In the Beginning

Here is where it all began.....

November 2005:
Bennie has a mole removed from his left arm, and it is determined it is a Clarks level 3, 0.98mm malignant melanoma.(stage IIA Melanoma)  After surgery at MD Anderson and a Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy everything comes back clear.  We follow up at MD Anderson over the next 5 years for check ups, and everything is great.  We follow up with a dermatologist after 5 years of being cancer free. 

January 6th 2013:
Bennie wakes up before church and tells me that Colby has got to sleep in his own bed from now on.  He thinks that Colby is kicking him in the side at night, and is causing his hip to hurt.  He then feels a bump and blames it on Colby.

January 10th 2013:
Before bedtime Bennie shows me the bump on his hip, and it is noticeably larger.  I freak out over the size of this thing, about the size of a softball, and surf the internet all night looking for answers.  The only answer I could come up with was cancer.  I was already sad, and I cried that morning to him.  In my heart I knew.  He said he would give it a couple weeks, and then go see a Dr. if it didn't get any better.  Well... I got him in to see a Dr. that next week, and after a MRI he was sent back to MD Anderson.

January 22, 2013
We end up at MD Anderson, and run through a battery of test in 2 days.  He gets a CT Scan of chest/abdomen/pelvis, MRI Brain, and biopsies on his hip tumor and also one on his shoulder.

January 31, 2013
Bennie has surgery to remove a tumor on his shoulder.  They remove the tumor to harvest the Tumor Infiltrating Lymphocytes for a future treatment possibility.  It is a rough treatment so hopefully we do not have to go that route.  But it is available if need be, and it does have better odds than the first treatment we will be starting.  The first treatment we will be starting is HI dose of Interleukin 2.  He will be in the hospital for one week, and every 8 hours he will be given a 15 minute infusion.  The side effects can be really rough, and it feels like you have the worst flu ever.  Luckily, supposedly after you finish the infusions you feel better.  The chances of this treatment working for a complete response or cure is 6%, and the chances for it helping to keep it stable are about 10-15%.  Not really great odds, but it is the best they have right now.  The TIL treatment is not an option right now because they have to grow those cells from the tumor, and it takes about 5-8 weeks for them to grow.  We do not have that kind of time to wait around, because melanoma is a very aggressive and fast spreading cancer.  WE know that because of the tennis ball or larger size tumor on his hip.