Son's Diagnosis

This is my son. He is 18 and doing well in other aspects of his life. But..on Monday, Aug 4, 2008 (the day I took the following pictures) we were all told that he has stage 4 melanoma in his neck, in several lymph nodes on his neck and in his left lung. He was given 10% chance of survival (based on infants thru 80 yrs with same cancer) and 8-12 months to live if the treatments do not work.
David is 18 and need lots of prayer
They started treatment on Tuesday with 3 kinds of biochemotherapy, the most aggressive treatment available. He is still in Denver University Hospital until Saturday for the Chemo.
My daughter Amber and little brother David.

After this week of chemo, he will have 2 weeks to recuperate and then will begin another week of treatments followed by 2 to recuperate again.

Me and my youngest son at lunch on Monday.

After the first 6 weeks they will do another PET scan of his whole body to see if the cancer is getting smaller. If it is doing the job, then he will get 2 more rounds of chemo like the first 2. If only a tiny spot is remaining he may get a 5th round, otherwise they usually stop at 4 due to the damage the chemo does to the body.

Just a little fun before reality totally sinks in.

We will continue to be positive and support him as much as we can. He has had some troubles growing up but has alot to look forward to and a little baby to be a daddy to. He is good with kids and loves to play with them. I am praying that he will get the chance to try out those new more grown up attitudes and behaviors and become the good man that he is made to be.

Amber with David and his little nephew Evan.

I will try to update as we go but it's going to be a difficult time. Thank you all for your encouragement. My daughter, Amber has a cool blog and would enjoy it if anyone were to visit her site. She also has a second site for photos that she likes to take and post. We'll call it Amber's photos. She is a good big sister and loves David dearly.

As a change of subject I'll tell you about our adventures on Wednesday. My husband and I, along with Myrtle our bulldog) went fishing on the Pueblo Resevoir in our little alluminum fishing boat. It was hot and sunny but I took an umbrella to keep Myrtle cool. We fished by some tall dead trees in the middle of the lake and didn't catch but one little perch. Then our outboard motor died and wouldn't start for anything. We have a little electric trolling motor but that's not great for getting anywhere very fast.

My dad and some grandkids were out in his boat pulling a water innertube behind. What fun. We needed to reach them but I forgot my cell phone at home and my husbands phone had a low battery. We called them and left a message but had to turn off the phone between calls to conserve the battery. Eventually after a few missed passes, they found us and we all started back to the dock. Just then a large storm came over us with lightning to boot. Since we were all out in 2 alluminum boats we headed for the nearest shore.

What a fiasco that was. The kids clambered up a large tree trunk leaning against the cliffs and got up the gully fairly easily. Not me of course. With an oxygen tank hanging on my back and knees and feet that don't work exactly right and hurt alot, it was extremely difficult for me. I used to scramble over rocks, balance over logs, climb trees, etc. before my illness, but now I feel so helpless and was very nervous. Getting the bulldog out of the boat was great fun also. My husband found a better spot to tie up for him and the dog.

Seven of us and one dog huddled for over 2 hours while the sky opened up and dumped on us. We were all in shorts, sleeveles shirts and sandals. The boys were shirtless and wet swimming trunks. We shivered in the heavy and constant thunder and lightning until Rick remembered we had a small tarp in the boat. That helped hold in our body heat and kept the water off of us. poor Myrtle leaned into my lap and I covered her ears when the thunder roared. One lightning bolt hit just above us over the gully ridge where we huddled. We all jumped sky high on that one.

Finally the storm lifted and we got into the larger boat and towed our little one. My husband rode it (after bailing a bunch of water out of it) to steer. We later heard that the storm dumped 2 1/2 inches in some places and 4 inches over some places at the resevoir. I think we got the 4 cause we all were sqeaky clean after that downpour. What an adventure. I'm just glad I had extra O2's with me and no one got hurt.

Basically the trip was a bust. No fish. Motor dies. Storm holds us down for 2 hours huddled under a tarp. Made it home before dark anyway. Better luck next time.