I spent some time this morning doing a bit of research on several of the options that Dr. Sosman literally threw at us yesterday. I was hoping that I came close to spelling some of the treatment options...and I guess that I did as I was able to find something on just about everything that I made notes on yesterday. We are still waiting to hear from the research nurse to see if Woody qualifies for the one study that we are leaning towards (the one Dr. Pusanov mentioned last month). I will email her tomorrow, if I don't hear from her by a reasonable hour. We want to get the next show on the road as soon as possible and no decisions can be made one way or the other till we hear from her. I will say, that yesterday was a bit daunting when Dr. Sosman started spewing forth this treatment and that treatment...and since I was the one taking notes, he was talking directly to me. And...me...I was only understanding a very small amount of what he said! Woody and I laughed later and said that Dr. Sosman had put on his research hat for a while...and that we...peons that we are...had not a clue as to what he said part of the time! (Sort of fun to watch him get excited about his work, though!) But I was able to guess at the spelling of the treatments he proposed and Google did the rest for me this morning! So we will have information at hand if we have to lean in another direction. I haven't even looked at most of it yet...just waiting to see what information we might need! We will only look at the drug study information/consent papers that we were given yesterday, if we are told that Woody is eligible for entering the program.
When Dr. Sosman mentioned one of the treatments that Woody isn't qualified for, I was able to say that I had read an article in the New York Times about it a few days ago and he said that, yes, there had been a very big article about it...the article explained that this treatment had seemed like a dream come true for melanoma patients...because...when it was taken (it was pill form...one lady was taking up to 22 pills at a time...do you think that Woody could have tolerated that treatment!?) all melanoma symptoms disappeared in a matter of weeks...it looked like the miracle cure that melanoma researchers had been searching for...but that miracle lasted only about 4 or 5 months and then the melanoma found a way back into the patients' systems...so not exactly a miraculous cure after all. To be eligible for this drug study melanoma patients had to have a certain gene mutation in their melanoma...Woody was tested at the start of his treatments with Dr. Sosman and he didn't have that mutation...and I had been rather sad about that since at the time such positive things were being said about the treatment...until I read the article night before last...when the melanoma showed back up in those patients bodies...it showed up with a vengeance. At the time of the writing of the article, all but one of the initial study patients had died. I am so thankful that Woody had to take other paths.
I haven't ever said anything in the blog about life expectancy of someone diagnosed with Stage IV Melanoma...but it isn't a pretty picture...and the numbers vary...let's just say that Woody is now beyond what most doctor's say...some say 6 months, some 9 months, some a year. It is now 15 months since Woody's diagnosis. This is just a reminder that each day is a gift from God.
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