Good News & Bad News

I always like to start with the bad news so I have something good at the end. We met with Dr. Bienvenu today to go over the results from Dad's lung biopsy.

The melanoma has spread to his lung. Because it has spread to the lung, he is officially classified as having Stage IV melanoma.

That's the bad news.

We went over the treatment plan and where we go from here. Since it has spread to the lung, we will forego radiation. The radiation was originally planned to keep the cancer from spreading to other areas. Since it has spread, the radiation is no longer necessary. As previously discussed, we will not be doing chemotherapy. The plan is to only use immunotherapy. He is being placed on Keytruda for treatment. He will have the Keytruda administered by IV, once every three weeks for 30 minutes per round. After the fourth round, he will probably have repeats of scans to see how effective treatment is.

As long as the Keytruda is effective, Dad will not have any additional surgery on his neck and no surgery on his lung.

That's the good news.

While doing some research on Keytruda today, we discovered that it is VERY expensive. Cost can go upwards of $10,000 per round. We're still checking to make sure it will be covered by the insurance. We did find out that it will require a pre-authorization before he can start.

If we're able to get the pre-authorization done, Dad is scheduled for his first round on Friday morning, January 18th.

That's the rest of  the news.

Dad wants to thank everyone for their prayers. He believes they are working. He is feeling very upbeat and positive about everything. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Angel