Update (email) #1 - 07.23.09

All -

I have some news that I wanted to pass on to everybody. I'm sorry to do it in an impersonal email, but I thought you would like to know.

Most of you know that in '05 I had a malignant melanoma (cancer), in the form of a mole, removed from my back. As part of that procedure they also removed some lymph nodes in my groin area. For the last month or so I have had a constant dull pain in the area the the lymph nodes were removed. At first I thought it was a pulled muscle. But after lingering for a couple of weeks and not getting any better, I thought it might have something to do with the lymph nodes. I went in to see my doc on Wednesday and he had an ultrasound done to look at the nodes. Turns out that one of them is about 3 cm in diameter. The doctor stuck me with a needle to get a tissue sample from the area and sent the sample off to the pathologist to look at. The pathology report came back positive for malignancy. So it appears my cancer is back.

"Where do I go from here?" is still a bit unknown. Next Thursday I have MRI and CT scans done to look for suspicious lesions elsewhere in my body. If those come back clean then the lymph node gets removed, and after that it sounds like there are a multitude of treatment options I may be in for. It sounds like chemo is a possibility. If the scans show something suspicious, then I don't know what happens yet. I'll get the results from the scans back next Friday.