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Hypercalcemia

Forums Ocular Melanoma Community Hypercalcemia

  • Post
    edamaser
    Participant

    Hi All,

    I have metastatic Ocular Melanoma, and have been fighting mets in the liver for 9 years.  I have mets in the liver, lungs, peritoneum, abdominal wall, and more. 

    Hi All,

    I have metastatic Ocular Melanoma, and have been fighting mets in the liver for 9 years.  I have mets in the liver, lungs, peritoneum, abdominal wall, and more. 

    I would like to share with you something that has come up recently for me as a consequence of metastatic cancer that I never heard of before. The condition is hypercalcemia–too much calcium in the blood. In my case, I ended up in the hospital for 3 days while they figured out the situation and what to do about it. They think it is caused by the melanoma itself, which releases some substance that encourages calcium to be leached out of my bones. For anybody this is pretty serious, but for an old lady like me, it's scary. I will end up getting zometa, which only will slow down the leaching. Nothing can replace the calcium already leached out. Be sure to note that I do not have any bone mets, if my hypercalcemia is caused by cancer, it is all soft tissue cancer.

    They checked out and rejected the most obvious cause, parathyroid involvement, and probably other possible causes, but settled on cancer as the default hypothesis.

    The possible symptoms of hypercalcemia are wide-ranging: for e.g., confusion, memory loss, constipation, abdominal pain, kidney stones, etc. etc. The condition of hypercalcemia is discovered by a simple blood test.

    Has anyone encountered hypercalcemia due to cancer before? 

    Esther

Viewing 5 reply threads
  • Replies
      natasha
      Participant

      Hi ,Esther !

         I am sorry I cannot provide you with information you need. All I can say – I will pray for you and for all cancer patients !

      My nanny battled cancer and she lost

      My cousine is battling lymph cancer now

      I am melanoma patient.

      My heart goes out for everyone and I am asking God to fogive us and stop cancer .

      Best wishes.

      Natasha ,UK

        edamaser
        Participant

        Hi Natasha,

        Thank you for your sympathy, and I'm sending some right back at you.

        Do you have metastatic melanoma?  If so, what treatments have you received?

        Wishing you the best of luck,

        Esther

        natasha
        Participant

        Hi! I am stage 1A so far. Breslow is 0.2 mm Clark2 ,n mitosis no ulceration. I had Wide Excision day before yesterday .

        No more treatment was recommended. I was asking for SNB PET tests or even something ,but seems I am going to get it.   Which treatments did you have ,Esther ?

        Thank you

        edamaser
        Participant

        Hi Natasha,

        You may not believe the following, but truly I have had all the following treatments. At least I'm still here.

        1980- photocoagulation of eye

        1988 plaque radiation of eye

        Starting 2003 the following

        7 immuno-embos of liver-with GMCSF

        Abdominal infusions with Taxol

        Avastin & Nexavar clinical trial

        Surgery removing 2 large peritoneal mets

        Sutent clinical trial

        Cyberknife on two lgrowing liver lesions

        VATS lung surgery–removes two new lesions

        Vaccine/PD-1 troa;

        4 monthly immuno-embos with GMCSF & IL2

        Yervoy

         

        In between I have had surgery as above, but also including several laparoscopies, and both placement and removal of a port.

        I'm still here, and you are too,

        Esther

        edamaser
        Participant

        Hi Natasha,

        You may not believe the following, but truly I have had all the following treatments. At least I'm still here.

        1980- photocoagulation of eye

        1988 plaque radiation of eye

        Starting 2003 the following

        7 immuno-embos of liver-with GMCSF

        Abdominal infusions with Taxol

        Avastin & Nexavar clinical trial

        Surgery removing 2 large peritoneal mets

        Sutent clinical trial

        Cyberknife on two lgrowing liver lesions

        VATS lung surgery–removes two new lesions

        Vaccine/PD-1 troa;

        4 monthly immuno-embos with GMCSF & IL2

        Yervoy

         

        In between I have had surgery as above, but also including several laparoscopies, and both placement and removal of a port.

        I'm still here, and you are too,

        Esther

        edamaser
        Participant

        Hi Natasha,

        You may not believe the following, but truly I have had all the following treatments. At least I'm still here.

