hello all. I’m very happy to be here, thank you for allowing me to join you. I was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma one year ago. It began with a malignant skin melanoma on my back which was surgically removed 8 years ago. Nothing was ever discussed, explained or suggested regarding any sort of follow up care. I’ll try to make this as short as possible. Last year I discovered a baseball-sized lump in my right armpit. I was started on immunotherapy with keytruda annd after 3 months the tumor had increased in size. I underwent surgery at Mayo Clinic and the surgeon was able to remove ALL the cancer. Unfortunately there was an entire year of problems to include a second surgery for infected foreign body at drainage-tube site, wound vacs and repeated trips to hospital which is a 2-hour drive from my home. It was a mess but I got through it all and on the day that was to be my last appointment with the surgeon, I asked “by the way, what is this little lump in my neck?”. The look that passed between the surgeon and her assistant was more than I could tolerate and I broke into hysterical sobbing. Now I’m on my third month of immunotherapy with Opdualag, scheduled for yet another PET scan on January 2 to determine results. I procrastinated joining this group for the last month because I had pretty much given up. I am a 69-year-old single woman with basically nothing to live for and I’m very tired of this illness, my life, the USA…. that’s not the right mind-set to try to heal myself BUT I know I CAN! When I pull myself out of this depression (it happens every now and then) and I start watching and reading about healing, I get excited and want to go for it. I have the faith, the tools and the basic knowledge, I just need to do it and I know that with help, love, understanding and encouragement ~ from people like you ~ I will heal myself and won’t have to leave my precious dogs homeless, which is my biggest fear and regret. After that, there’s no telling how many people I can help. Thank you for being :-)
Hi Nanners and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
I too was diagnosed with melanoma 8 years ago, although mine was on my arm not my back, and I found joining the melanoma group really helpful so I'd like to suggest that you do too.
To join, just click on the link I've created and, once you've joined, you can start a new post in the same way as you did here and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'.
To save you typing all this out again you could copy and paste it into a new post. Alternatively I can ask admin to move your post into the melanoma group for you.
Thanks very much for completing your profile as it's really helpful when people are replying to you and it saves you having to continually repeat yourself.
As this is a UK site, you may find some of the treatments and protocols for melanoma different but what you won't find any different is the empathy and support you'll get from other melanoma patients.
I'll keep an eye out for you in the melanoma group.
Anne
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
Hi Nanners
Your profile is in completely the right place so there's no need to move anything.
As regards to connecting with a member called 'Radical Remission', I've done a search for someone with that username but with no success I'm afraid.
I'm glad that you're feeling better for joining the community. You'll find us all very friendly and willing to try and help when we can.
((hugs))
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
