Hi Everbody.
Hi Everbody.
I joined this forum in the hopes of finding out what new treatments and trials were out there. My husband, Erik was diagnosed with Stage 2 melanoma in 1998 and after a wider excision, he was given BCG injections for 3 years. We thought we had kissed this disease goodbye but then in 2004 it reared it's ugly head again. Erik found a swollen lymph node under his left arm and our worst fears were confirmed. What followed was 6 months of low dose interferon followed by 6 months of decarbazine and then a further 6 months of Interferon. He then had radiation under his arm. We held our breath and waited and years went by and we slowly put the dreaded MM to the back of our minds. For another 6 years Erik was NED. Then in May 2011 we decided to move our family from South Africa to Norway to give our young sons a better life. All was going well and then on the 8th of November 2011we received the devastating news that not only had the melanoma returned but that he had multiple tumours. Erik was a courageous viking warrior and he was not going to give up without a fight. He had too much to live for! After 6 long agonizing weeks while we waited for BRAF results from Germany, he finally got the go ahead to start the Zelboraf trial. On the 18 of December he started the trial and the results were nothing short of miraculous! Within a week all the soft tissue tumours had disappeared. Before starting treatment, Erik was unable to walk as he had a massive tumour pushing on the side of his spinal cord. Within 2 days he was walking absolutely perfectly again and he did not get out of breath when walking 10 paces. He read Lance Armstrong's book and was inspired to do the same. Each day he would have a little ritual when he took his bombs (as he called them) He would talk to each one and imagine it attacking a specific tumour. We had a wonderful Christmas and things were going well. Then at the end of January Erik had a seizure. A MRI revealed 9 spots on the brain but as they had not scanned the brain previously, we were not sure if they had been there all along. Erik had his first protocol CT on the 8 of February and his oncologist was thrilled with the results. All the tumours had shrunk, some more significantly than others. Two weeks later he was in a lot of pain again. He had significant pain in his right thigh and groin area. After not being able to control the pain effectively with Oxycontin and Oxynorm, we went back to the oncology ward at the hospital where they admitted him. Further CT's and MRI's revealed that in 2 short weeks the Zelboraf had stopped working and the tumours were all back to their original size and bigger. On top of this, Erik developed an infection that they were battling to fight. He managed 1 day of decarbazine but his infection levels were to high to continue. Erik never gave up and when given the bad news he would just say, "okay, what next" Sadly this courageous husband and father passed away on the 6th of March after a battle bravely fought. It was just 2 days before his 44th birthday. I have been so inspired by reading all your stories and I would often relay them to Erik. This is the first time that I have posted on this forum but I felt I owed it to my brave husband to share his story. I wish all of you many years of NED!
Leanne
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