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I urgently need help or advice
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I urgently need help or advice

› Forums › General Melanoma Community › I urgently need help or advice

  • Post
    • December 2, 2023 at 1:37 am
    Dwwash
    Participant
      I was on a 17 round protocol of Keytruda. I had some side effects, but nothing I couldn’t tolerate, so my Doctor said why don’t we do one more treatment since I was tolerating them so well. My Glucose level at that time was always in the 90’s.
      Well, 18 kicked my year and I started having massive weight loss (20 pounds in a week, without trying), urinary issues, a cough that was never there before, and my eyesight got blurry.

      I went in today for a Pet Scan, but was turned away because all of the sudden my Glucose was 311! I went to a urologist and he said he has seen this before if you took too much Keytruda. So bottom line is this, right now I am diabetic and I am shocked and crushed. All of the above systems were a symptom of the Diabetic diagnosis.

      Any encountered this or heard of it. I guess I traded cancer for diabetes.

      Any help or advice is welcome and will this go away eventually or am I stuck with this for life. By the way, over 300 is extremely dangerous. I don’t know where to turn to learn about this.

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    • Replies
        • December 2, 2023 at 8:05 am
        stevek1959x
        Participant
          I had 26 treatments of Nivolumab every two weeks. Approximately 2 months after my last treatment I developed some of the same symptoms you mentioned (excluding weight loss). I had my glucose checked and I was close to 500. I had it checked a month earlier and it was in the normal range. I also developed fairly extensive vitiligo about the same time. The good news was that immunotherapy really fired up my immune system. I was diagnosed in 2018 and had 31 lymph nodes removed of which 8 had melanoma. I remain NED today. Unfortunately I am still diabetic and require insulin daily. Yep, traded cancer for diabetes. I’ve heard this is fairly rare (<1%) and some folks their pancreas actually recovers. Unfortunately my didn’t.
          • January 18, 2024 at 11:39 pm
          Christinad
          Participant
            I am now a type 1 diabetic and on insulin after 2 1/2 years of immunotherapy. I ended up in the ICU with diabetic ketoacidosis. I’m still on immunotherapy but unfortunately will be insulin dependent for the rest of my life.
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