Immunotherapy is confirmed for Tuesday.
That’s about as quickly as they could have started it given everything that’s happened over the last few weeks — the Gamma Knife, the seizure, the steroid reduction — and the fact that it’s happening this fast feels like a genuine win.
The plan is a double dose — nivolumab and ipilimumab together. The reason for the double dose, I’m told, is that I’m young enough and fit enough to handle it. I’ll take that. 
It will be administered via a drip over 60 to 90 minutes, every three weeks, for 12 weeks in total. After that, scans to see how things have progressed — or more accurately, how much things have shrunk.
There are potential side effects — quite a list of them if you read the full paperwork — but the most common experience is fatigue and flu-like symptoms. Most people get through it without anything more serious than that, and that’s what I’m hoping for.
The honest truth is I’ve been waiting for this moment since the diagnosis. The Gamma Knife dealt with the brain lesions. Now the immunotherapy goes after everything else — systematically, throughout the whole body, teaching my immune system to recognise and fight the melanoma.
Modern medicine is remarkable. And Tuesday can’t come soon enough
