› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Anemia, nerve issues
- This topic has 6 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 9 months ago by BrianP.
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- June 29, 2013 at 9:08 pm
Wish I could be here only to drop in and say hello and send well wishes to everyone. Instead, I am here with concern and would be very grateful for any experiences you could share. Brief history: In August it will be 8 years since I had my melanoma removed. It was barely stage IIA, 2.1mm, on my right arm. No lymph nodes involved. I am seen at MDA annually. Recently, I have been having some issues. I was diagnosed a few weeks ago with severe anemia.
Wish I could be here only to drop in and say hello and send well wishes to everyone. Instead, I am here with concern and would be very grateful for any experiences you could share. Brief history: In August it will be 8 years since I had my melanoma removed. It was barely stage IIA, 2.1mm, on my right arm. No lymph nodes involved. I am seen at MDA annually. Recently, I have been having some issues. I was diagnosed a few weeks ago with severe anemia. Some bloodwork has been run that tells us it is less likely to be vitamin deficiency or bone marrow/blood disorders, and more likely due to bleeding (which is typically from heavy menstrual cycles, ulcers/aspirin, or tumors/cancer, specifically colon cancer). Now here's the deal, I do have extremely heavy menstrual cycles and started on high dose aspirin a year ago to reduce heart and stroke risks. The only symptoms I've developed in the last few months is nerve issues. my entire left side of my body gets electrical shocks and a heaviness, as well as numbness in my face. I've been hospitalized after one of these nerve "attacks" and ruled out stroke and heart attack. Had MRI of brain and echo on heart. Still having the frequent nerve issues, to the point where I can sit here and feel the electrical shock go through the left side of my body and make my toes move.I feel it under my arm, left lower forearm, left elbow, left side of calf, toes, and pinky finger. And I am EXTREMELY fatigued from the anemia. My blood levels are less than half what they should be. My primary Dr. is sending me to a G.I. next week. The only real G.I. issue I notice is lately I've felt like my liver is having spasms, and yet the left side of my abdomen looks a little larger to me. I am overweight though so its hard to tell. My Cardio agrees with this plan. They both say if nothing is found with G.I. workup then I'll be sent to a hematologist. I am also scheduled with f/u w/ neurologist in July to do some nerve tests. And I am supposed to start getting physical therapy because the strength on the left side of my body is diminished and I have balance issues. So I am trying very hard to convince myself that the anemia is a combination of not enough iron (I don't eat much red meat), heavy cycles, and the recent addition of high dose aspirin. And I'm trying to convince myself that the nerve issues are from a pinched nerve. And I'm trying to convince myself the liver sensations are from enlarged liver maybe from gaining weight. And any one of those alone is easy to convince myself. But one common cause of all of these symptoms could be cancer/tumor so of course that's where my mind is going since they all started about the same time, 3 months ago.
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- June 30, 2013 at 1:15 am
Jamie,
Sorry for your situation. I know how nerve racking it is anytime you have a health issue and worrying whether or not the melanoma is back. Hopefully my situation won't cause further alarm but I was experiencing anemia as well and mine did turn out to be melanoma in my small intestines. My situation was documented pretty well in the following thread and I would encourage you to read it.
http://www.melanoma.org/community/mpip-melanoma-patients-information-page/blood-stool
I will say that if you do have a situation in your GI tract that is causing a loss of blood and hence the anemia you should notice it in the color of your stool (very dark). Have they done a blood in stool test? Those can give false positves fairly easy but if it came back negative that would definitely be a good sign.
Brian
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- June 30, 2013 at 1:15 am
Jamie,
Sorry for your situation. I know how nerve racking it is anytime you have a health issue and worrying whether or not the melanoma is back. Hopefully my situation won't cause further alarm but I was experiencing anemia as well and mine did turn out to be melanoma in my small intestines. My situation was documented pretty well in the following thread and I would encourage you to read it.
http://www.melanoma.org/community/mpip-melanoma-patients-information-page/blood-stool
I will say that if you do have a situation in your GI tract that is causing a loss of blood and hence the anemia you should notice it in the color of your stool (very dark). Have they done a blood in stool test? Those can give false positves fairly easy but if it came back negative that would definitely be a good sign.
Brian
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- June 30, 2013 at 1:15 am
Jamie,
Sorry for your situation. I know how nerve racking it is anytime you have a health issue and worrying whether or not the melanoma is back. Hopefully my situation won't cause further alarm but I was experiencing anemia as well and mine did turn out to be melanoma in my small intestines. My situation was documented pretty well in the following thread and I would encourage you to read it.
http://www.melanoma.org/community/mpip-melanoma-patients-information-page/blood-stool
I will say that if you do have a situation in your GI tract that is causing a loss of blood and hence the anemia you should notice it in the color of your stool (very dark). Have they done a blood in stool test? Those can give false positves fairly easy but if it came back negative that would definitely be a good sign.
Brian
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