Starting Immunotherapy for Stage 4 Metastatic Melanoma

Posted by amonasterio @amonasterio, Apr 26 7:21pm

Shocker! Someone told me how I might die and told me I have incurable cancer..I don’t believe that.
My journey started in a different state and hospital. They said I had squamous cell carcinoma, but it turns out after the pathologist here at Mayo look at the slides. It was melanoma. I came to Mayo because I needed some hearing aids at age 55. And the ENT said you have a tumor on your neck and I thought it was the scar tissue from the squamous which was really melanoma. And after various visits to the hospital for testing, they told me I have stage four cancer. Nothing‘s really changed in my mind from before I was diagnosed to the day after. We all gotta die soon sooner or later. And honestly, I know where I’m going.. I started a fast and have been praying for about 17 days just water and I feel great. I went to the beach today with my kids played football and enjoyed the day and I have more energy and I’ve lost a lot of weight. I feel like I’m at fighting weight right now. And frankly that’s my goal. I’m looking at this as a 12 round fight against Mike Tyson and I’m getting down to fighting weight. I’m building up community praying and pressing into God‘s Word. Honestly, I feel anything is possible. My body can generate millions of white blood cells and T cells and stem cells and can attack this “bad actor”. My body can cooperate with immunotherapy and so on. I guess I’m optimistic and new to this. And I have four kids and a wife, And so I will fight harder than I’ve ever fought anything before. I guess my question is what to expect with immunotherapy? What kind of side effects can I expect? My oncologist said there was some pretty high risk percentages in the neighborhood of 20% to other organs and such. Feels kinda high to me. I have a lot of confidence and strength, life and faith and I have no fear to be honest… I know how serious this is… Thanks for any feedback you can provide. Alex.

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I also have stage 4 melanoma. 2 months into treatment, yervoynd opdiva. The fatigue is my biggest problem along with insomnia. I toss and turn all night until I finally fall asleep around 5am then want to sleep the rest of the day. Any ideas from anybody would be helpful.

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Profile picture for Colleen Young, Connect Director @colleenyoung

@wgv, how are you doing? Have things with your appetite, fatigue and nausea improved?

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Had my last double dose of yervoy and opdivo. Still fatigued but feeling better. Imagining showed the cancer has not progressed. Now going on just opdivo to reduce the tumors. Gaining back a little weight, had lost 35lbs. Overall feeling pretty good.

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@wgv: Personally speaking, I'm glad to hear that you got back on your treatment regimen - as I last recall, things had been put on hold for awhile as your hemoglobin had been low, correct?

And encouraging news that the cancer hasn't progressed, you're gaining back weight and feeling good! Have the fatigue and insomnia improved?

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Profile picture for Susan, Volunteer Mentor @grammato3

@wgv: Personally speaking, I'm glad to hear that you got back on your treatment regimen - as I last recall, things had been put on hold for awhile as your hemoglobin had been low, correct?

And encouraging news that the cancer hasn't progressed, you're gaining back weight and feeling good! Have the fatigue and insomnia improved?

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Hemoglobin back up to 11. Still quite fatigued but getting out more. Got meds for the insomnia. Brain mri on Wednesday.

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