Dad's biopsy came back for melanoma, not lung cancer

dearfoam said:

Thank you
Sorry you had a similar situation to go through. My dad has charity care insurance through our research hospital (a leading comprehensive cancer center) so now we are on the road to all the help he needs as they have every specialist you can think of.

My uncle heard about this newly approved drug via his friend at the CDC for mets melanoma called YERVOY (ipilimumab). We do not know yet if we can get him on it, but looks like I will spend the afternoon trying to find out. He has been with a Pulmonary team all week in the hospital and we have not met with a medical Oncologist as of yet. I think that's who would guide us on this.

I thought the Onc team would meet us this morning to stage, but I didn't see or hear form them. Some one did order another CT contrast scan this morning before I was even awake. No further word as far as I know. SO i guess I call paging and ask for the Onc on call.

Hoping something might help.

Dad should come hoem tomorrow, who knows what's next
We "should" hear from the oncologists before dad is discharged, or at least I hope so. They are really only a couple buildings away from his room. We have not officially heard what type of Melanoma he has and if it will qualify for Yervoy or another biological therapy.

As far as I understand, my dad will need the official prognosis before in home hospice can be ordered. I will be kind of mad if they do not do this before I leave the hospital tomorrow. I am feeling very inpatient.

Will try to make dad's normally scheduled whole brain radiation appt. at 1:55. Supposed to see his Radio Onc in clinic as well, so with our biopsy news maybe we can begin to revamp a treatment plan. This doctor seems to push for things whereas some others do not.

All this stress is really getting to me, in addition to other things. We live near Birmingham, AL, and there is so much devastation going on with many friends and their families in the VERY near neighborhoods and small towns that were hit by the tornadoes last Wednesday. We had some damage to our detached garage (giant trellis of roses collapsed pulling gutter with it blocking the entry), found my porch roof is curling away and rotting, and I have no time to deal with it or get anything fixed, much less the money. Everyone who is handy is onto more urgent cases of course, anyway. But it's so aggravating to me that I have not even been able to get out there and cut down the tangled, thorny mess. I tried to take some me time this weekend, but I am more exhausted than ever.

In the good news dept, dad is doing OK with the fact that most of his hair has fallen out. I joked that he broke the mirror on his hospital table (it is a hinged one that pulls out for when the nurses do grooming stuff. But he is still very much in denial/ excessively hopeful about having such bad cancer. The resident Pulm Dr told me today his newest CT scan shows a tumor on the spleen. That wasn't there 7 weeks ago, or was missed, or maybe it was misread. Will have to pass all this along to my dad's outpatient Onc team. SO many phone calls etc. Whew.

My hubby is also out of town since Sat and will be back Monday morning, hopefully in time to help get dad out of hospital. I have to pack all his stuff and still look for his glasses that were lost, and get Patient Services to replace them. Dad hasn't really left his room except for tests and scans. So much to do in the morning and all i really would like to do is sleep in before all mayhem returns!

God, I just hope the doctors won't give me the run around about ordering hospice and his next treatments.