Lynn1962

Hi,

My best friend lives in California, so I can sympathize with your situation! She has been there for me via many, many phone calls just to check in and see how I am holding up…and to tell me that she loves me and I am in her thoughts and to keep up the positive thinking… I know it doesn't sound like much, but I can tell you that her calls have made a BIG difference and have helped boost my spirits during this difficult time!

She is always on the lookout on the Internet for news and info on melanoma and complimentary therapies, and she forwards me everything she finds that she thinks is worthwhile. She always remains positive and encouraging, and even though she's not physically here, I can still feel the love all the way from the West Coast!!

So don't believe for a moment that the 12-hour distance between you and your cousin will keep you from making a big difference in her life! If you want to take it a step further, both of you can install video cams and keep in touch "live" via Skype. And if you do make a trip there to see her, the best thing you can do is make her a big batch of her favorite homemade soup so she has something easy to fix on the days she's feeling physically drained. Offering to clean the house and do laundry also goes a long way, since there's nothing worse than feeling like crap and having a mountain of laundry looming in the corner or dust rhinos attacking you from under the bed, lol!

Hope this helps!

Lynn

Hi,

My best friend lives in California, so I can sympathize with your situation! She has been there for me via many, many phone calls just to check in and see how I am holding up…and to tell me that she loves me and I am in her thoughts and to keep up the positive thinking… I know it doesn't sound like much, but I can tell you that her calls have made a BIG difference and have helped boost my spirits during this difficult time!

She is always on the lookout on the Internet for news and info on melanoma and complimentary therapies, and she forwards me everything she finds that she thinks is worthwhile. She always remains positive and encouraging, and even though she's not physically here, I can still feel the love all the way from the West Coast!!

So don't believe for a moment that the 12-hour distance between you and your cousin will keep you from making a big difference in her life! If you want to take it a step further, both of you can install video cams and keep in touch "live" via Skype. And if you do make a trip there to see her, the best thing you can do is make her a big batch of her favorite homemade soup so she has something easy to fix on the days she's feeling physically drained. Offering to clean the house and do laundry also goes a long way, since there's nothing worse than feeling like crap and having a mountain of laundry looming in the corner or dust rhinos attacking you from under the bed, lol!

Hope this helps!

Lynn

Hi,

My best friend lives in California, so I can sympathize with your situation! She has been there for me via many, many phone calls just to check in and see how I am holding up…and to tell me that she loves me and I am in her thoughts and to keep up the positive thinking… I know it doesn't sound like much, but I can tell you that her calls have made a BIG difference and have helped boost my spirits during this difficult time!

She is always on the lookout on the Internet for news and info on melanoma and complimentary therapies, and she forwards me everything she finds that she thinks is worthwhile. She always remains positive and encouraging, and even though she's not physically here, I can still feel the love all the way from the West Coast!!

So don't believe for a moment that the 12-hour distance between you and your cousin will keep you from making a big difference in her life! If you want to take it a step further, both of you can install video cams and keep in touch "live" via Skype. And if you do make a trip there to see her, the best thing you can do is make her a big batch of her favorite homemade soup so she has something easy to fix on the days she's feeling physically drained. Offering to clean the house and do laundry also goes a long way, since there's nothing worse than feeling like crap and having a mountain of laundry looming in the corner or dust rhinos attacking you from under the bed, lol!

Hope this helps!

Lynn

I was just diagnosed with Stage IIIa as well, and i understand what you're going through! I had one positive sentinel lobe in my groin that had a very small amount of microscopic mets. I have an awesome team at the Washington Cancer Institute in Washington, D.C. and they advised doing the lymphanodectomy..

My surgery was scheduled for Jan. 27, but they called yesterday with the option to move it up to this Monday, which I gladly accepted! I was concerned about removing the lymph nodes because of the issues with lymphadema and dealing with the drain, compression stocking, etc. and then decided the hassle and side effects would be worth it if the surgery could possibly keep the melanoma from spreading. If they found that it had spread in a  future PET scan, I would be berating myself forever that I didn't opt for the surgery.

