Bald brothers.

June 2006

In Spring 2006 Dan felt pretty well and showed his incredible resolve by participating in a local 5k run while undergoing drug treatments for Melanoma. By summer, that drug therapy was determined to have been unsuccessful and Dan was preparing to start on a promising treatment that had extreme side affects including hospitalization for long periods. As part of the prep procedure for this treatment, called IL2, Dan mentioned to the nurse that he had just recently been having some headaches. They ran a test and found that the cancer had spread to Dan’s brain. This was a serious development as it prevented that clinical trial but more importantly, it put Dan’s life immediately at risk. A course of radiation treatment was needed to clear the brain of cancer before he could continue on another treatment to eliminate the cancer from the rest of his body.

Through all of these treatments, tests and appointments, Dan had continued his work with Accenture. The radiation and his growing list of medications finally forced Dan to stop working at the beginning of July. Another change came in the form of his shaved head which he and his brother Jamie (as a sign of support) had done in a pre-emptive move against the pending hair loss from the radiation. For the first time, Dan started to show hints to the casual observer that he might be fighting cancer.