I just got this in my inbox today.  When I first started going into the infusion center in Davis, I met Melanie.  She was upbeat and friendly, and I had plans to stay in touch with her, but I really never did.  In fact when I was in there getting my infusions, I kind of hoped that she wouldn't show up, because she was always talking about these crazy treatments, and it was just so hard.  Anyway, I feel horrible about not putting more effort into the friendship.  I'm sitting here in the coffee shop with tears streaming down my face like an idiot.

Hi Mandi,

   I hope that you don't think this is weird.  I don't know you but Melanie would speak of you and the struggles that you both were enduring.  I thought that you should know and maybe you do already, that Melanie passed away on February 21st.  She was such a fighter.  The cancer had spread to her brain in December.  She had radiation for 2 weeks and had to be off chemo for that time.  After completing radiation, she had a scan that showed her lung tumors had grown larger, with one measuring 9 cm.  Melanie went back on chemo but it had little effect.  She began to have pain in her lower back from the cancer in her spine which we couldn't control very well with pills.  Her doctor decided that we needed to just keep her comfortable and took her off chemo.  She was put on a morphine drip in early February which gave her the ability to somewhat control the pain.  Over a period of a couple of weeks we had to keep increasing the dose to keep her comfortable.  At 6:35 am on Saturday morning she took her final breath on this earth. 

   We had a beautiful Memorial service for Melanie on Saturday, March 7th.   The kids are doing as well as can be expected.  I will miss her.  She was my best friend.

   Thank you for your friendship and support.

Take care of yourself,

Kevin Gibbs