Exactly one year ago today, I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma under my thumbnail on July 21, 2021.  For those of you who have been following my cancer journey, you know that my life changed suddenly at that time. Three weeks ago, I completed my 10^th and FINAL infusion of a drug named Keytruda, marking a full year of chemoimmunotherapy.

This week, I have again reflected on the past year, and it seems almost surreal the course of my life over the past year. It is completely and transparently chronicled in my previous blogs, all of which are available on this website. As most of you know who have been following my journey, it all began with a pigmented spot under my thumbnail of my dominant right hand. Exactly 365 days ago on this date, I received a phone call while I was in the operating room performing procedures on my own patients. The call revealed to me the pathology to be acral subungual malignant melanoma.

The following days, weeks, and months were a blur of imaging studies, doctor visits, surgery, and IV infusions. In addition, there were major life decisions and rebalancing of my life. I underwent surgery on August 4, 2021, an amputation of half of my dominant right-hand thumb along with a sentinel node biopsy in my axilla. Then I started the Keytruda infusions. I battled the fatigue that goes along with chemoimmunotherapy. Over time, the process becomes more burdensome in many ways. An example of such is the simple (or not so simple) process of finding veins for the infusions because my arms developed so much scarring from all the IVs. Along the way, I survived a terrible bicycle wreck that put me in the Trauma Unit at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

In addition, I retrained my hands to be able to perform surgery, and my patient population was so supportive. I get emotional thinking about the patients for whom I have cared over the years. For many years, I remember how I revealed various diagnoses to them; how I walked with them through valleys and mountaintops; how I was a part of helping many head and neck cancer patients achieve victory over their cancer; and how I have laughed, hugged, and prayed over them. And I cannot express how supportive they have been to me, now returning the favor. Many patients follow this blog, and I have been hugged and prayed over too numerous times to count in my clinic since my diagnosis. The physician-patient relationship was transformed and deepened in many circumstances. It has been an interesting period of my life, in which I am a patient for a few days, then I regroup and become a physician again for a short time, and then repeat the process.

I cannot begin to express my love and gratitude for all my family and friends who continue to support me and Kellee. My immediate family and extended family have been there all the way. To Kellee, Alex, Brad, Gray, Molly, Bradley, Jack, and soon to be Caroline…. my love for you has given me the strength to battle every day. I cannot thank enough my Brook Hollow Baptist Church family, Pastor Tom Gholson, and Pastor Jack Foster for the spiritual support. And many thanks to The Heimerdinger Foundation for the all the healthy immune boosting meals, and of course to Sally Bars for making my favorite post infusion meal every time (best chicken parmesan around!) I want to thank my work family, my physician partners and my medical staff, all of whom really are like family to me. Finally, I express sincere gratitude for all the physicians, nurses, and support staff who have been a part of my stellar healthcare team!

Now for the good news, my whole-body imaging studies at the one-year mark revealed no evidence of recurrent disease or any evidence of metastatic melanoma. For now, I am clear! Praise God! And I promised Him that if He restored me to health that I would do my best to honor Him in every word, every thought, and every deed. I am human, but I continue to strive to keep that promise.

I feel extremely grateful. I am going to try to regain strength (takes a few months for Keytruda to completely leave the system).  I will play some golf with my Dad, finally get to travel a little bit with Kellee, spend some time on the farm (picture below is worth a thousand words), and hopefully wet a line soon. And of course, I will keep taking care of patients, keep being thankful, and keep praying for those in need. I have felt your prayers and will return the favor!

I have repeat labs and whole-body imaging again in 3 months.

I am a surgeon who was diagnosed with malignant melanoma under my thumbnail on July 21, 2021. For those of you who have been following my cancer journey, you know that my life changed suddenly at that time. This past week I completed my 10^th and FINAL infusion of a drug named Keytruda, marking almost a full year of therapy. I would like to share a synopsis of my journey over the past year.

