We got back yesterday from an easy Mayo Clinic trip sprinkling five appointments over three days.  Well, at least we thought it would be easy before we got to the last appointment.

The PET scan was on Wednesday afternoon.  Mark had blood drawn on Thursday morning, then we met with Darci Z from hematology for the scan results. 

The results were decidedly mixed.   The tumor currently clinging to the outside of Mark’s left kidney has gotten smaller since the last scan in January.  Yay!  However, the tumor on the right kidney SEEMS to have grown slightly.   That’s not what we hoped for!

Darci said we should go ahead with the Epcor treatment on Friday.  Dr. Witzig and Emily Brigham were both out of the office for the week.  Darci said she would consult with them when they are back next week to see if they want to make any changes in the game plan.

So Friday morning Mark got his Epcor injection.  Then there was a dermatology appointment scheduled.  It was listed as an “excision.”  But what were they planning to excise?

Back in March, the day before we left for Germany, Mark had had a dermatology exam.  In the process, the doctor found a suspicious lesion on his arm, so she biopsied it.  We got the results electronically about 10 days later, just before we returned to the U.S.

The message stated that the skin sample was positive for squamous cell carcinoma.  BUT there was no evidence of cancer in the margin surrounding the sample.  So, we thought that whole episode was closed. 

We were wrong.  On Friday the dermatologist (and the nurse) explained to us that the sample size taken in a biopsy is not really adequate to ensure that there are no more cancer cells in the surrounding tissue.  So they needed to remove deeper layers of skin from Mark’s arm to be sure that all of the cancer cells have been removed.  So this excision was actually minor surgery. 

Since Mark and I are both very eager to have all skin cancer eliminated from his arm, we were onboard almost immediately. The surgery took less than an hour.  We will check back in with dermatology the next time we’re at Mayo to have the external stitches removed.

Until then Mark is supposed to give his right hand and arm some time off.  No heavy lifting, no vacuuming, no dishwashing (he’s heartbroken : ), but, hey, he can still drive, so life is good!

Before we knew about the surgery yesterday, we signed up for a “meal packing party” today at church.  We packed tens of thousands of meals for a mission to Haiti.  Yes, Mark was there, and our team leader found him a job that he could do with his left hand.  God is kind!

Sorry to have been so slow in getting the PET results to you, but we are kind of glad we waited until after the excision, so we could share that as well.

Please pray for Mark to be rid of this skin cancer!   The sobering news from the dermatologist was that the many lymphoma treatments he has received puts him at a much higher risk for this type of skin cancer.  So, though this was his first brush with it, it is not likely to be his last, according to the doctor anyway.

Pray also that he won’t absentmindedly pick up something with his right (dominant) hand while it is still healing! 

Thanks so much for “listening” and praying!  God bless you all!

So thankful for your prayers,

Rae (and Mark)