I have also come to the same conclusion about Interferon in the past few days, and believe me, I have A LOT of reservations about the Interferon due to its nasty side effects! Unfortunately, it's the only treatment option for my stage of melanoma, and since it MAY make a difference in my survival rate, I'm going to go for it! But I still haven't decided to do the regular treatment or the pegylated  interferon yet… 

This is a tough diagnosis to deal with because the treatment options don't have definitive outcomes to base your decisions on. I have been doing lots of research, only to find that there are no "hard" facts, and there is a tremendous amount of variation in the side effects for those who have lymphanodectomies and those who take Interferon. I wish it was simpler, lol!

Ultimately, I am basing my decisions on both the research data/medical articles I am finding online, as well as the first-hand experiences of patients who are sharing them on the web. It seems to provide a good balance to base decisions on!

I hope this helps!

Lynn

I was just diagnosed with Stage IIIa as well, and i understand what you're going through! I had one positive sentinel lobe in my groin that had a very small amount of microscopic mets. I have an awesome team at the Washington Cancer Institute in Washington, D.C. and they advised doing the lymphanodectomy..

My surgery was scheduled for Jan. 27, but they called yesterday with the option to move it up to this Monday, which I gladly accepted! I was concerned about removing the lymph nodes because of the issues with lymphadema and dealing with the drain, compression stocking, etc. and then decided the hassle and side effects would be worth it if the surgery could possibly keep the melanoma from spreading. If they found that it had spread in a  future PET scan, I would be berating myself forever that I didn't opt for the surgery.

I have also come to the same conclusion about Interferon in the past few days, and believe me, I have A LOT of reservations about the Interferon due to its nasty side effects! Unfortunately, it's the only treatment option for my stage of melanoma, and since it MAY make a difference in my survival rate, I'm going to go for it! But I still haven't decided to do the regular treatment or the pegylated  interferon yet… 

This is a tough diagnosis to deal with because the treatment options don't have definitive outcomes to base your decisions on. I have been doing lots of research, only to find that there are no "hard" facts, and there is a tremendous amount of variation in the side effects for those who have lymphanodectomies and those who take Interferon. I wish it was simpler, lol!

Ultimately, I am basing my decisions on both the research data/medical articles I am finding online, as well as the first-hand experiences of patients who are sharing them on the web. It seems to provide a good balance to base decisions on!

I hope this helps!

Lynn

I was just diagnosed with Stage IIIa as well, and i understand what you're going through! I had one positive sentinel lobe in my groin that had a very small amount of microscopic mets. I have an awesome team at the Washington Cancer Institute in Washington, D.C. and they advised doing the lymphanodectomy..

My surgery was scheduled for Jan. 27, but they called yesterday with the option to move it up to this Monday, which I gladly accepted! I was concerned about removing the lymph nodes because of the issues with lymphadema and dealing with the drain, compression stocking, etc. and then decided the hassle and side effects would be worth it if the surgery could possibly keep the melanoma from spreading. If they found that it had spread in a  future PET scan, I would be berating myself forever that I didn't opt for the surgery.

I have also come to the same conclusion about Interferon in the past few days, and believe me, I have A LOT of reservations about the Interferon due to its nasty side effects! Unfortunately, it's the only treatment option for my stage of melanoma, and since it MAY make a difference in my survival rate, I'm going to go for it! But I still haven't decided to do the regular treatment or the pegylated  interferon yet… 

This is a tough diagnosis to deal with because the treatment options don't have definitive outcomes to base your decisions on. I have been doing lots of research, only to find that there are no "hard" facts, and there is a tremendous amount of variation in the side effects for those who have lymphanodectomies and those who take Interferon. I wish it was simpler, lol!

Ultimately, I am basing my decisions on both the research data/medical articles I am finding online, as well as the first-hand experiences of patients who are sharing them on the web. It seems to provide a good balance to base decisions on!

I hope this helps!

Lynn