        1980- photocoagulation of eye

        1988 plaque radiation of eye

        Starting 2003 the following

        7 immuno-embos of liver-with GMCSF

        Abdominal infusions with Taxol

        Avastin & Nexavar clinical trial

        Surgery removing 2 large peritoneal mets

        Sutent clinical trial

        Cyberknife on two lgrowing liver lesions

        VATS lung surgery–removes two new lesions

        Vaccine/PD-1 troa;

        4 monthly immuno-embos with GMCSF & IL2

        Yervoy

         

        In between I have had surgery as above, but also including several laparoscopies, and both placement and removal of a port.

        I'm still here, and you are too,

        Esther

        natasha
        Participant

        Hi! I am stage 1A so far. Breslow is 0.2 mm Clark2 ,n mitosis no ulceration. I had Wide Excision day before yesterday .

        No more treatment was recommended. I was asking for SNB PET tests or even something ,but seems I am going to get it.   Which treatments did you have ,Esther ?

        Thank you

        natasha
        Participant

        Hi! I am stage 1A so far. Breslow is 0.2 mm Clark2 ,n mitosis no ulceration. I had Wide Excision day before yesterday .

        No more treatment was recommended. I was asking for SNB PET tests or even something ,but seems I am going to get it.   Which treatments did you have ,Esther ?

        Thank you

        edamaser
        Participant

        Hi Natasha,

        Thank you for your sympathy, and I'm sending some right back at you.

        Do you have metastatic melanoma?  If so, what treatments have you received?

        Wishing you the best of luck,

        Esther

        edamaser
        Participant

        Hi Natasha,

        Thank you for your sympathy, and I'm sending some right back at you.

        Do you have metastatic melanoma?  If so, what treatments have you received?

        Wishing you the best of luck,

        Esther

      natasha
      Participant

      Hi ,Esther !

         I am sorry I cannot provide you with information you need. All I can say – I will pray for you and for all cancer patients !

      My nanny battled cancer and she lost

      My cousine is battling lymph cancer now

      I am melanoma patient.

      My heart goes out for everyone and I am asking God to fogive us and stop cancer .

      Best wishes.

      Natasha ,UK

      natasha
      Participant

      Hi ,Esther !

         I am sorry I cannot provide you with information you need. All I can say – I will pray for you and for all cancer patients !

      My nanny battled cancer and she lost

      My cousine is battling lymph cancer now

      I am melanoma patient.

      My heart goes out for everyone and I am asking God to fogive us and stop cancer .

      Best wishes.

      Natasha ,UK

      mzeigler
      Participant

      I'm sorry for your situation with liver mets and your battle with melanoma.  My wife, before she passed away had high calcium levels in her blood.  She had lytic lesions on some of her bones like the femur and pelvic bones.  The bones being damaged by melanoma caused the high calcium levels in her blood.  Some of the symptoms included mental confusion and fatigue before they got her levels lowered.  Mike

        boot2aboot
        Participant

        thanks for letting us know Esther…and yes, that would be very scary…i hope that they get your calcium levels down asap

        boots

        edamaser
        Participant

        Thanks Mike & Boots,

        Tomorrow I'll find out it I have brain mets (previous scan was suspicious), how my calcium level is, and I'll probably get Zometa.

        It never ends, does it?

        Esther

        edamaser
        Participant

        Thanks Mike & Boots,

        Tomorrow I'll find out it I have brain mets (previous scan was suspicious), how my calcium level is, and I'll probably get Zometa.

        It never ends, does it?

        Esther

        edamaser
        Participant

        Thanks Mike & Boots,

        Tomorrow I'll find out it I have brain mets (previous scan was suspicious), how my calcium level is, and I'll probably get Zometa.

        It never ends, does it?

        Esther

        boot2aboot
        Participant

        thanks for letting us know Esther…and yes, that would be very scary…i hope that they get your calcium levels down asap

        boots

        boot2aboot
        Participant

        thanks for letting us know Esther…and yes, that would be very scary…i hope that they get your calcium levels down asap

        boots

      mzeigler
      Participant

      I'm sorry for your situation with liver mets and your battle with melanoma.  My wife, before she passed away had high calcium levels in her blood.  She had lytic lesions on some of her bones like the femur and pelvic bones.  The bones being damaged by melanoma caused the high calcium levels in her blood.  Some of the symptoms included mental confusion and fatigue before they got her levels lowered.  Mike

      mzeigler
      Participant

      I'm sorry for your situation with liver mets and your battle with melanoma.  My wife, before she passed away had high calcium levels in her blood.  She had lytic lesions on some of her bones like the femur and pelvic bones.  The bones being damaged by melanoma caused the high calcium levels in her blood.  Some of the symptoms included mental confusion and fatigue before they got her levels lowered.  Mike

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