Uncertain

Could be issues with hormones, Nivo can affect the thyroid and other hormone glands, this should be brought up to his oncologist right away and all thyroid blood tests should be done. The other thing that comes to mind is brain tumor, so a brain MRI is also warranted with this behavior. Wishing your husband the best and that it's nothing serious, but definitely call his oncologist tomorrow.

Dear dhva,

sorry thar your son and you are going through this. From my experience its more likely to be the diagnosis than the nivo – there are side effects but many of us have been lucky with these, the main one is fatigue but my guess is that light exercise can deal with this and i guess you son can do this.

i do get kind of grumpy, especially after scans, when things dont seem to be going better. Or just the diagnosis changes your perspective, for me small things matter to me less and i become frustrated when others complain about (what seem to me!) “small” things. At same time though i am very grateful for small good things and try to take celestes and jenns approach to life even if i cannot manage this!

my concrete suggestion is to encourage your son to see a psychologist or someone like that. My nurse offerred this early on, but i did not bother. If i did become more depressed or suffer a reversal then i will definitely do this.  But it should be his choice, but i hope the doctor has made this option available and your son considers this. He has a lot going on (as do you of course)

good luck and hope your son will soon feel better, both the melanoma and his mood too

Mark

I would suggest that you ask to speak to the patient advocate.  Explain the situation and they can suggest someone you should talk to.  My daughter  (she was a teen at the time) was having trouble on a surgery day and the more flustered she became someone called the patient advocate and she asked many questions and helped us quite a bit.  She did not have melanoma but should be the same thing.

My thoughts are on track with Jenn's. Nivo side effects listed do include: Hormone abnormalities: Immune reactions can affect the pituitary, thyroid, pancreas and adrenal glands, resulting in inflammation of these glands, which can affect their production of certain hormones. Some hormone levels can be monitored with blood work. It is important that you report any changes in how you are feeling to your care team.

Symptoms of these hormonal changes can include: headaches, nausea, vomiting, constipation, rapid heart rate, increased sweating, extreme fatigue, weakness, changes in your voice, changes in memory and concentration, increased hunger or thirst, increased urination, weight gain, hair loss, dizziness, feeling cold all the time, and changes in mood or behavior (including irritability, forgetfulness and decreased sex drive).

However… if I remember correctly, your son showed a previous left occipital issue. When is the last time he had a brain MRI? Occipital region doesn't tend to affect mood, but you just never know for sure. Hind sight after finding a lesion in my left frontal lobe explained the unreasonable levels of anger I was feeling over some really mundane things. I remember my husband pointing out just how extra "crabby" (I think he was being polite with use of terms due to this… ummm… "crabby" personality change) I was being. I knew I'd been angry. Like PMS to the tenth degree. However, this was before I experienced a seizure and was diagnosed stage IV… soooooo… neither of us ever would have expected "brain tumor". THAT SAID… since he's been on Nivo… the drug could indeed be the culprit kicking at his hormones, because that drug is known to work on brain lesions. Sounds like a hormone level blood test and a current MRI might be in order.