The day, during his first three-month PET scan, that doctors discovered an aortic aneurysm. A second, more severe TIA in Amarillo, and the doctors recommending he stop the treatments (“I REFUSED!” Jerry says). His first transient ischemic attack (TIA, or mini-stroke. Then came the first of what would be 10 years of PET (positron emission tomography) scans, which create images to show the possible spread of cancer cells – “At that point it was like ‘why aren’t I glowing now?’” says Jerry – and one year of grueling interferon treatments. “But I didn’t really understand it at that time.” This time, “they had cut from the top of my ear all the way to the bottom of my throat,” Jerry says, “and (they) removed 40 lymph nodes.” My wife suggested I switch doctors.”ĭay surgery seemed to correct the problem – “you couldn’t even tell (anything had happened) when it healed,” Jerry says – until the biopsy results returned.Ī doctor in Amarillo did not hesitate to refer Jerry to Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. “And it bled and bled and it wouldn’t stop. “I hit my ear with my finger,” Jerry says. Jerry was driving to Laredo, Texas with Mary, a medical technologist who would soon be his wife (and who plays no small part in this story she is still by his side today). It’s a perfect place to get shot I guess.”ĭalton’s battle with melanoma began in September 1999, shortly after his doctor had removed a mole from his left ear. “It’s just not so fortunate when you fall.” He also reports that he is numb from his face all the way down into his chest.

Nerve damage prevents Jerry from lifting his left arm above his head “fortunately, I’m right handed,” he says. Or swimming, depends on my balance that day.” That turned out to be a reference to what can happen when you combine the effects of long-term melanoma treatment with the effects of standing in a small, tippy boat. In an early communication about his schedule he informed us that “I will be fishing.

We met Jerry Dalton: survivor.Īnd this tough jokester known as Monopoly Man (so named by prison inmates when his mustache grew back white and bushy like the character on the Parker Brothers game) is still very much alive. Or Dalton the outdoorsman, the avid fisherman, or the deceptively tough jokester who worked for the maximum-security George Beto Unit in the Texas prison system, the guy who “could always handle what was going on.”īut really, we did. We thought that we wouldn’t get to meet Jerry Dalton, the certified rescue diver. This week: the terrifying, ongoing journey of Jerry Dalton. Note: Throughout May, Coolibar highlights melanoma survivors to call awareness to the dangers of melanoma.

Monopoly guy