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Where and when will it come back?
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Where and when will it come back?

› Forums › Cutaneous Melanoma Community › Where and when will it come back?

  • Post
    • March 17, 2019 at 6:26 pm
    amyvallance
    Participant

      Hi everyone. I am new to this site. My father was diagnosed April 2018 (from an unknown source) at stage 4. He passed away January 31, 2019. He did immunotherapy from May to November and the cancer took over. It was the hardest thing to go through…. 

      My husband had a suspicious mole looked at last year and it came back fine. I sent him back because it just didn't look right – it came back "invasive malignant melanoma, superficial spreading type". Ironically, he met with the surgeon last Friday- my dads birthday – and is scheduled to have it removed April 3rd.

      The mole is on his left temple just behind his hairline.

      The docotr made it sound like," its superficial, we will cut it out (send it to the lab of course) and you should be fine." The report says it's an anatomic level III, Breslow depth 0.34mm, radial growth phase: present.

      Seeing that I'm still grieving my dad and the word melanoma just scares me- I don't know if I'm being overly sensitive, but I'm afraid it's going to keep coming back on my husband. He has so many moles on his body (he was a competitive swimmer and spent countless hours in the pool and sun growing up and I'm afraid they are going to become melanoma. How do you go about this?! 

      Is the likely hood of the melanoma on his scalp going to come back in the same place? When do you advocate for yourself as the patient and ask to have moles biopsied?!

      Any advice or experience????

      Thanks,

      Amy 

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    • Replies
        • March 17, 2019 at 6:41 pm
        SOLE
        Participant

          My thoughts are with you Amy. There are no words. 

           

          Your husband is covered with moles and so am I. Although I didn’t spend all my time in the sun when young but probably enough to trigger all those moles to appear now at my age. So how do I deal with this? I am a bit of a freak but I found myself a few dermatologists with different technologies available to them and I just go to them about every 3 months average. One is the regular dermatologist from my hospital in Montreal, Quebec, another one does whole body photography every 6 months in Oakville, Ontario , the other one does a different kind of biopsy-like test called DermTech and I see him every 6 months in San Diego, CA when I travel on the west coast for work. That is my skin check regimen. And I won’t change it for the next few years until I find myself in a more confident place. And this is all out of pocket. But this is theprice to pay to stay alive in my condition. I am a freak. And alive. My best. 

            • March 19, 2019 at 1:25 pm
            amyvallance
            Participant

              Thank you for your reply! I wish you the best!!!!!

            • March 17, 2019 at 11:22 pm
            Lucygoose
            Participant

              Get a second opinion.  Do you have access to group that specializes in Melanoma? 

              • March 18, 2019 at 8:14 pm
              sing123
              Participant

                Hi Amy, I am so sorry for what you are going through and for the loss of your father. I am a 3C, also got diagnosed (like your dad) April of 2018. I went on Opdivo right away and it recurred in the same place (top of my scalp). I opted out of radiation but continued on the Opdivo. Doctors were split on this, but in the end I went with the recs of two docs at Mayo in Jax – one who specializes in Melanoma Oncology, and the other a radiation oncologist. They concurred on the no radiation recommendation, and said that the recurrence may well have been residual cells undetected and unresected from the initial surgery. I had a second surgery to remove those in November. Since October, they've not found anything new. Since I opted to not get radiation, I see my dermatologist every 6 weeks, plastic surgeon every 3 months, and oncologist checks when I have appointments with him every third treatment. Of course, I also get the quarterly PET Scan and had an extra MRI when the mel recurred.  

                I am anxious also but just recently turned a corner with that, as I have young children to enjoy, recently got engaged, and want to be fully engaged in living. Still, I suspect I'll keep holding my breath in between PET scan/MRI days and results. 

                I know that there are still too many deaths from melanoma but maybe more and more survivors? (Others long timers on here will be able to better elaborate). 

                Hugs to you,

                Cindy

                  • March 19, 2019 at 1:29 pm
                  amyvallance
                  Participant

                    Cindy, Thank you for your reply. I'm sorry to hear everything you are going through. My dad did Opdivo every 2 weeks for 3.5 months, then they added Yervoy to his regimen which he did every 3 weeks. His was just too far spread by the time we found it. 

                    I wish you well as you monitor yourself. One thing we can do is educate others. Stay positive! I appreciate your input!

                    Amy

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