Something Good Coming

Back in the Dark Ages of melanoma treatment, 2003 to be exact, I had a close encounter with a Stage IV diagnosis. A CT scan showed a large mass next to my cervical spine. The initial prognosis was quite grim, as further metastasis to my spine, brain and heart was likely. I was told that the only treatment options available at the time, radiation and chemotherapy, might extend my life a few months but would not commute my almost certain death sentence. Lucky for me, and against all odds, the mass turned out to be a benign nerve tissue tumor, not a melanoma tumor. It’s been one troublesome sonofabitch requiring extensive neurosurgery and radiation treatments (and permanent nerve damage has wreaked havoc on a golf swing that was never pretty) but it isn’t a killer.

The state of metastatic melanoma treatment has so very, very much changed for the better since 2003. Today there is real and thoroughly rational hope for long term survival after a Stage IV diagnosis. And I have to believe that we’re nowhere near done with treatment advances and there is something good coming to The Hotel Melanoma. Soon, very soon.

Thinking of my friend Donna today, I’ll sign off with my take on “Something Good Coming” from Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers…



I'm watching the bloggers
Watching the posts
Suddenly I know
What I want the most

And I want to tell you
Still I hold Black
I need some time
Get my life on track

I know that look on your face
But there's somethin' plucky about this place
And there's somethin' good comin'
For you and me
Somethin' good comin'
There has to be

And I'm thinking 'bout Donna
And about her kids
And the way she lived
And the things she did

How she never had a chance
Never caught a break
And how we pay for our skin mistakes

I know so well the look on your face
And there's somethin' plucky about this place
There's somethin' good comin'
Just over the hill
Somethin' good comin'
I know it will

And I'm in for the long run
Wherever it goes
Ridin' the river
Wherever it goes

And I'm an earnest man
Hope’s all I know
You take that away
Don't know where to go

And I know that look that's on your face
There's somethin' plucky about this place
There's somethin' good comin'
For you and me
Somethin' good comin'
There has to be

A Blogoversary Oldie

I’ve been quite the blogging slacker of late, but I’ve been aroused today from my winter torpor because it’s the 6th anniversary of the ‘grand’ opening of The Hotel Melanoma. I often wonder (while my chemo-soaked brain wanders) just why it is that I keep doing this. I guess I do it because I just ‘love’ the Black Beast and every so often (like this past January) I’m reminded by some vigilant medic that I can’t ever breakup with her. And because I feel obliged to continue to stand up and be counted among the ranks of the very lucky, long term survivors of a complicated relationship with this b***h.

Hoping and praying that the next six years is even better for treatment advances than the last six, I’ll sign off with a little ‘love’ song to our adversary. To the tune of “Let’s Hang On” from Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons…



There ain't no could in our goodbyein'
New drugs take a lot of tryin'
Oh, my fryin’…

Let's hang up on what we've got
Just let go, girl, we've fought a lot
Got a lot of ‘love’ between us
Hang up, hang up, hang up on what we've got

You say you're gonna go and call it quits
Gonna chuck it all and break our ‘love’ to bits
Break it up (I wish you'd ever said it)
Break it up (oh yo, I’ll not regret it)
That little blip of shining on old scans
Cost a fortune, baby
But you know it stands for the ‘love’, (a love to tie and bind ya)
Such a ‘love’ (we just can't leave behind us)

Baby (don't you know?)
Baby (won't you go)
Think it over and stray

Let's hang up on what we've got
Just let go, girl, we've fought a lot
Got a lot of ‘love’ between us
Hang up, hang up, hang up on what we've got

There isn't anything I wouldn't do
I'd pay any price to get all good from you
Pack it up (give me a second learnin')
Pack it up (don't fuel spots while I'm burnin')

You've got me cryin', dyin' at your door
Just shut me out, ooh, let me out once more
Open up (your arms, I need paroled new)
Open up (your heart, oh girl, I drugged you)

Baby, don't you know?
Baby, no, no, no
Think it over and stray

Let's hang up on what we've got
Won't let go, girl, we've fought a lot
Got a lot of ‘love’ between us
Hang up, hang up, hang up on what we've got