Shallow Hal

Other than the massive swelling, recovery has been pretty swell.

The doctor is pleased with the surgery results and life at home has been pretty blase. At least for me, but then again, I don't play Black Ops.

Smiles

Well, Mark no longer has to watch Sweet Home Alabama and Maid in Manhattan at the hospital anymore because HE IS HOME!!

The physical therapists told him that they would be there around 10am yesterday, so when they showed up around 4pm, he was not in the happiest of moods. But for all that is good and holy, he was able to walk! And go home! Now, I wasn't there to witness all of this (because I am an important corporate woman) but I guess when he and his parents drove up to the apartment, it started hailing. Well Mark would not sit in the car for one more minute and walked up our 6 stairs with a cane in the Chicago wind and hail!

So, what happened in the surgery? 12 lymph nodes were removed plus a muscle in his inner thigh where most of the nodes lived. Then, a separate muscle attached to his hip was moved to cover the area that the other muscle was, so that his femoral artery was not exposed. So basically, he has a muscle in a different spot than it was before, and 12 lymph nodes went bye bye. He has a couple of drains in his leg to decrease the swelling, and cannot do anything with his leg that will use the new muscle. ALTHOUGH, I nosely stumbled upon the papers they gave him when he was released, and it gave him a list of things he could do:

Eating - Yes
Showering - Yes
Walking - Yes
Stairs - Yes

Also on the list were:
Shopping - Yes (THANK GOD)
Cleaning/Laundry - Yes!!!!

I made sure to mention something about that to which Mark said "that means I can have someone else DO my laundry."

Oh, did I mention that the biopsy came back from the lymph nodes and there were NO CANCER CELLS IN THEM????????????

Northwestern

Hi All,

Mark will be in the hospital until Thursday night-ish. I've been getting a few questions asking where he is. He's at Northwestern in room 1209.

He's pretty drugged up, but still cracking jokes!

6:26

Mark is out of surgery and we are waiting on him to get out of recovery and into his hospital room. Sounds like the surgery went well though! Wake up Mark!!!

#21

Looky there at patient number 21. That's our boy.

Lynn, Deb and I all took turns hugging and kissing MM before he went in. When it was my turn in the room with him, the nurse asked what my relationship was to Mark to which I answered "hot girlfriend." It's always best to make medical professionals feel as uncomfortable as possible. The same nurse asked Mark if he needed anything before the surgery and he said "McDonalds?" Sooooo the spirits are high here people!!

I'll give another update once I know more!! MWAH!

Cut him!

Ok, so the title of this blog may sound a little insincere, but it has been the general view from Mark's mom and I since finding out about the C. Get it out, far away, as fast and soon as possible.

So Mark opted for surgery, and the doctor heard our request for AS SOON AS POSSIBLE by scheduling it for this coming Monday. 13 lymph nodes will be removed, mostly in the upper left part of his leg (quad). Just typing these words is making me woozy. He will be in the comfort of the hospital for 4 days before coming home. Then he will pretty much be like a mother giving birth to quadruplets for the next couple of weeks. And by that I mean he will be on bed rest.

Moral of the story is that when you are all going to work on Monday, thinking how dreadful it is going to be, keep your chin up. We all have to do things that we don't want to do. But we sure as hockey sticks get through them!

Sick as a cat.

The new apartment is coming along nicely! Mark has instituted a rule that for every item I buy, I must get rid of something. Such a stickler that one.

Jazzy is so super excited to be in the new pad that she eats her food as fast as possible and throws it up immediately. Today she did it on the bed which was a fun treat!!!!!!!

Surgery is still not scheduled, but will most likely be the second week of November. Immunotherapy to start after he recovers, so probably in January. From what I have gathered, the immunotherapy will make Mark feel pretty crappy. Pretty much like having the flu every day he gets a shot, which for the first couple of months will be every.single.day.

The main win for this apartment is that we can have lots of overnight guests, so lots of people to take turns visiting us from all around the world (we probably can't take too many trips in the near future). A few specific places come to mind: Boston, Little Rock, Cleveland, S.Korea, The Quad Cities, California and many many more.

Book our calendars! Please! I get antsy!!!!

Sigh.Of.Relief.

Hi Friends,

It is a good, good, good day. The C has NOT spread to any other parts of Mark's hot bod. Everyone inhale. Everyone exhale.

This is fantastic news. It is still a rough road ahead, but a road without bulldozers sneaking up on us every second.

