Well, I won’t mince words, I’m beyond happy to say goodbye to another personally atrocious, melanoma-filled August and hello to another September filled with hope!
Last August was when I was diagnosed with a very painful recurrence in my stomach, after 18 glorious months of stability and being off treatment. This August, I battled through the endless , frustrating process of trying to start a clinical trial while the mass in my stomach grew painfully during my 1.5 months of treatment washout. I’ve struggled with exhaustion, eating, stomach pain, fear, anxiety and constant discomfort. We cancelled all of our travel plans while we constantly worked through new treatment schedule “plans” and now with the surge of Delta, I fear I’ve lost the chance to meet my niece who lives across the country before she turns 1.
All that aside, on September 2 I received my first doses of the STING agent and officially kicked off my first clinical trial. I’m already dealing with some expected side effects — fever/chills, headache, a bit of heart racing, exhaustion, injection site pain and some different stomach discomfort where my stomach mass exists — but boy have I never been more excited to have side effects and not just cancer symptoms!
The first 15 days of this trial I’ll receive 4 STING injections (two at a time). Then, on the 28th day I’ll start my second round of the Ipi/Nivo combo. This combo will be a bit more spread out though — I’ll receive Nivo every 4 weeks (for 30 months) and 4 doses of Ipi every 8 weeks. I’m hoping the spread out nature of this combo will help me to not develop hepatitis like I did last time. I’m also very excited because Ipi/Nivo was extremely effective on my melanoma and I’m hoping the second round with the STING agent will deliver even more durable results.
If anyone else has or is participating in a similar study, I’d love to hear from you. No matter who you are though I’m sending you all positive vibes for effective treatment, great quality life and what we all want more than anything…treatment durability!
Cheers!
Amanda
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