We Celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary!

How well we remember wondering if we'd make it to our 35th, and here we are at 40!  Yahoo!!!  July 5th was the big day and we were surrounded by our 5  children, their  spouses, and 16 adorable grandchildren.  A surprise  video presentation with sweet and funny comments by each of our grandchildren was a highlight!

On Monday, the 9th, we meet with Dr. Walter Urba.  It's been four months since the last visit, and will be 5 months until the next.  He doesn't feel that a CT or MRI is necessary until right before the next appointment in mid-December.  Mark feels fantastic!  There is nothing to indicate that there is anything amiss.

Life for us is sweet and we count our blessings for the additional time that we have together.  Thank you for your love and support.  We love and appreciate you!

Amazing and Wonderful Blessings!!!

Last Friday, Mark had another PET scan, and today we met with Dr. Urba.  As we expected, there continues to be NO evidence of active cancer anywhere in his body!  Mark started Keytruda one year ago, with infusions every three weeks.  His side effects have been minimal so he could stay on it longer, but after collaborating with experts in the field, Dr. Urba believes that one year is long enough.  Today was Mark's LAST treatment!  YAHOO!!!  As Mark mentioned in the last post, his odds for complete remission are much better than ever before.  If tumors reoccur, there is a good chance that he will respond positively to the medications he has already taken.  Also, with continual research, new and improved treatments are possible. 

Of course, routine monitoring will continue with regular doctor visits as well as CT scans every 3 months for a while, moving to every 6 months, and then to once a year.  Dr. Urba also trusts that Mark knows his body well enough to detect if anything is amiss.

It will be 6 years this coming February since the first diagnosis, and initially his odds of cure were very small.  How we appreciate all of your support, faith and prayers during our journey!  You have blessed our lives, and we thank you!  We want to give back to those who are going through difficult challenges, and hope that we will be sensitive and aware.  Life is filled with trials of every kind, and our opportunity is to support one another along the path.

We wish you all a very Happy 2018 filled with peace, joy and love!

I'm not sure how to say this...

I just had my first PET scan after starting on this new medication, Keytruda (6 months ago), and it was clean! There are no active cancer tumors. This is the first medication that I have taken that they say could be durable. There was a 6% chance that I would have a complete response. I am in that small percentage!  

Five years ago, when we started this roller-coaster ride, upon hearing the success rates of our few options I was rather discouraged. I told Dr. Urba that I've spent much of my life working with numbers, and I knew that a 3% chance of cure was really a 97% likelihood of death. He came back with, "Yes..., but you could be the one that hits it out of the park!" Well..., he appears to be right. I got the less than 2% response with Zelboraf, Tafinlar and Mekinist, and now the 15% positive response with Keytruda. Keytruda wasn't an option at the time. I feel very blessed.

Dr. Urba told me Monday that the likelihood of durability is higher with a complete response. He indicated that they have a long history (20 years) with IL-2, but not so long with Keytruda, as it is new, maybe some with 3-5 years that were on the early clinicals. But, indications with the other immunotherapies show that there is a greater than 50% chance that it is durable. We have hope that this could be the end of this cancer! What an amazing feeling!! I will continue with the Ketruda infusions every 3 weeks for at least the next 6 months. I will  need to have regular checkups and PET scans for the rest of my life. I will gladly take that option!

We all have a round-trip ticket. I am, as always, in the Lord's hands, nevertheless, those are wonderful hands! The same hands we are all in every day.

Thank you again for all of your good thoughts, faith and prayers. What an amazing journey! I love you all. Moreover, through this, I know that many of you love me. Thank you!

CT Results Are In

Today we met with Dr. Urba to review the results of the CT Scan done last Friday.  Because Mark has been feeling so much better we were confident that results would be positive, and they are!!!  All tumors in soft tissue are basically gone. There is a mass in the area where the tumor in his adrenal gland was removed.  It is the about the same size as in the last scan, so while it hasn’t shrunk, it hasn’t grown.  Lesions in the bone are harder to tell with a CT, but they obviously have shrunk since his pain has continued to decrease.  Whether there are still live cancer cells there, we won’t know until Mark has a PET scan in 12 weeks. 

Side effects are minimal - just some skin rashes on his face and ears.  Fatigue is the most common, affecting about 80% of patients.  Back in December and January he was extremely fatigued, but has continued to gain more and more stamina.  It seems that for him, the fatigue is more associated with the tumors than the medication. Once again, we realize how fortunate we are!   

This was his last infusion with Galectin.  Infusions will still be every three weeks with Ketruda only.  For how long?  Most likely for a full year or possibly longer, depending on how he responds.  At any point the tumors could become resistant to the drugs and start growing again, at which point we would try another treatment. They could stop growing, but not go away. Side effect could kick in and become a deterrent.  Of course, our hope is they will DISAPPEAR and NEVER RETURN! 

It was awesome seeing Dr. Urba again!  He has become a dear friend.  While buying lunch in the cafeteria to take up to Mark, Dr. Urba saw me and motioned for me come over and insisted that he pay for our lunch - a kind gesture.  Our appointments with him are always much longer than with the nurse practitioners, as he just likes to visit.  We thoroughly enjoy those visits which are about every three month.  The next time we see him will be right after the PET scan.  We’re keeping our fingers crossed for that one!

At the first of the year we were gearing up for a tough go of it, as least for a while, although we always had hope that the treatment would work.  We just didn’t expect the side effects to be so minor.  Mark is back to full steam ahead.  After 5 hours at the Providence Cancer Center, we bought plants and planted about half of our garden – no naps and he feels just fine.  Well, we’re both tired, but we aren’t young pups anymore!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your faith, prayers, love and support.  We think of so many others who are going through challenges and our hearts go out to them.  Life can certainly be challenging, but through it all, we can find peace.  We just saw this video that we’d like to share.  Go to  https://youtu.be/Ly9xk59Qkfc .

Wishing you joy and love this Easter Season,

Mark & Ane