There are two options from here: Surgery on existing lymph nodes (soon), or monitoring lymph nodes every month and then a 50% chance of the same surgery. Also included in the upcoming months is immunotherapy. Once you have read up on immunotherapy and understand what it is, please get back to me with laymen details. I fell asleep reading the wikipedia article last night. Actually, what I know is that it builds up the immune system and will hopefully push away those C cells.

We are all SO STINKING HAPPY. We also found somewhere to live...minor details.

Meow?

Hey All,

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all so so much for your texts, calls, offers to drive us around and just general positive thoughts.

This past weekend was FANTASTIC. It was amazing to see so many friends and get our brains wrapped around FUN and not FEAR for 4 days.

This week is pretty big. We get the test results back from the MRI and PET Scan. Mark is meeting with the plastic surgeon today to make sure that his zombie skin is healing (which it is, it sincerely looks great). And the next surgery will get scheduled. I have a few more details on the surgery. They will be taking out 13 lymph nodes on the left side of his body. Then testing those all to make sure no cancer cells exist in those. The last lymph nodes that were taken out only had cells in the closest to the tumor area, so I think we're all pretty confident.

Again, thank you thank you thank you. We'll speak again soon.

Pictures

Ok, so that wasn't as hard as I thought. I think I'm going to refrain from posting the skin picture...I'm not sure of the capacity of everyone's stomachs.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Mark! You're 29 today. You get to spend your 29th birthday at the hospital getting poked and prodded. Side note - Mark doesn't read this blog. Just in case you were wondering.

Happy note! We get to go to Arkansas this weekend! Mark got his temporary huge cast off on Monday so he can walk and stand! I almost forgot what he looks like walking and not hopping! Once I can figure out how to upload pictures to this site, I will post one of A. the cast and B. his new zombie skin (that's what he's calling it).

So, Arkansas! Mark is in his friend Zac's wedding this weekend and we were unsure of whether or not we could attend due to the walking/standing. I'm so glad we get to. It will be nice to see his brother and girlfriend, and all of his Arkansas friends. Whoo Pig.

Also on the up, we are going to Fogo De Chao with the Malbrough Family tonight for a yummy birthday dinner. 12 pieces of meat? Why, yes, thank you.

Much love.

Home

Where can we call home? Unfortunately, this is one of our current challenges (besides Mark having C). Mark got his lease extended through October (yay), and I'm still squatting at Blonde (BTK) Kim's pad. I still have no answer to the condo...here was the original plan:

July 14 - Put offer down on short sale for the best place ever (http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/1215-W-Gunnison-St-60640/unit-315/home/25506596).
September 1 - Offer Accepted, Close Date scheduled for Sept 14.
Sept 13 - Lender says "JK your new condo association hasn't provided us with everything we need in order to give you a loan."
Sept 14-Oct 4 - Back and forth bull crap between lawyers, lenders, condo associations etc about two very specific things.

1. There is more than 20% commercial space. I guess in order for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to approve of units like these, the commercial space must be less than this. The part about this that really sucks is that Mark and I went to Fat Cat (one of the commercial spaces) like 10 times trying to like it. The last time we went, we decided that it really does truly suck.

2. The Condo Association is suing the developers of the building because they had to do about 80k of facade work from water damage. I guess this kind of thing happens a lot, but they refuse to provide any paper work, or material regarding the litigation.

So. Here's the problem.

Mark and Kim love Condo so much it hurts.
Mark has surgery around October 18th.
Mark must be out of Apartment by October 31st.
October 18th is 14 days away and it would be ideal if we were moved in by this time.
But moved in to....where?

Thanks for caring everyone. Your prayers and positive thoughts help immensely.

Football, an Excellent Distraction

Greetings and Salutations.

What I've learned from dating a Malbrough is that football is not a game. It is serious, historical and pretty much the most.important.thing.ever. I've never met a family that was as into sports as the Malbrough clan. While we were in the hotel last weekend, we legitimately watched 10 games. LSU, Arkansas, Notre Dame, Saints, Colts, Bears, etc. The weekend before that, mine and Mark's parents finally met! The meeting was under crappy circumstances, but brought together at Game Keepers by the LSU Tigers.

Well, as I said before, Mark has no cable right now (don't worry, getting installed on Monday). This does not bode well for the Malbroughs on Saturdays and Sundays. How can this family root for each and every member of their 12 combined fantasy football teams, plus team favorites in general with such limited access??? The answer is they cannot. We are back in the Embassy Suites of Deerfield. The hotel itself isn't so bad, they have a Gino's east, gym, a pool and sun room and a pimp ottoman used by Mark's splinted leg.

