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Re: confused, please help
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Re: confused, please help

› Forums › General Melanoma Community › confused, please help › Re: confused, please help

    • August 12, 2010 at 3:29 am
    KatyWI
    Participant

      I am so sorry this is happening to you.  Hang in there because it still could all be nothing.  But, unfortunately it could be MM.  Once it decides to metastisize, it can travel anywhere in the body.  My primary was on my shoulder in 2001, I had five years of clear scans and had a clear chest Xray just weeks before having a subQ pop up in 2009.  My primary doctor knows my history – in fact she removed my inital MM in 2001.  And still she believed it to be a sebaceous cyst.  I even asked if it could be MM and she said no way.  Doctors just don't know.  They make the best available guesses with the best available information.  And frankly, for you OR for me, a recurrence showing up 8, 9 years after the fact is just not that common.  Most recurrences show up right away.  Key word, unfortunately, is most.

      As for your lump responding to antibiotics, I don't know why that happened.  Could be it really IS an infection – that would be good news!  On the other hand, IF your lump really is MM, it could have been conicidental – mets can grow so fast they choke off their own blood supply, get really painful and enlarged, and then collapse down a little.  That's what the one on my neck did.

      Hang in there,

      KatyWI

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