Newly diagnosed

Hello

I do not have much experience of melanoma. My son who is 6 is currently undergoing some investigations. I wanted to post simply to say hang in there as you will find support and advice on this page. As no one has yet commented I wanted too just let you know that someone is here. It may be of no help but I didn't want you to feel alone like none of us are here. The other people on this forum will have detailed information for you but I wanted to say, be kind to yourself,  you've had a terrible shock. Reading on here regularly there are so many new treatments in the past 5 years that your chances are better than  ever. Also,  I've seen the others say this before … do not look at survival stats etc … They are mostly out of date and rates are so much better I  the last years.

Best wishes

S xxxx 

Hello

I do not have much experience of melanoma. My son who is 6 is currently undergoing some investigations. I wanted to post simply to say hang in there as you will find support and advice on this page. As no one has yet commented I wanted too just let you know that someone is here. It may be of no help but I didn't want you to feel alone like none of us are here. The other people on this forum will have detailed information for you but I wanted to say, be kind to yourself,  you've had a terrible shock. Reading on here regularly there are so many new treatments in the past 5 years that your chances are better than  ever. Also,  I've seen the others say this before … do not look at survival stats etc … They are mostly out of date and rates are so much better I  the last years.

Best wishes

S xxxx 

Hello

I do not have much experience of melanoma. My son who is 6 is currently undergoing some investigations. I wanted to post simply to say hang in there as you will find support and advice on this page. As no one has yet commented I wanted too just let you know that someone is here. It may be of no help but I didn't want you to feel alone like none of us are here. The other people on this forum will have detailed information for you but I wanted to say, be kind to yourself,  you've had a terrible shock. Reading on here regularly there are so many new treatments in the past 5 years that your chances are better than  ever. Also,  I've seen the others say this before … do not look at survival stats etc … They are mostly out of date and rates are so much better I  the last years.

Best wishes

S xxxx 

The best advice I ever got from this board was to immediately get under the care of a melanoma specialist at a major hospital/medical facility.  Your regular oncologist simply won't due.  The best piece of personal advice I can give is to try and be normal.  For the sake of your family, the more normal you appear, the less stress and fear will consume you all.  I had three surgeries in my first year after diagnosis.  Each time I got up the next morning and drove my daughter to school as usual.  Sooner or later they will understand, but for every ones sake do your best to just live as normally as possible and don't dwell on the disease. New treatments have come a long way and you can beat this.

Aloha, Gary

The best advice I ever got from this board was to immediately get under the care of a melanoma specialist at a major hospital/medical facility.  Your regular oncologist simply won't due.  The best piece of personal advice I can give is to try and be normal.  For the sake of your family, the more normal you appear, the less stress and fear will consume you all.  I had three surgeries in my first year after diagnosis.  Each time I got up the next morning and drove my daughter to school as usual.  Sooner or later they will understand, but for every ones sake do your best to just live as normally as possible and don't dwell on the disease. New treatments have come a long way and you can beat this.

Aloha, Gary

The best advice I ever got from this board was to immediately get under the care of a melanoma specialist at a major hospital/medical facility.  Your regular oncologist simply won't due.  The best piece of personal advice I can give is to try and be normal.  For the sake of your family, the more normal you appear, the less stress and fear will consume you all.  I had three surgeries in my first year after diagnosis.  Each time I got up the next morning and drove my daughter to school as usual.  Sooner or later they will understand, but for every ones sake do your best to just live as normally as possible and don't dwell on the disease. New treatments have come a long way and you can beat this.

Aloha, Gary

I just saw your post and wanted to send you some positive thoughts and encouragement. I understand what you're saying about your children and not wanting to leave them. I have a beautiful granddaughter who is almost 3, and another grandchild on the way.

I was diagnosed in January 2013 after my family practice doctor removed a mole from my back that he didn't think was anything serious. After a wide area excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy I also had a lymph node dissection in my left armpit. Everything came back negative from that, and I was pronounced cancer free. In August 2014 three lumps I had noticed near the excision turned out to be melanoma, and I underwent more surgery. Almost immediately after that, more spots turned up near the excision site, and a PET scan revealed a small nodule in one lung. My oncologist started me on Yervoy (ipilimumab) in November 2014.

