"Today is a good day."  That has been my answer to the "How are you?" inquiries for the past few months.  This response came as a result of the roller-coaster that continues to best explain my cancer journey.  

Since you can't see my smile, or my expression, know that I say those words with much peace.  The past few months have held several ups and downs, but through it all God has been my steady rock and has given me much joy and strength.  These verses have been an encouragement to me often.

The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You.  Trust in the Lord forever, For in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock.

~Isaiah 26: 3-4 (New American Standard Bible)

After my last setback in August left me pretty discouraged, I sensed that I needed a perspective shift. I decided that I was going to see what each day brought and accept what came-no expectations.  I figured if I wasn't expecting to be feeling great every day, it would be easier to ride out the low points.  Thankfully, I haven't had many low points in my health since August, but I'm finding that this perspective shift has had a positive result in my outlook overall.  This is my way of accepting all that God allows in my life-kind of like Job's response to his less-than-helpful wife's really bad advice in Job 2.  

But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

~Job 2:10

On to the high and low points since my last update.  My targeted therapy continued to prove effective through the summer months.  My scans in August showed great progress. The scan report included words like, "stable, significant decrease, resolved, no evidence of disease", which were music to our ears.  We praised God for the great news, despite the fact that I was experiencing a return to the nausea, vomiting and other associated gastrointestinal symptoms.  I got to the point where I could not keep anything down, including the anti-nausea medications and the therapy that was responsible for my progress.  I visited the infusion room daily for a week for labs and to receive fluids and IV anti-nausea medication in hopes of keeping me out of the hospital.  After a few days, things improved slightly and Dr. M suggested a break from the therapy until I was back to normal.  I rejoiced because this allowed me to travel to Idaho and celebrate my Dad's 90th birthday, which I was afraid my setback was going to force me to miss!

After our wonderful trip, I met with Dr. M, who had been doing some research and recommended a change in my therapy dose. This included having the weekends off, which sounded excellent to me. Thank God, that resolved my symptoms and I have had very few issues since.  

My oncology team has decided that the next step is surgery to remove the lymph nodes that were causing me so much pain prior to the targeted therapy treatment. Since that is the only area with any visible sign of melanoma, it makes sense to get rid of where it may be hanging out, in hopes of preventing a recurrence should the targeted therapy stop working (typically patients experience about 12-18 months of results with the Braftovi/Mektovi).  They will biopsy what they remove and, based on what they find, my oncology team will recommend next steps.  This could include more targeted therapy, radiation or even stopping treatment entirely if they find only dead cancer cells among the lymph nodes (which would be so amazing)!  

Surgery is this coming Monday morning and I expect 1-2 nights in the hospital, followed by 4-6 weeks of "taking it easy".  My surgeon says the surgery is similar to a caesarean, which I have experienced twice, thanks to my first two darling children, so I'm not too concerned. 

As we lead into this wonderful season of thankfulness, I consider myself super blessed.  I have been living with melanoma as my companion for over 5 years and though the road hasn't been easy, I'm grateful for so many blessings along the way.  Thanks to all of you for your prayers and support through my journey.  I am thanking God for all of you today!

Praise God for:

• Being off all pain relief and anti-nausea medications currently.
• Excellent targeted therapy results.
• Celebrating my Dad's 90th birthday with family in August.
• My wonderful husband and family, who patiently care for me when I'm needy!

Pray for:

• The surgery team on Monday.
• If it is God's will, that the biopsy will show only dead cancer cells.
• The oncology team to have wisdom on next treatment steps.
• Maintaining good iron levels.
• If it's God's will, that He would eradicate every cancer cell with this surgery and treatment.
• God to be glorified in my life.