Hi- I’m new to this group. In May my husband had some unusual headaches - he is normally so fit and well. Anyhow we ended up at A and E as we weren’t really getting anywhere with his GP and I was worried. They nearly turned us away too but we finally got past the triage GP and saw the A and E doctor who was also concerned and did a CT scan. This revealed multiple Stage 4 brain mets. My husband was cancer of unknown primary for a couple of months as his scans were all clear, but melanoma was suspected - this was confirmed following a biopsy of a lymph node on his small bowel last month which was picked up by a PET scan. They also did ctDNA testing which confirmed he is BRAF positive. My husband can’t have immunotherapy just yet as he needs steroids to control so is on targeted treatment - we are just so grateful he was able to get some treatment and hope this works so that he can access immunotherapy in the future. My husband is desperate for a holiday and we had booked a dream trip to Thailand we’d been saving for ages for, as our daughter finished her GSCEs - we should have flown there yesterday but had to cancel it all. Luckily we had travel insurance and I was able to cancel a lot of the things we had booked. He still wants to go away - somewhere nearer but wants to fly - I’m really worried about this but thinking by October half term the targeted treatment might have shrunk these mets and it could be okay to fly. At the moment he has very tired legs from the treatment and dexamethasone which has impacted his muscles. He is now down to 2mg dexamethasone a day. Has anyone done this with brain mets? We can ask his oncologist but they may just say no to avoid risk - I’m not sure. I want him to have a holiday and I know we could go away in this country but he wants to feel warm water etc. could we even get travel insurance? Does anyone know?
Hi Janie12315bdc6 and a very warm welcome to the group which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
I know how great a holiday in a warm climate can make you feel so I do hope you are able to go.
I can't answer your question about whether it's okay for your husband to fly and the best person to ask would be your husband's oncologist. They won't say no just to cover themselves and lots of people with cancer do have holidays abroad. It may be that an insurance company will need to see proof that he's been given the okay to fly so you'd need to ask anyway..
As for getting travel insurance, can I suggest that you join the travel insurance group where you'll find lots of recommendations for travel insurers to try.
To join, just click on the link I've created and, once you've joined have a look through the threads there called 'Recommended Travel Insurance' and Recommended travel insurance 2023-24', which you'll find on the first page. They are full of recommendations from other cancer patients who have got travel insurance.
It would be great if you could put something about your husband's diagnosis and treatment into your profile as it really helps others when replying to you and also when looking for someone on a similar pathway. 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.
Anne
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
Hi, i had 20 brain tumours (and many others from my head down to my knees) and checked for travel insurance when first diagnosed and could only get for 1 year, and was £8649!!!! with a specialist company. Cheed again after my first PET and MRI and had very good results where tumours all reduced in size and went down to around £800 for the year. It's gone back up again now as I got more tumours. I have a friend in a somewhat similar situation to me and her consultant advised that if you can, book a last minute holiday after you've had some positive scans, but appreciate that may not be so easy for you as you mention you have a child. I think being able to fly with brain tumours an also very much depend on size, location and your own individual circumstance and maybe even how long the flight is, so I guess best to check with consultant. Good Luck and hope you all get away together 
Thank you 
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