Wish this was an April Fool's Joke! - Mark wrote

We thought we’d dodged the bullet and were done with the cancer scene, but alas, it’s not to be.

 Ane and I found out yesterday, through a PET scan and Dr. Urba that the old tumors are still gone but there is a new crop.  I have had gradually increasing pains in my abdomen over several weeks/months.  At first I thought it might be a pulled muscle or something like that, but it didn't go away. I became more concerned about the time we were finding out about the cancer deaths of two of my good work friends, Tom Londen and Fred Rockwood.  I couldn’t bring myself to mention it to Ane when she was morning their deaths from the same type of disease.  It stayed on and got worse.  I set up an annual physical and told our doctor.  Given my history he was not about to wait on getting it checked out so the next day I had a CT scan.  Our Oncologist got the results that day and set up a PET scan for the following day. Yesterday we met with Dr. Urba, had an Echo-cardiogram, will have a brain MRI on Wednesday and the drugs should be here in a few days – all of that within one week! This team is on it!!

 The PET scan showed one large active tumor in my left adrenal gland and six or so small ones in the soft tissues in my back, abdomen and legs. Since the BRAF inhibitor worked so well, Dr. Urba wants to use it again.  Although this time a newer version is available with fewer side effects and when used in combination with a MEK inhibitor has a better chance of positive impact, 75% instead of 50%, and the duration of response, 10 months instead of 5 months.  Now, last time with all of your faith, prayers and blessings we got over two years.  Hopefully we will get even more this time.  As you know, this drug is not supposed to cure, just stall, and we got a great stall!!  It did not come back in the same places, so those tumors appear to be gone!  These new ones seemed to sprout up like new plants from seeds that were not affected by the Roundup. 

 We are learning as we go and are so grateful for the new medications and the miracle of success we have experienced with them.  We hope and pray for the same wonderful results again.  We're grateful for the sweet feelings of love and faith it has brought us.  This will just extend all of that and remind us of how important you are to us.