› Forums › Cutaneous Melanoma Community › Newly Diagnosed
- This topic has 2 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 7 years, 1 month ago by
Mark_DC.
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- April 20, 2018 at 12:35 am
Hi-
I am 45 yr old male living in NYC. I am working happily as an engineer, getting married tomorrow and we are expecting twins next month. I had a mole on my back for many years and it slowly started to get larger, not going fast enough to the dermatologist it started puffing up. I got it cut out (3.5 mm) and found it stage 2 and await news if it spread to lymph nodes- had 2 taken out. The more I read into this cancer the more worried I get about surviving it. My doc said the lymph nodes looked good but that might not matter until the tests come back.
Can anyone give me any reassurance that this can be treatable, or if there may be any better drugs in the near future. Cant imagine dying from this with twins coming.
Ughh!!!
Karst
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- April 20, 2018 at 2:21 am
Congratulations on the wedding and twins! Wow!
I'm no expert and there are many here on this board that are more knowlegable than me, but I would say you are very treatable and should have an optimistic outlook! It is amazing to me how fast these treatments have progressed in terms of effectiveness in a short period of time. I am being treated as stage 3 with Nivo and have had two treatments so far and I feel good, no side effects. My outlook is great and my only issue right now is the slight inconvenience of treatments every two weeks for a year. I can deal with that given the effectiveness of the treatments.
While waiting for results my best advice is not to worry more than you need to. Wait for the results and then talk to your oncologist about your options and treatment plan.
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- April 20, 2018 at 3:37 am
This disease is grim, especially at the outset when you start reading about it, learning more and becoming worried and depressed. But there are also improving treatments and many many survivors – and at stage 2 you are catching this early and you are aware of it, so will be on the look out to be proactive in case it worsens.
After my first diagnosis four years ago I wondered whether I would see my daughter graduate from high school, or would i be able to teach her calculus and see her to university. now she is in her second year of university and at a great one. some of us are lucky and are great responders, others like myself are partial or slow respnders buying time but still living normally.
my guess is that if you stay stage II then there is not much you can do other than watch carefully, and the odds are thaf you will be OK. But if things were to worsen you are aware and should catch any orogression early, and then be ready to fight with drugs, which offer improved odds and are improving too.So fhis can be scary and the experiences on this board are both uplifiting and shattering but there is anazing support and information here that will help you.
the usual and mosr important piece of advice is to find a melanoma specialist. Someone knowlegeable in this specific field. Combining this with what you can learn from this board, prospects should be good. And you will be raising your twins just i have been helping my daughter!
good luck and welcome, mark
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Tagged: cutaneous melanoma
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