My dad is having surgery this morning. Please pray for him and my mom today, and the doctors who are performing the surgery. He was diagnosed a few weeks ago with stage 3 melanoma. He is having all of his lymph nodes under his right arm removed, along with a large part of skin on his back, where the cancer originated. He is having surgery at U of M, Ann Arbor. It is an outpatient surgery, which will take a few hours, and then after a short recovery time, he will be released today. They live in Cheboygan and are planning on making the trip back tonight(while he is still pretty drugged up). He will have a drain under his arm for a few weeks, and then after he is pretty much healed from surgery, they will talk about maybe starting him on Interferon. It's a drug to help boost your imune system and fight off anymore cancer.
Praise: My dad's CT scan came back with no signs of the cancer spreading to other areas of his body, including any major organs. So according to the doctors, this is completely curable. However, he will have to watch VERY closely from now on for any signs of skin changes. AND use LOTS of sunscreen, and try to limit sun exposure from 10-4. I told him he will have to start moonlight golfing. :)
I will try to post an update tonight or tomorrow after I hear how everything went and how he is doing.
4 comments:
Sarah called me Tuesday night to let us know what was going on. Al is up in Lewiston - job hunting. He got laid off in April and we are trying to move up there now instead of in a few years. Anyway, Al is going to visit Gary and Marsha this weekend, if your Dad wants company. Prayers are going out (up?) for Gary.
Ellen
Sorry to hear about Al's job, but we would love to have you here sooner. Maybe it will work out for us to see you this summer if you're up. Good luck to Al on job hunting, and thanks for the prayers.
Sorry to hear that your family is going through this, Laurie. My mom had melanoma too, so I'm a little familiar with it. Will he be having any radiation or chemo?
Kelly, they said he wouldn't need chemo right now, that Interferon is usually the method they choose to go with.
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