Yervoy slowed the development of my disease, but within a few months of the end of that treatment, I discovered more small spots developing on my skin. Last July I started receiving Keytruda.

I know this doesn't sound super positive so far. 🙂 It gets better….

After just one infusion of Keytruda we noticed the spots on my skin were getting smaller, lighter, and thinner. A CT scan revealed that the spots in my lung were also slightly smaller. My last CT, on New Year's Eve, indicated that everything was stable. No shrinkage, but no growth either, and nothing new. I go back for another scan on April 13, and I'm hoping that I'll get more good news. I'd prefer to hear that things are shrinking again, but I'll be happy if everything continues to be stable.

So keep your chin up. We are very fortunate that there are now treatments out there for a disease that didn't have many treatments not too long ago. I'm gonna make it, I've made it over three years now since my initial diagnosis at Stage IIIa. And if you need support, don't be afraid to come to this forum and share your thoughts with everybody. I don't check in here all the time, but I've found that when I've needed support this is a great place to find it.

My best to you!

-Bill

I just saw your post and wanted to send you some positive thoughts and encouragement. I understand what you're saying about your children and not wanting to leave them. I have a beautiful granddaughter who is almost 3, and another grandchild on the way.

I was diagnosed in January 2013 after my family practice doctor removed a mole from my back that he didn't think was anything serious. After a wide area excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy I also had a lymph node dissection in my left armpit. Everything came back negative from that, and I was pronounced cancer free. In August 2014 three lumps I had noticed near the excision turned out to be melanoma, and I underwent more surgery. Almost immediately after that, more spots turned up near the excision site, and a PET scan revealed a small nodule in one lung. My oncologist started me on Yervoy (ipilimumab) in November 2014.

Yervoy slowed the development of my disease, but within a few months of the end of that treatment, I discovered more small spots developing on my skin. Last July I started receiving Keytruda.

I know this doesn't sound super positive so far. 🙂 It gets better….

After just one infusion of Keytruda we noticed the spots on my skin were getting smaller, lighter, and thinner. A CT scan revealed that the spots in my lung were also slightly smaller. My last CT, on New Year's Eve, indicated that everything was stable. No shrinkage, but no growth either, and nothing new. I go back for another scan on April 13, and I'm hoping that I'll get more good news. I'd prefer to hear that things are shrinking again, but I'll be happy if everything continues to be stable.

So keep your chin up. We are very fortunate that there are now treatments out there for a disease that didn't have many treatments not too long ago. I'm gonna make it, I've made it over three years now since my initial diagnosis at Stage IIIa. And if you need support, don't be afraid to come to this forum and share your thoughts with everybody. I don't check in here all the time, but I've found that when I've needed support this is a great place to find it.

My best to you!

-Bill

I just saw your post and wanted to send you some positive thoughts and encouragement. I understand what you're saying about your children and not wanting to leave them. I have a beautiful granddaughter who is almost 3, and another grandchild on the way.

I was diagnosed in January 2013 after my family practice doctor removed a mole from my back that he didn't think was anything serious. After a wide area excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy I also had a lymph node dissection in my left armpit. Everything came back negative from that, and I was pronounced cancer free. In August 2014 three lumps I had noticed near the excision turned out to be melanoma, and I underwent more surgery. Almost immediately after that, more spots turned up near the excision site, and a PET scan revealed a small nodule in one lung. My oncologist started me on Yervoy (ipilimumab) in November 2014.

Yervoy slowed the development of my disease, but within a few months of the end of that treatment, I discovered more small spots developing on my skin. Last July I started receiving Keytruda.

I know this doesn't sound super positive so far. 🙂 It gets better….

After just one infusion of Keytruda we noticed the spots on my skin were getting smaller, lighter, and thinner. A CT scan revealed that the spots in my lung were also slightly smaller. My last CT, on New Year's Eve, indicated that everything was stable. No shrinkage, but no growth either, and nothing new. I go back for another scan on April 13, and I'm hoping that I'll get more good news. I'd prefer to hear that things are shrinking again, but I'll be happy if everything continues to be stable.

