Completed Keytruda Treatment 11 on 3/8, uneventful and side effects since infusion #8 have been pretty minor.
Last week On March 1st I identified a very small lump in the incision from my clnd/parotidectomy May of 17. Along with that very small lump comes all of the worries we are all familiar with. Since I knew I was coming down to MSK for treatment on 3/8 I contacted MSK and they set up additional testing for me to determine what was going on. To echo the advice that bubbles, ed and Janner give to all new people, go to a melanoma specialist at a major cancer facility. I competed labs, ultrasound, infusion, oncologist visit, visit with surgeon, and biopsy in 3.5 hours. Everyone was fantastic and it’s more than worth the minor inconvenience of driving 4.5 hours to get here every three weeks.
When I met with the surgeon, he looked at my neck and immediately knew with very high certainty what the lump was. It was only 5-6 mm. He sent me for a biopsy just for confirmation. The biopsy was conclusive and not conclusive at the same time. The pathologist made two attempts to get a sample but each time all that was obtained was fibrous material, no cells. I encouraged him to try a third time but because of what he got the first two attempts he stopped and agreed wth the surgeons conclusion.
So for everyone that has had a parotidectomy/clnd of the neck this might be of interest. The lump that I found was a neuroma. During the surgery, a nerve that runs through the neck up to the nerve has to be cut. Apparently it’s very common for the cut nerve to form a neuroma. I had felt the lump 10000 times since last week but when the surgeon felt it he also squeezed it and it hurt, kind of confirming his diagnosis. I still can’t figure out why he squeezed it the second time, I guess confirmation or my wife asked him too since I might have been a major PIA the last week. Also of interest, it has been 10 months since my surgery so it doesn’t have to happen immediately.
hope that this information might help someone else, keep fighting,
Bill
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