My sister was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma in December 2022 after having what she was told was a cyst removed from her neck but was actually metastatic melanoma. It was named stage 4 as was a bit in her lung and her thigh but brain scan was clear.. She started immunotherapy which she had a few side effects such as colitis and had to be put on steroids but then carried on with treatment which has been working and the bit in her thigh has gone and in the lung reduced.
It was her birthday on Monday (43) and she was all happy and fine, the day after she had headache and was vomiting and was taken to A&E where she had a CT scan and a MRI which showed multiple lesions on the brain and multiple small bleeds on the brain. She’s very weak and tired now.
I am devastated for her and very scared. She has twin teenage girls age 13 and when diagnosed she said she’d be happy with 10 years as teenage girls need their mum and now this happened so quickly out of no where and I’m wondering when it gets to this point what can be done? She has been so well you wouldn’t even know she had cancer and now this.
what is the prognosis for someone with multiple lesions and is there treatment available? Does anyone have experience of similar?
Hi Lovemysis
Welcome to our community hopefully you will find it a very supportive family as you go forward. I noted your post had not had any replies yet and while my experience is with my wife and a very different form of cancer by replying I will push your post back to the top of the list here.
My wife never wanted a prognosis and I really struggled with that at first. One thing though in our many years here is I came to realise that at best they end up being an educated guess and I have seen many outlive a prognosis, some who it almost seemed to be dying to order and some where people died earlier than expected.
From what I understand of melanoma the modern targeted treatments are much more effective but of course this in turn means that the statistics on survival are less reliable.
We have some good advice on talking to children and teenages here, we also found it very helpful to include our son's school because then he got the same answers from all his trusted adults.
The one last thing - how a you feeling? When I look at your feelings when someone has cancer I know how many boxes I ticked. I ended up doing a living with less stress course that really helped me and in turn that means I am better able to support Janice.
Hope some of that helps, it can be a really difficult journey but if we can support each other it can be a little bit easier.
<<hugs>>
Steve
