Hello All!
I know that this can be a place of warranted fear, worry, etc. but what you do not see often is the GOOD news.
Generally once people have recovered from their initial surgery/diagnosis/treatment, if they are lucky enough to not see the beast again, they just go on living and do not come back to post.
Well, even though it has only been 29 months, I wanted to update for those newbies just getting here, afraid and bewildered.
I have not posted in more than 2 years because I have been lucky enough to stave off the beast.
For the purpose of this post:
I was diagnosed with a .86 melanoma on my thigh in January 2017. After a wide excision and a sentinel lymph node removal, I was bumped up to a stage 3C, as they found a few cancer cells in the sentinel node. After much research, consult with a melanoma specialist and some deep thought, I chose NOT to have the full dissection. I continued to have the scans every 3 months, where my thyroid kept lighting up. Previous to the mel diagnosis I had discovered nodules on my thyroid and a biopsy came back benign, so the first time my thyroid lit up no one thought much about it. 12 months later it kept increasing in uptake so we went 0n for another biopsy. This one came back inconclusive. After 3 inconclusive biopsies I decided to have my thyroid removed. That was August of 2018. Turns out it was very early stage thyroid cancer. We removed half my thyroid and I will be on meds for the rest of my life.
Thankfully all other scans have come back clean. I “graduated” to scans every 6 months in January. I will get my next follow-up scan the first week of July.
Anyway, I wanted there to be a post, for that newbie like I once was, to see that not all stories end up with medicines, continued surgeries, lymphedema, etc.. Sometimes things go as well as can be expected and we just go back to living. 🙂
Does that mean I am out of the woods? Of course not, but I have made it this long recurrence free and am so very happy that I have. I wanted someone else to read this and have the hope that they too, will be giving an update in 2 years that life continues to go on, happy, fulfilled and as normal as possible. Just know that right now you are devastated, but once I recovered from my initial surgery and the debacle with my wound popping open, my life slowly got back to normal and yours will too. My husband and I will be taking our first vacation since the diagnosis this August and have a trip to Jamaica planned later this year for my 50th birthday.
I hope I am not back seeking support, but instead, continuing to return to offer my support.
Carry on warriors! KEEP HOPE ALIVE!
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