The siblings at Rob's wedding.

January 2005

After a whirwind of Internet research, realization set in that there is no known cure for Stage III Melanoma. Dan announced that Pam and Mara provide all the motivation he needs to fight as long and as hard as needed to beat the disease. At this point the hope was that the surgery had captured all of the Melanoma that was loose in his body. However, there was genuine concern that the surgeries did not capture all of the cancer. Dan and his doctors identified a promising drug treatment that could potentially prevent the natural progression of the disease which, in time works its way through the body to other remote locations.

Dan's first drug treatment was called Interferon. Patients usually are able to endure Interferon treatments for a few weeks before the severe side affects force the patient to drop the treatment. Dan provided an early indicator to the melanoma in his body that he is not to be taken lightly, he not only continued his Interferon treatment for an entire year, but he also continued to work full-time at Accenture through side affects that would keep most of us in bed and some of us in the hospital. Dan lost 50 pounds but retained his confidence and joked that he was about 30 pounds over weight anyway.

Doctors ran some tests after a few months that seemed to show no spread of the disease. After a year of the Interferon, another battery of tests were run. These tests showed that after suffering for a a full year on Interferon, the cancer had spread to two small spots on Dan's lungs. Dan had reached Melanoma Stage IV.