Cancer Hits Home

We received the news this week. My Dad has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of stage 2 melanoma (skin cancer).

You may think "oh, just skin cancer" but this is very serious. He had a spot show up on the back of his left arm that just recently popped up. It was right out of his reach, and he hadn’t noticed it. I was home for a visit with the kids, and saw it and said something like, “That bump looks bad Dad...” It had gone unnoticed until then. Little did I know what it would actually be. They removed the initial mole and sent it to pathology for testing "just in case". Thank goodness they did that! He is scheduled for a radioactive injection Wednesday, followed by surgery. The radiation will help doctors detect and trace out the cancerous roots that come off of this melanoma. Hopefully, they won’t find any of these “arms” or “roots” that can spread this aggressive cancer around his body. The surgery will be to remove a bigger section of skin where the mole was (about a 3 x 4 inch square), a few lymph nodes for testing, and any other roots & infected nodes they may find during the radioactive injection. I ask that you please keep Jon Allen in your prayers and thoughts this week.

Please pray specifically that no lymph nodes are infected, that they get all of the infected tissue with the surgery, and that no form of further treatment is necessary. Please pray for safety during the surgery, and ultimate healing. We are all confident that it was caught soon enough, and hope that this will all end next week during surgery. I will keep everyone posted. Thanks for your prayers and support!

(My Dad and Tobin in Spring 2007)