Now here we are:

I never really ever dreamed that three weeks ago we would be sitting here on the 10th floor of MD Anderson, while nurses come in with hazmat suites on dispensing highly toxic chemicals to my husband.   Whatever God's plan is for this certain set of events in our life, we are just trusting him and giving it all to him to take care of.  We know it will be tough, but we know we are not alone.  It is amazing to think that Bennie has stage 4 Melanoma.  He looks fine and feels fine... minus the large growth in his body.  When you look up Melanoma on the internet it is very frightening.  The odds for someone to survive past 5 years with this disease are 5%.  But Bennie is not a statistic, and treatment options for this cancer are improving every year.  Even with this horrible thing that has been placed in our laps the blessings that have been presented to us in these last few weeks are amazing.  One blessing is that even though it is stage 4, we found out that none of the scans showed any metastasis in his organs.  Also, we were able to get everything streamlined pretty quickly to start treatment.  Another blessing is that our children are taken care of so well by all the family that we have.  We have such an amazing family and support system, and that helps so much with us being gone so much.  Our church family is also amazing, and everyone praying for us is just astounding.  Another blessing is that Bennie works for the most amazing company.  He absolutely loves his job!!! The hardest part for him having to go through this is not being able to go to work.  He loves the people there, and he loves what he does.  It is killing him to be in a hospital bed, and not doing what he loves.  We know he will be back soon, and that this will just be a memory in the future.   He is still able to be connected through work with technology, and may confuse some people when he responds to emails while on Demerol.   The side effects of this treatment can be fever, chills, nausea, diarrhea, rash, itching skin, kidney failure, blood pressure issues, and fluid retention.  This is a short list, and the long list of side effects they gave us would make anybody want to try and escape this room before they bring it in. 

Bennie Just had his first dose of the hi-il2:
9:00 am the nurse came in and hooked up the transfusion
9:15 am transfusion complete
9:30 am I stare at him ... he watches a movie
9:45-10:00 He gets really cold and starts shivering... we get the nurse and she gives him Demerol
10:30 he feels better and is watching TV

Pretty good first dose so far... will keep everyone updated... next dose 5pm

P.S.
It's really weird... a friend of ours from church that we have known since high school at church has the same diagnosis.  He just moved down here from Virginia and was starting at MD Anderson for treatment as well.  It just so happened that he started the same day, and he is right next door.  He is in room 1 and Bennie is in room 2.  Such a small world, and so that means I can take care of two people!  I just went and checked on Matt, and he was asleep.  He looks like he is having a rough time over there.  I will go by in a little while and check back up on him.  He is receiving a different treatment that Bennie.  That's all for now!