday, we will have a more private celebration with Gary & Kristina and Kevin & Katie. Kevin left for UVM last weekend but is returning with his girlfriend, who is flying in for the weekend, to celebrate with us. Mike and Steph are back in L.A. but will be with us in spirit. September 4 is our 30th anniversary and my parents 58th...we're a family of great endurance!!
We will update you following Mark's exploratory surgery the weekend of September 8th.