Tim Pettey

In February of 2016, Tim was diagnosed with stsge 3C Malignant Melanoma.  He underwent surgery to remove the melanoma lesion and began immunotherapy. The immunotherapy had many side effects and he was taken off of the therapy in September.  He continued with visits to the dematologist and oncologist every 3 months.  In March  of 2017, Tim had a CT scan of his neck to pelvis area and it was clean. The oncologist saw him May 19th and said he still found no evidence of cancer and wouldn't need to return  for 6 months.  At the end of May, we were able to travel to Fresno, California so that Tim could read scripture at a dear friend's wedding. On the way home, we noticed him having difficulty walking.  He was not eating very much and we just attributed the weakness and fatigue to that. We tried to make sure he was eating more and also making sure he was eating nutritious foods. Early in the morning on June 7th, Tim attempted to get out of bed to use the bathroom. He fell off the side of the bed and we could not get him up, as he was too weak to help us. We called the paramedics who came and helped him up. I stayed home from work the next day to make sure he was getting up when he needed and to take care of him.  Later in the day, he fell again and this time I had the paramedics help us get him to the ER. He spent the night in Sunnyside Community Hospital, and the next day, the Doctor noted that Tim was having trouble keeping his eyes open. An MRI of his head revealed an almost 3 cm tumor behind his right eye. The melamoma had returned.  Tim was transported to Harbor View Medical Center in Seattle, where a CT scan revealed that he has melanoma lesions in his vertebrae,  sternum, ribs, and pelvis. We are currently waiting  for test results to see if he is a candidate for a new treatmemt.   Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place because FaceBook is getting hard to use with all of the updates and responses. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.