Tim Pacek Tim's Fight

Shortly after celebrating Independence Day this year, 2016, Tim started having some symptoms of what we thought for a while was "something he ate".  He was having some discomfort in his upper stomach/lower diaphram.  A short time later, he began seeing blood in his urine, which we thought then was maybe kidney stones.  On the night of August 1st we were laying in bed, and he went to scratch his chest.  He felt some sort of lump, and then had me feel it.  My exact words were "Oh my God babe!" He assured me "everything will be okay" and rolled over and went to sleep.  I laid in bed tossing and turning all night long.  I knew in my heart of hearts that something was definitely NOT "okay".  I got up for work that next morning at 3:30 like usual, but instead of going to work, I called in to work and told them I wouldn't be in as I had to take Tim to the hospital.  I then went and woke Tim and asked him if I could take him to get checked out.  After much hesitation he agreed.  We arrived at the Emergency room, and at first the Dr. did not seem concerned at all.  He expected what we did, and thought maybe severe reflux, but the blood in his urine was concerning so he stated "I'll do a CT scan just to rule anything out and then send you home to follow up with your primary physician." ....a couple hours later after getting the CT results, the Dr. came into the room with his head hung and said "these results are very concerning, you have masses throughout your liver, spleen and both sides of your lungs, we don't know anything more than that and I'm sorry, but we are admitting you now for further testing." My heart sunk into my stomach and my head fell into my hands and I cried.  A lot.

Tim was admitted to the hospital immediately, and a short time later we were visited by the Oncologist.  He stated that they were going to do a biospy, and that they, of course, did not know what kind of cancer he had, but that we were definitely looking at a stage 4 because it had metastasized to several organs. 

A short time later, they took Tim down for the biopsy and took three spots off his liver, which they would test and also send to Mayo clinic to test as well.  This turned out to be a very painful experience and would take weeks for him to recover from.  Tim was kept in the hospital until Thursday for fluids and pain management.  Then....we wait.....

We were first told that we would have results Friday, then Monday, then Thursday....to say we were anxious would be an understatement.

We had our first consult with the Oncologist on Thursday, August 11th.  We found out that Tim has stage 4 malignant melanoma, one of the rarest, and most deadly forms of skin cancer.  We were devastated.   And so our journey began......

Tim will be off work (per Dr. orders) at least for the remainder of his treatment, and I have taken a leave of absence from my job as well, to take care of him as best as I can.