MRF Blog: Patient Stories
Showing 1 to 5 of 8 in order of most recently published.
December 19, 2011 | Comments ()
The holidays can be challenging in many ways, and particularly when the previous year has brought the death of a loved one. Often, when someone dies of melanoma, the family elects to have donations made to MRF in that person’s memory. I am always moved by these decisions, that in the middle of a tragic event the people most affected by loss choose to use that event to help other people.
These memorial donations are critically important to our ability to fund research into more effective treatments. In essence, hope for current and future patients is often driven...
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November 22, 2011 | Comments ()
His wife died of melanoma a few months ago and he was talking about hope.
I can’t claim to have known her well, but in my own encounters with her and by all accounts, she was a remarkable human being. She was highly respected at work, a close friend to many, a loving wife and a doting mother of two young children.
When she was diagnosed several years ago, the picture was not pretty. The average patient with Stage IV melanoma lives a few months—most often less than a year. But she defied the odds. The standard treatments bought her some time. ...
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August 9, 2011 | Comments (2)
Over the years I have had the privilege to know many, many people fighting cancer. Young and old, male and female. We tend to think cancer ennobles someone—makes them more than they were, somehow heroic simply by virtue of their suffering. That is not the reality, though. Cancer patients are just like you and me. They may be full of hope or be mad as hell at their situation. They are ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances, and doing so the very best they can.
A few things link patients, though. Part of it starts at...
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August 2, 2011 | Comments ()
What does a melanoma patient look like? She looks like Diane, who posts on MPIP.org as “Dian in Spokane.” Diane was first diagnosed years ago, and fought her melanoma with a vengeance. She lived disease free for years, but has since had an recurrence. But melanoma is what Diane has, it is not what she is.
Seems like every step of Diane’s journey she breaks the mold. Diane is a musician who plays Old Fashioned music (think a precursor to bluegrass). She lives with her husband in the Pacific Northwest and travels from show to show,...
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May 14, 2011 | Comments ()
Today’s melanoma symposium in Seattle featured a panel of patients telling their stories. Some have been fighting melanoma for years. One was recently diagnosed. They spoke of their treatments - surgeries, radiation, various drugs – and their side effects.
I asked them about scan anxiety. All cancer patients have to be scanned to mark the progression of disease. And when there is no evidence of disease, they still have to be scanned on a regular basis to see if their cancer has returned. Melanoma is notorious for coming back,...
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