Nodular Melanoma was never in my vocabulary until February two years ago. After being diagnosed and jumping through numerous hoops, I was rushed into surgery within the week.  After the surgery I was reassured that they had successfully removed all of the cancer from my body. When I was sent from my doctor to the dermatologist in the very beginning to investigate the suspicious mole, the man was a thirty year veteran close to retirement.  A specialist in dermatology. He looked at the spot on my back and without hesitation he informed my wife Brandie and I, point blank that " This is the shit that kills people ". Then continued to say " it may be two weeks or two years but this will kill you ". . .That has stuck with me since that afternoon. Well two years to the month those words reverberate through my entire soul.
I was taking a hot bath a few weeks ago and found a lump in my left arm pit roughly the size of a tennis ball. A weeks worth of tests have now shown that it has metastasized into my organs. It had been  hiding in my lymph node system. Further testing has shown that it has taken over two thirds of my liver, and most of my spleen. It has also entered the bone in my lower left leg, along with another tumor the size of a Plum on my lower right back making movement uncomfortable. Now a new growth on the back of my right arm has started to grow and is already approximately the size of a walnut. It seems I'm starting to fill up fast. Doctors are hoping to extend my life from six months to a year with a new chemotherapy drug Opdivo which was released to the market mere months ago. Hardest on myself is not the prospect of me passing away, but rather that I'm leaving behind my Wife Brandie, Daughter's Ashley and Tori and son Trevor, my parents, two brothers and a wonderful sister in law. Not to mention hundreds of people I've been honored to call friends for many years.  My beloved dogs who have always been by my side no questions asked, as have my wonderful family. I'm writing this through uncontrollable tears at the thought of leaving them behind, nothing is harder on me than seeing the dispair and sorrow in their eyes, knowing I'm not able to leave much more  than medical medical Bills  that seem to compound daily.
Thank you everyone for your prayers and donations. I love you all
   Travis Wick and Family