This week, as I have reflected, it seems almost surreal the course of my life over the past year. It is completely and transparently chronicled in my previous blogs, all of which are available in this website. As most of you know, it all began with a pigmented spot under my thumbnail of my dominant right hand, for which I sought medical treatment and for which an initial biopsy was found to be benign. But after several years of non-healing and seeking medical care, I decided, as an ENT surgeon, to biopsy my own finger on July 16, 2021. This process was described in my very first blog. The pathology was revealed to be acral subungual malignant melanoma. I was notified of my diagnosis on July 21, 2021, between cases on a day I was operating.

The following days, weeks, and months were a blur of imaging studies, doctor visits, surgery, and IV infusions. In addition, there were major life decisions and rebalancing of my life.  Finally, there was a lot of soul searching and search for truth, as I was facing the worst form of melanoma (acral) that had grown very deep, and potentially with a grim and terminal prognosis.

The ensuing days brought some great news as all my imaging studies came back free of obvious spread of metastatic disease. Prayers continued to be answered. I was scheduled for surgery on August 4, 2021, underwent amputation of half of my dominant right-hand thumb along with a sentinel node biopsy, which revealed my sentinel lymph node to be clear, another answered prayer, with an interesting reveal of that path which is explained in my blog dated September 30, 2021.

Personally, my wife Kellee has been such a rock for me through this whole process. Words cannot describe her strength, support, faith, and unconditional love for me. We made some major life decisions to sell our house, downsize to a smaller home, rebalance our financial picture, reconnect with our family and friends, and focus more on heavenly things, not knowing what my future might be. WOW! What a sense of joy and peace entered our lives.

My journey included the process of retraining my hands as a surgeon, and relearning surgical skills, allowing me the awesome privilege of returning to the operating room, to allow my hands to heal others. It also included revisiting a healthier lifestyle as it relates to diet and exercise, some of which I have shared and more to come. I continued to try to exercise as much as possible to combat the side effect of fatigue from the Keytruda, complicated by a terrible road bicycle wreck. I was admitted to a Trauma ward for multiple broken ribs, a collapsed lung requiring a chest tube, bilateral pulmonary contusions, and a mediastinal hemorrhage!

My Last Infusion:

I described my first IV infusion in the blog dated October 31, 2021. I mentioned how a wonderful nurse named Melissa showed such compassionate care for me and Kellee. She sensed our anxiety and fear, realizing the emotional toil we experienced from not knowing my medical prognosis, not knowing whether my surgical career would be impacted, and not knowing our financial future. She prayed over us at a time that we really needed it. Both Kellee and I have been more aware of providential moments that maybe we did not recognize in the past. We really felt Melissa was sent to us from God above at a time when we needed it. At the infusion clinic, we usually have different nurses assigned to infuse my chemotherapy based on many factors, usually nurse availability. They are not pre-assigned. Well, this week, at my 10^th and final infusion, guess who was assigned to administer my IV infusion of Keytruda…Melissa! Sometimes God winks at us if we only would stop long enough to realize it!

So here I am, almost a year later! I feel somewhat awkward writing about myself and wondered if anyone at all would even have the least bit of interest in reading it. Upon receiving my diagnosis, I was immediately out of the office for a couple of months, and my patients were informed that I was on “medical leave.” After 24 years of having a physician-patient relationship with many of them and their families, they really cared to know what was going on; therefore, I decided to be completely transparent and basically make my journal public in the form of this blog.  I was just a personal decision, and debatable as to whether it was smart professionally.  I decided that if I could give peace and comfort to one patient it would be worth it. To date I have been overwhelmed by the responses of my readers. Collectively, my blogs have been read almost 10,000 times by several thousand readers all over the globe.

I cannot begin to express my love and gratitude for all my family and friends who continue to support me and Kellee. There are way too many to mention, and you know who you are. As a Christian, I believe in God, and a life in heaven after this worldly life. I believe that all one must do is to accept Jesus Christ as the One who atones for all our past sin, with the immediate gift of salvation (justification). However, sanctification is a process of becoming more Christ-like over time. This past year has not caused me to question, but has actually further affirmed my Christian world view. It has effected in me a more profound, deep process of sanctification. May God bless you all!

I have my one-year whole body scans this coming Friday and will let you know!