Home Sweet Home - but oh, that hotel bed was heavenly!

I typed a bit during our flight home...and then finished it just a minute ago:
In the skies above Texas as I type. Noticing that if I worked in the oil industry, it’d be very similar to the tech industry...80% male. Not complaining. Just noticing. It was news to me that private flights had flight attendants. I’m tellin ya…this is the way to go – no dilly dallying – if everyone’s present, then the plane takes off and away you go!  No celebrities this time, darnit. Ben/Jen would be hard to top, celebrity speaking…hmmm….Branjelina, maybe? I’ll promise to get a pick with Brad if that happens. That way I won’t have any of you squawkin about the picture next time. ;)

Our experience with MD Anderson was as great as people said it would be. It’s an overwhelming place, but they operate like a well-oiled machine. But not well-oiled just for the sake of being well-oiled. I think we’ve all experienced being on the consumer end – medical, commercial, whatever -- where operations can silently take precedence over all else, and an occasional-to-frequent ‘stepping on of souls’ is tolerated or even mundane. Every employee (at least the ones we encountered) were what I’d call a ‘quality’ individual…even down to hotel staff. People are just pretty friendly in general there – even on the streets. Sorry, Northerner friends, but the south can’t be beat for its hospitality. ;)

As I’d mentioned before, MD has its own melanoma clinic. We didn’t see anyone below an R.N. rank (no offense to my LPN/MA friends o’ course…jus sayin). First we saw the doctor’s RN, then a ‘fellow’ M.D. (also melanoma specialist) who did the bulk of the physical exam, then dr., who's also the head of the melanoma dept. (Everyone under the age of mmm...33, I'd guess. ;) We are officially on the 'watch and wait' path now.  His Houston oncologist agreed that interferon was not a good fit for Scott.  The only other option of proactive things 'to do' to lesson chances of recurrence was the possibility of getting in to a clinical trial for one of the vaccines.  This was a 'no' answer.  We already knew that he had missed one trial because of not knowing about it...needed to be certain amnt of weeks from first surgery.  Other possibility was a 'no' because Scott is not technically "interferon naive".  This one doesn't allow a candidate to have had any interferon treatment - and Scott's one day makes him no longer 'interferon naive'. (low growl.)  That would've been nice to know...definitely would have been a factor in the whole interferon decision.  So my heartfelt suggestion would be to anyone dealing with an aggressive cancer diagnosis:  Get your second opinion at some kind of teaching hospital, with a clinic that has a specialty in what you're dealing with, if at all possible.  And if you're not sure where that would be, email me and I'll help you research it.  Seriously. :)

So we're moving forward with just keeping a super vigilant eye on Scott.  (Can you believe the Houston docs were the first ones to give him a head-to-toe skin exam?)  We'll need to find a dermatologist here in town, and then we go back to Houston for whole-body scans again in three months....(and at 3-month intervals after that.)  The Houston oncologist is considered 'his doctor' until further notice.

So overall, it was priceless to have Scott leave with the lifted spirits of feeling very confident and 'taken care of' by the new doctors.  I don't know if you've ever seen it, but MD Anderson's logo is genius -- and it's on every white coat you see in the building.   It's their name -- M.D. Anderson Cancer Center -- with the word "cancer" crossed out.  Fabulous idea!!

Thank you to every single one of you for just reading this blog, for your prayers, for financial help, for meals, for hotel points.....we are so thankful for every single thing.  I'll keep you posted!