I think the last time I posted was a few weeks ago when my husband, Don, was having tremendous pain in his groin area. This is at the same time that our oncologist at Mass General was telling us that Don is having a positive response to Ipi. Primary care physician didn't think it was a hernia, and oncologist didn't think it was the cancer…
I drove Don to the ER the Tuesday after Columbus Day. They got his pain under control and admitted him. After a week of hospitalization, tests, and scans, they decided it was the melanoma and he had surgery to remove a 8 cm tumor in his inguinal canal. Everything around the tumor, including bone, came back negative. And he is now pain free!
Don finished his Ipi treatment at the end of July, and his second set of scans/MRI show all other tumors to be stable or shrinking, and no evidence of anything new, including in his brain (he's had SRS treatments three times and one brain met surgically removed). During our meeting this week with oncologist, he reported that everything else is still stable, and this one problem tumor was most probably a response to the Ipi, but the inflammation and placement caused the pain.
In any case, the tumor is now gone, Don is recuperating from the surgery, and we plan to spend a few weeks before Christmas in Florida. (We've planned and re-planned this trip several times since last May!) Then we will await the arrival of our first grandchild (a girl!) and be ready for the next set of scans around the new year.
Regards to all you warriors. Keep fighting!
Janet Lee
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