EXCELLENT RESULTS FROM MDA

Dave had a CT scan and blood work done yesterday, 7/30, and discussions with his MD Anderson doctors today.  To cut to the chase, everything looks great, including Dave.  All the nurses, PAs and the doctors commented on how well he looks.  Gone is the grey-skinned, frail man that slept all day and lost a lot of his hair.  One nurse ran her fingers through his hair, saying how lucky he was to have such a full head of hair.  If you can't tell from the pictures, he is a lot grayer than before, but it looks good on him.  (Men are so lucky that way!!)

Dave checking in at MD Anderson

His melanoma specialist, Dr. Bedikian, is retiring next month, so if Dave has any more issues, he will be assigned a new medical doctor.  As long as he doesn't have any issues, he will continue to see his surgeon, Dr. Ross, who will become his primary contact. We were happy with that, as we like Dr. Ross a lot, and he was the one who suggested Dave forego the Isolated Limb Perfusion (ILP), and instead have a lymphadenectomy.  It turned out to be exactly the right thing to do, since melanoma cells were then found in a lymph node under Dave's collarbone.  If he had decided to do the ILP, the metastasized melanoma cells may not have been found, and the results could have been very different.  We are very happy to continue seeing Dr. Ross.

Dave in his new glasses

Dave is feeling so much better than he was in early April when he had his 'event' as he calls it.  It was a seizure-like problem, and no cause was found. He has been walking several miles a few times a week, he has gotten back to kayaking a few hours at a time, and is talking about starting his swimming again.  He still gets tired after any exertion, and it takes him longer to recover, but I can see improvements week by week.

We've had a really good time while here in Houston.  We're staying at Jon and David's beautiful home, and taking power walks in the mornings.  Last weekend Dave went shooting with his brother and nephew, on Monday we shopped for wedding table centerpieces for Libbie, Tuesday we celebrated Jon's 60th birthday, Mom is here from Charleston for the week so we've been antiquing, and tonight we are hosting our siblings, in-laws and Mom for a dinner at a little French restaurant, Bistro Provence.  We celebrated our anniversary there last year, and decided we want to go again.  Also, Jon, Mom, Dave and I bought new eyeglasses at a great little boutique. We all had to have Jon's okay before we purchased, though.





So Cheers!  We are so thankful.