Side Note - The current conversation is about the Florida vs. Alabama game tonight. The family has decided that they would rather a bomb be dropped in the middle of the field than root for either team. I don't get it, but I'm sure it's funny.

We're all in fairly good moods today. I probably am because I'm not at work, the men are because it's football day, and Mom is cause she's just finished her 67th book of the week.

On another note, life isn’t worth living unless you’re willing to take some big chances and go for broke....so let's go for it.

Damn.

When I set Mark up with his initial dermatologist appointment, I had no idea it would turn out this way. Mark has Malignant Melanoma.

The initial mole removal consultation was actually pretty funny. I met Mark at Dr. Memar's office (http://www.adsci.com/) where he scolded me for setting him up with a Doctor that not only had his own specialty store, but a doctor who specializes in botox, body sculpting, and pretty much anything that makes older women pretty. I reassured Mark that he also removed big scary moles. Dr. Memar is quite the character. He makes mad bank, that's for sure, but I can't tell if he's gay, or tapping all of his female assistants. Verdict is still out on that one. I met Dr. Memar a few years ago when I had that cute little nose ring that turned out to be a big ass bump/wart/nasty witch thing due to touching my face too much. I digress. I got it removed, and liked Memar (Kim this story isn't about you).

Dr. Memar scheduled Mark for a mole removal appointment the next week. We waited. I didn't attend the mole removal because, uh, no thanks? Mark informed me later that right when Memar went to cut the little guy off of his leg, Mark said "I'll never be pretty again." Dr. Memar responded with "Don't make me laugh when I've got a scalpel in my hand."

Well, a few weeks go by, and the test results come back. I know either way that Mark is going to tell me he has cancer, even if they came back just fine. It's the way his mind works. Well, he comes to my work building, and tells me he has cancer...and then shows me the papers that confirm it. We cry.

The next two days are a frenzy of setting up oncologist appointments, telling parents, hugging, caring for Jazzy (who decided to eat aloe and go to the kitty ER on the SAME DAY WE FOUND OUT THE RESULTS), and trying to do everything we can to stop thinking about this elephant. The oncologist appointment was set up for the following Friday.

Mark's parents arrived and we were off to Northwestern for our first consultation. We met with Dr. Wayne, MD (obviously an MD). Dr. Wayne is a good guy. After speaking with Mark, he brought us all in to a little room (uh, scary) to go over the details. Mark was staged at IIa, which means, surgery on the leg, and testing lymph nodes. IIa actually means other things but I've been instructed not to google anything so I'm going to leave it at that. Surgery was scheduled for the following Thursday.

Mark's parents who I will now refer to as Mom and Dad, stayed for the surgery. THANK.GOD. The surgery had three parts to it. An incision was made on his upper left thigh, and took out three lymph nodes. These would be tested to see if any cancer cells existed there. Next, a bigger softball size section was taking off of Mark's left leg where the mole lived. Because Mark strong like bull, his skin isn't so stretchy, so another incision of about 12-14 inches was taken on his right groin area, a skin graft is the proper term, and placed by a plastic surgeon on his leg. Mark received a splint and a soft cast, and long instructions of how to care for his incisions and his leg. Basically, keep your leg up all the time, use crutches, and take looooooooooooots of pain meds (hydrocodone for all you drug pushers out there).

While the surgery was happening, Mom and Dad and I decided it would be better to go to a hotel. They would have wi-fi, cable, and an elevator, all of which do not exist at Mark's current apartment. Mark agrees that this is the best option for us so we stop by his apartment to pick up some goodies. Well, what do you know! The power is off! Apparently, with Mark planning on leaving at the end of September, Comed decided to turn the power off! Turns out, the hotel is exactly what we needed for this past weekend.

Mom and dad decide to wait around until the lymph node tests come back. We get Mark back into his apartment which now has power thank GOD (hopping up three flights of stairs on one foot looks tiring by the way) and beg our friends to meet us for a drink at the closest establishment to his apartment. 6 of our wonderful friends show up. It was so good to laugh and joke. It was also so good to have a beer. Mark stopped his pain pills for this very reason :).

Well, test results came back Wednesday. It's not the easy route. Looks like he is a IIIa. Cancer cells were in one of his lymph nodes, which means more surgery at least and possibly chemo. More surgery that will put Mark out for 6-8 weeks. After CTs and MRIs and other tests that basically mean nothing to me, we should know more. These are scheduled for his birthday (Oct 6th).

Mark is strong and we're ready to face this. Bring it bitch. My boyfriend will dominate you and put you in your place. Positive thoughts everyone.

Love,
Kim