October 11th

 From Mark:

As you know, tonight (Wed. 10/10) will mark one week since I got my diagnosis and much has happened since my weekend email.

Many people are praying for me and I felt energetic early in the week as a consequence.  Monday I spent the day at Huntsman Cancer Hospital (HCH).  In the morning they prepared me for brain radiation.  This was considerably more time consuming than I had imagined.  It is important that your head be in exactly the same place each radiation session (every weekday for three weeks).  They accomplish this by making a brain radiation mask (photo attached) that clips to the table each day.  The mask begins as a sheet of hot plastic that is formed to your face as it cools.  They also placed seven tattoos on my body creating sort of cross-hairs over tumor in my femur that will be receiving radiation.  I then had my radiation session later Monday and again Tuesday. 

The orthopedic oncologist, Kevin Jones, decided the location of the tumor in my femur caused a high risk of impending fracture and ordered surgery for Tuesday to install ~20” metal rod.  The surgery was successful (see attached X-rays) and I stayed overnight for observation and because I finally had my PET Scan on Wednesday.  Until now I've only had a thigh, pelvis, and brain scan, but we haven’t identified all tumors or found the “primary” (the origin source of the melanoma).  This is important because the treatment varies based upon the strain of melanoma and the fastest way to identify the strain is by finding the primary.  The PET scan is a whole-body scan that requires a glucose solution in the blood that excites the tumors and makes them highly visible.  I had been anxious to get this scan done so all the tumors could be identified and possibly the primary found.  This occurred Wednesday, 10/10/12, but I will not have results for a week.  The delay isn’t problematic because I'm told we can’t treat body tumors (oral medication), at the same time we treat brain tumors (radiation).  Treating brain tumors must take precedence.

I had many terrific visitors to HCH and was blessed with permission to go home Wednesday.  For the next few weeks it should be a more predictable schedule as I receive daily radiation, heal from surgery, and have a few follow-up MD appointments.  I will let you know when I know if I am BRAF positive or negative.  I expect to learn this on from my oncology attending physician, Dr. Kenneth Grossman, on 10/17 at 8:00 AM.   In the event he calls me to say the PET scan revealed the primary and they need to extract is, I will also let you know.

Mark's radiation mask:

Rod in Mark's Femur