Dear Family and Friends,
Thank you so much for all the calls and visits and goodies and food and prayers and LOVE! Wow, it’s overwhelming.
Today was a good day.
Yesterday we went to see Dr. Evan Hersch, founder and director of the melanoma clinic at the Arizona Cancer Center in Tucson, he is an oncologist. He is not a very “warm fuzzy” kind of guy and quite blunt but extremely knowledgeable and expert in this field. He gave us a lot of good information and recommended having a CLND (complete lymph node dissection). This is something we were hoping to avoid because of the serious side effects it can have like severe edema and even possibly losing use of one’s leg. He said he was concerned that the cancer cells had moved so quickly to the lymph node from a tumor in the toe that wasn’t very deep and he wants to make sure that we take out any other possible cancer in those lymph nodes. He set us up to see the surgeon, Dr. Warneke, this morning. Dr. Warneke has been doing strictly melanoma surgery for the last 15 years or so and according to Dr. Hersch, one of the best surgeons of his type in the country. We saw him today and loved him. He was very down to earth and took time to answer every question we had and explain everything we wanted to know. He also recommended the CLND and said that because of Westin’s age and good health he expected only a 5% chance of Westin experiencing extreme edema or other disabling complications. We also learned that melanoma does not go into the nodes behind the knee and ankle, it goes straight to the groin, so he will only be removing the lymph nodes in the groin, that’s another positive. He felt that doing this surgery along with the Interferon therapy (like chemo) would give Westin a 77% chance of non-recurrence. Westin asked for a list of patients in his age group who have had this surgery that he could contact and ask questions, so they are getting that for him.
The Cancer Center also has “councils” that meet each week to discuss patients they are seeing and to share ideas and opinions. They used Westin as a case study and there was a dermatologist, oncologist, surgeon, pathologist, radiologist, nurses, and others all discussing his case and they all agreed that this is the best treatment for Westin. The only thing they want to do is to have his biopsy slides sent to them so that their pathologists can read it to make double sure nothing was overlooked.
The surgeon left us alone for a bit for Westin to consider what he wants to do. After some time, Westin decided to go ahead with the surgery. So unless a scheduling glitch happens, he will be having surgery on this Wed. at University Medical Center in Tucson. Then after about 3 weeks he will start the Interferon for a year. He will be able to do that here in Mesa. Westin has a really great attitude. It must be hard to feel like your choices are being taken from you because of a disease and I see some frustration at times, but for the most part he is ready to battle this.
The AZ Cancer Center is an incredible facility. From the moment you walk in you are treated like you are staying in a world class hotel. They have a nutritionist who gives free counseling on how to eat well during treatment, they have social workers who offer support and facilities for rehab, and our nurse will answer a page or call anytime to help us with whatever we need. The labs are right there so they were able to draw his blood right on site. It is comforting to be surrounded with so much knowledge and help.
We feel so blessed to have a wonderful “army” of loved ones with great faith and love to help fight this battle. We know that Heavenly Father is very aware of Westin and loves him.
We are fasting this Sunday for a successful surgery and for Westin’s well being, thank you ahead of time for joining with us.
Much Love,
Helen
Ps- if you would like to call and visit with Westin, he loves that.
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