My initial diagnosis was July '13. Had a very high risk initial tumor (11mm depth, and raised from the skin too). Fortunately the WLE, SLNB and every PET scan (last one Sep 14) since then has been NED.
That was until vision problems led to an MRI 3 weeks ago. 2 brain mets, different lobes, with the visual problems being driven by one of them filling with fluid. The larger had swelled to about ping pong ball size, with the second being 1 cm. Minus the fluid they were both probably equal in size.
The subocciptal craniotomy went extremely well. Surgery on Tuesday and I'm back home Friday night at a pizza party for my son. A full body CT scan (CT only not PET) only showed that a subcutaneous node might be forming near my original site (lower abdomen), otherwise NED.
The next Friday after discharge, I had SRT performed on the second area – front right lobe. I am a math / science guy and was completely fascinated by this procedure and enjoyed every minute of it.
My lab results from the removed brain met came back BRAF positive. Our plan of attack is to start on the BRAF + MEK combo in the next 2 weeks.
So aside from the initial bad news in the ER that my melanoma had spread, this just seems like wave after wave of good news in terms of attacking it in the short term with quite effective methods. Long term who knows, and I'm a "glass half full" kind of guy so I'm not even contemplating my future. I feel like I have as good odds as I'm going to get in terms of beating it back right now, and hopefully keeping it back. I hope everyone dealing with this has the same encouraging news if you ever hit stage 4 also.
Stay strong
Jeff
.