So keep your chin up. We are very fortunate that there are now treatments out there for a disease that didn't have many treatments not too long ago. I'm gonna make it, I've made it over three years now since my initial diagnosis at Stage IIIa. And if you need support, don't be afraid to come to this forum and share your thoughts with everybody. I don't check in here all the time, but I've found that when I've needed support this is a great place to find it.

My best to you!

-Bill

Welcome, and sorry you have to be here!  My first suggestion is to try and not stress — I know that isn't easy, but chances are you have caught this very early and you will get it excised and then never have to think about melanoma again.

Clark's Level III means that the lesion is completely contained within the skin … not down to fat or muscle levels.  A more important data point would be the depth of the lesion.  If you don't already have it, you need to get a copy of the pathology report to keep for your records.  Once you get that you can post more detail here and more folks can tell you what to expect.  Basically, if the lesion is less than 1mm, and there is not mitosis or ulceration, you will simply need a Wide Local Excision (WLE).  You would be classified as a Stage I patient, and no other procedures or tests would be required.  If it is deeper than 1mm, or with mitosis, you will need a Sentinel Node Biopsy (SNB) done *before* the WLE to make sure no cells have made their way into your lymphatic system.  Unless the SNB comes back with melanoma cells present (which would move you to Stage III melanoma) there is really nothing that an oncologist would do for you.

More than likely, this is a shallow melanoma, and although the surgical excision will be large to get wide margins, once it is excised you will be done.  No scans, no xrays, no treatments.  Just more frequent full body checks by your dermtologist.  Hang in there, and let us know about the pathology report.

Welcome, and sorry you have to be here!  My first suggestion is to try and not stress — I know that isn't easy, but chances are you have caught this very early and you will get it excised and then never have to think about melanoma again.

Clark's Level III means that the lesion is completely contained within the skin … not down to fat or muscle levels.  A more important data point would be the depth of the lesion.  If you don't already have it, you need to get a copy of the pathology report to keep for your records.  Once you get that you can post more detail here and more folks can tell you what to expect.  Basically, if the lesion is less than 1mm, and there is not mitosis or ulceration, you will simply need a Wide Local Excision (WLE).  You would be classified as a Stage I patient, and no other procedures or tests would be required.  If it is deeper than 1mm, or with mitosis, you will need a Sentinel Node Biopsy (SNB) done *before* the WLE to make sure no cells have made their way into your lymphatic system.  Unless the SNB comes back with melanoma cells present (which would move you to Stage III melanoma) there is really nothing that an oncologist would do for you.

More than likely, this is a shallow melanoma, and although the surgical excision will be large to get wide margins, once it is excised you will be done.  No scans, no xrays, no treatments.  Just more frequent full body checks by your dermtologist.  Hang in there, and let us know about the pathology report.

Welcome, and sorry you have to be here!  My first suggestion is to try and not stress — I know that isn't easy, but chances are you have caught this very early and you will get it excised and then never have to think about melanoma again.

Clark's Level III means that the lesion is completely contained within the skin … not down to fat or muscle levels.  A more important data point would be the depth of the lesion.  If you don't already have it, you need to get a copy of the pathology report to keep for your records.  Once you get that you can post more detail here and more folks can tell you what to expect.  Basically, if the lesion is less than 1mm, and there is not mitosis or ulceration, you will simply need a Wide Local Excision (WLE).  You would be classified as a Stage I patient, and no other procedures or tests would be required.  If it is deeper than 1mm, or with mitosis, you will need a Sentinel Node Biopsy (SNB) done *before* the WLE to make sure no cells have made their way into your lymphatic system.  Unless the SNB comes back with melanoma cells present (which would move you to Stage III melanoma) there is really nothing that an oncologist would do for you.

More than likely, this is a shallow melanoma, and although the surgical excision will be large to get wide margins, once it is excised you will be done.  No scans, no xrays, no treatments.  Just more frequent full body checks by your dermtologist.  Hang in there, and let us know about the pathology report.