Good Evening All,
In Jan 2018 had a small acne looking lump behind my ear. I went to see my GP, who said it was nothing to worry about, it’s probably a cyst. He gave me a course of antibiotics. A month later I went back and asked the GP to investigate it, but he refused, he again said it’s nothing to worry about.
In March I went to my regular check up for a pre-existing condition. I showed it to the professor. She straightaway said, let’s check this out to be on the safe side.
Within 2 weeks I had a biopsy and a week later I was told that the little lump behind my ear was a melanoma.
Two weeks later I had a surgery. They removed a big chunk of skin and I had to have skin graft to cover the area. This time I was lucky not having to have any other treatments.
The next two years went without any issues, my PET scans came back clear....
Then in Jul my latest PET showed 2 shades on my lungs. My professor said, let’s repeat the scan in 3 months time and see if it disappears.
In October I had the scan again and the shades were still there, so he ordered a lung biopsy.
I had the biopsy in the middle of November, ended up with a pneumothorax. Anyhow I recovered well from it.
After 4 weeks of worrying I had my results of by biopsy on Thursday last week. The shades on my lungs were melanoma....I have been diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic melanoma.
I will start my treatment of immunotherapy this week or next week.
I am completely lost, don’t know what to do, what to think....
Thank you for reading my story x
Hi and a very warm welcome to the online community
I'm very sorry to read that you've recently discovered that your melanoma has spread to your lungs. It must be a very difficult time for you but you've come to the right place. I was diagnosed with melanoma almost exactly 4 years ago so I do understand how frightening the situation can be.
As the community is divided up into different groups, I'm going to recommend that you come and join us in the very friendly melanoma group where you can ask questions, share experiences and get support. There are quite a few people there who are having immunotherapy who should be able to answer questions based on their experiences.
To join just click on the link I've created and then choose 'click to join' or 'join' (depending on the device you're using) on the page that opens. You can then introduce yourself and post questions in the same way as you did here and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'. To save you typing this out just copy and paste it into a new post there.
When you have a minute, it would be really useful if you could pop something about your journey so far into your profile as it really helps others when answering or looking for someone with a similar diagnosis. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.
If you need any help finding your way around the community just give me a shout.
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
I can quite understand the shock that you're feeling and it will take a while before you come to terms with your diagnosis. Most people's recommendation is to just concentrate on now and the treatment you're having rather than to try and second guess what may or may not happen in the future.
I can see that you've joined the group and posted and I'll keep an eye out to see if anyone replies. If not, I'll 'tag' a few people who I know are having, or have had, immunotherapy so that they can tell you how they're getting on.
x
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
