April 17, 2011

In a nutshell, I'll bring you up to date on my Merkel Cell Carcinoma.  Merkel Cell is a very rare cancer (1500 new cases a year in the entire U.S.) and very aggressive (described to me as melanoma on steroids)

My first encounter was last May when I noticed a spot on my arm that was growing.  I had a large chunk of skin (down to the muscle) removed, a skin graft put in place and 30 trips to Interstate clinic for radiation. 

All seemed well until after Christmas this year when a bump started appearing under my arm.  At first my doctors thought it was simply something that resulted from the lymph nodes that were biopsied with my initial surgery.  It grew fast and large in a small amount of time, and obviously was a return of the Merkel Cell Cancer.  The mass was removed at Southwest by a Kaiser surgeon on March 30th ( a four hour surgery- great nap ! ! !).  Since then, I've had a build-up of fluid which has been drained twice and a really funny feeling in my arm because of nerve damage.  If you've had shingles, you know what my upper arm feels like.

On the good side, I've been saving money on under-arm deoderant since my surgery (you probably didn't need to know that)

Thanks initially to my daughter-in-law, and then also to my Kaiser people, we found an expert on Merkel Cell at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance - Fred Hutchinson Center - University of Washington.  Had a little trouble with Kaiser approving that, but again with the help of some great people, we pulled it off and will head up to Seattle tomorrow.

For those that are interested, I'll keep this updated as I find out new things.   I do believe strongly that there's a Higher Being involved in this adventure I'm about to undertake, and your prayers are so welcome.

Jim Detchman