Hi everyone,
I read the board regularly but haven’t posted in awhile because things have been stable. Fortunately, I have some good news to share. A little over a year ago, my father was diagnosed with melanoma and had an 10 hr surgery to remove the primary and lymph nodes (posterolateral neck dissection). Last week (one year to the day after his surgery), we had an appointment with his oncologist who shared that his most recent PET/CT was clear. So Dad has officially reached 1 year NED!
I don’t think we had allowed ourselves to really think about the one year milestone before the meeting, but it feels really good. He was diagnosed just before Thanksgiving last year, and it was a really tough holiday season with so much uncertainty about his prognosis and traveling to get second/third opinions while he was still recovering from the surgery.
For those interested, my father started on interferon but after 3 weeks of high-dose he ended up in the hospital with a severe case of diverticulitis. It took awhile for the inflammation to subside and due to this sensitivity towards colitis, his oncologist recommended BRAF as the next mode of treatment (Dad’s primary was at the back of his head and with positive nodes on both sides of his neck we got varying diagnoses of Stage III and IV, which is why he first tried interferon but then was able to get BRAF). I know some on this board are of the opinion that it’s best to try everything else and save BRAF for when it’s really needed, but we decided to accept the doctor’s advice. He really stressed the importance of keeping Dad healthy as long as possible (and perhaps he will not recur anyway – fingers crossed!) while other new treatments, like antiPD1, are being developed. Dad started on Zel and switched to the combo after it was approved, which has been a much smoother experience for him.
Anyway, thanks everyone for always posting advice and being so supportive to each other. It's great to have a community like this to tap into. There have been a few new posters on the board with new diagnoses so maybe this update will help things seem a little less scary.
Doro
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