› Forums › General Melanoma Community › they want to amputate
- This topic has 12 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 7 months ago by
sheri47.
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- May 30, 2011 at 12:55 am
hi all got a ? my moms cancer is back this will be 4 times in the same foot. they will want to amputate but i think this will kill my mom , she has had a stroke that affected the right side the masses 3 of them r on the left, she has been getting blood transfusions for 2 years now 18 in all. fluid around her heart from cardiomyopothy.
gues my ? is how long can she live doing nothing, we know its no\t in any major organs, not in bones or brain, thank you sheri from ohio
hi all got a ? my moms cancer is back this will be 4 times in the same foot. they will want to amputate but i think this will kill my mom , she has had a stroke that affected the right side the masses 3 of them r on the left, she has been getting blood transfusions for 2 years now 18 in all. fluid around her heart from cardiomyopothy.
gues my ? is how long can she live doing nothing, we know its no\t in any major organs, not in bones or brain, thank you sheri from ohio
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- May 30, 2011 at 1:45 am
Get a second or even third opinion. From what I read on your previous post your mom is stage IV. They could amputate the leg and then it could could come back somewhere else. This is just my opinion and I don't have any medical background but it just doesn't make sense to me.
I had mel twice to my bladder. They considered a wide excision but it would make the bladder useless. It was decided that if it came back a 3rd time they would go systemic because of the time it would take for me to recover from bladder removal. I wouldn't be ready to physically do anything else for several months. I would think the same applies to an amputation.
Each of us are different so her Doctors have their reasons. Please get other medical opinions.
Linda
Stage IV since 06
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- May 30, 2011 at 1:45 am
Get a second or even third opinion. From what I read on your previous post your mom is stage IV. They could amputate the leg and then it could could come back somewhere else. This is just my opinion and I don't have any medical background but it just doesn't make sense to me.
I had mel twice to my bladder. They considered a wide excision but it would make the bladder useless. It was decided that if it came back a 3rd time they would go systemic because of the time it would take for me to recover from bladder removal. I wouldn't be ready to physically do anything else for several months. I would think the same applies to an amputation.
Each of us are different so her Doctors have their reasons. Please get other medical opinions.
Linda
Stage IV since 06
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- May 30, 2011 at 11:21 am
Sheri,
Like Linda, I don't understand why there would need to be an amputation if your mom is stage IV.
Are they talking about her entire foot? There is a young woman who has a website, Miss Melanoma, who had a toe amputated. You can easily google her and read her experience.
There was some discussion about amputating my ring and middle fingers on the left hand where my primary was. We opted for WLE and skin graft. I often wonder if I hadn't been freaked out about losing fingers…well maybe I wouldn't have had the recurrence. I have read over and over again that melanoma will most likely recur anyway if there is a lymphatic invasion. Just always second guessing.
Gets lots of opionions if her general health is frail. There may be other treatment options for her.
Take good care, k.
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- May 30, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Hi,
I am stage 3a and have had melanoma in my right leg only, mostly in the calf area. I had many reoccurrences and so they recommended an above the knee amputuation. That scared me to death, so I waited. Soon enough my melanoma traveled right up to my groin and then it would have been a "hip disarticulation" where they take the whole leg from the hip joint. I couldnt see living so disabled and being a burden for my family . They could not guarantee melanoma hadnt already "seeded" itself elsewhere in my body and would soon be growing or that my stump wound would heal. I still have two unhealed wider excision wounds on my lower calf for ONE YEAR!!!!!! So I said no. Then I did Ipi (yervoy) as part of a clinical trial for unresctable, meaning not a surgical candidate, and that worked. All my melanoma is gone in my right leg and there are no signs anywhere else. My melanoma oncologist said he had three patiens who did above the knee amputaion and they had several more years of good living before they died.
Check into Yervoy, a systemic treatment. It just go FDA approved. It worked for me. Best of luck,
Vermont_Donna, stage 3a. NED
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- May 30, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Hi,
I am stage 3a and have had melanoma in my right leg only, mostly in the calf area. I had many reoccurrences and so they recommended an above the knee amputuation. That scared me to death, so I waited. Soon enough my melanoma traveled right up to my groin and then it would have been a "hip disarticulation" where they take the whole leg from the hip joint. I couldnt see living so disabled and being a burden for my family . They could not guarantee melanoma hadnt already "seeded" itself elsewhere in my body and would soon be growing or that my stump wound would heal. I still have two unhealed wider excision wounds on my lower calf for ONE YEAR!!!!!! So I said no. Then I did Ipi (yervoy) as part of a clinical trial for unresctable, meaning not a surgical candidate, and that worked. All my melanoma is gone in my right leg and there are no signs anywhere else. My melanoma oncologist said he had three patiens who did above the knee amputaion and they had several more years of good living before they died.
Check into Yervoy, a systemic treatment. It just go FDA approved. It worked for me. Best of luck,
Vermont_Donna, stage 3a. NED
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- May 30, 2011 at 11:21 am
Sheri,
Like Linda, I don't understand why there would need to be an amputation if your mom is stage IV.
Are they talking about her entire foot? There is a young woman who has a website, Miss Melanoma, who had a toe amputated. You can easily google her and read her experience.
There was some discussion about amputating my ring and middle fingers on the left hand where my primary was. We opted for WLE and skin graft. I often wonder if I hadn't been freaked out about losing fingers…well maybe I wouldn't have had the recurrence. I have read over and over again that melanoma will most likely recur anyway if there is a lymphatic invasion. Just always second guessing.
Gets lots of opionions if her general health is frail. There may be other treatment options for her.
Take good care, k.
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- May 30, 2011 at 2:37 pm
As stated by other posters, if she is stage four, it is already systemic (whole body).
Where is she being seen? A second opinion is in order.
Michael
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- May 31, 2011 at 4:51 am
MIchael, I am stage 4 and NED… I am somewhat at odds with the staging system…My original was on the right side of my neck…precancerous…called lentigo maligna, when it returned it was melanoma…had it removed…again in 2000…it returned and was found in one lymph node kissing the superior vena cave on the right side…thus stage 4. I had 3 lymph nodes during a thoracotomy and had them removed and only the middle node had melanoma…it was 6.8 centimeters. No melanoma has been found anywhere else in or on my body…stage 4 doesn't lways mean itsspread over the entire body…just how far it has moved from the original site.
I also think the type of melanoma might have something to do with the prognosis…but I am not sure about that.
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- May 31, 2011 at 4:51 am
MIchael, I am stage 4 and NED… I am somewhat at odds with the staging system…My original was on the right side of my neck…precancerous…called lentigo maligna, when it returned it was melanoma…had it removed…again in 2000…it returned and was found in one lymph node kissing the superior vena cave on the right side…thus stage 4. I had 3 lymph nodes during a thoracotomy and had them removed and only the middle node had melanoma…it was 6.8 centimeters. No melanoma has been found anywhere else in or on my body…stage 4 doesn't lways mean itsspread over the entire body…just how far it has moved from the original site.
I also think the type of melanoma might have something to do with the prognosis…but I am not sure about that.
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