Hi everyone
My best friend was recently diagnosed with recurrent melanoma. She had skin cancer 10 years ago which after a misdiagnosis from her GP resulted in it spreading to her lymph nodes. She had 6 lymph nodes removed from her thigh.
This year, she felt a lump in her stomach which turned out to be Stage 4 recurrent melanoma. PET and MRI scans showed it was also in her brain, lungs and pelvis - albeit only small deposits. She had cyber knifing on her brain which was successful. However the scan she had before the cyber knifing showed the cancer was fast moving so she was put on cancer growth inhibitor pills to slow down the growth. After 3 months, she had a scan which showed that the cancer was reduced in almost every area and her oncologists agreed that she would start combined immunotherapy. She had a 10 day break between coming off the pills and her first immuno treatment this week. However, her headaches had returned at the end of last week and her oncologist recommended an MRI to rule out anything sinister. She had that today and it has showed that the cancer is back in her brain with some bruising, hence the headaches. She will now need to go back onto steroids and potentially the pills again, putting the immunotherapy off for a few months (depending on what her oncologist says tomorrow).
I'd love to know if anyone has had any similar detours in their treatment and how they coped with setbacks like this. I really want to try and support her as best I can as she navigates this new and upsetting stage of her diagnosis.
Thank you in advance if you are able to share your story with me.
Hi FriendLookingToSupport 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'm sorry to read that your friend has been diagnosed with recurrent melanoma and it's natural that you want to do all you can to support her.
I don't have the experience with this type of spread, although I'm currently dealing with breast cancer unconnected to my melanoma diagnosis.
There are people in the group who have stage 4 melanoma and hopefully they'll see your post and share their experiences with you. While you're waiting for replies you could, if you haven't already, use the search facility at the top of the page to look for others with a similar diagnosis to your friend.
You might also like to join the friends and family group which is a safe and supportive place to connect with others who have a loved one dealing with cancer to discuss your emotions and worries. If this is something that you'd like to do, clicking on the link I've created will take you straight there where you can then join and start a new post like you did here. You can also join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'.
It would be great if you could pop something about your friend'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.
x
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
