Update for CaptAaron

Hi,

Glad to hear things are going well with Interferon. I am curious to know the rationale for your doctor to prescribe Interferon instead of other treatments.Thanks 

Hi,

Glad to hear things are going well with Interferon. I am curious to know the rationale for your doctor to prescribe Interferon instead of other treatments.Thanks 

You are right that staging should be more individual, and it is..those staging guidelines have to be done in some kind of scientific way, but each patient should be treating as an individual. It is not always so cut and dried. If you hang around here for a while, you'll see people who can't even get their doctors to give them a stage..because it's ambiguous.

Using myself as an example. I advanced to stage 3 in 2003 when a lump formed on my arm at the site of a previous melanoma. My SNB was clear, but the surgeon found two satelitte mets when doing the wide excision, which put me at stage 3. Except that the original mel at that site was 'in situ' in 1983. Something that never should have 'spread'

The staging wasn't as important to me as the treatment at that point, which was interferon, which I did.

Then in late 2008, I progressed to stage 4 via distant subcutaneous tumors in my left leg.

Since then I've talked to PLENTY of doctors about staging, and in so doing have discussed the basis of my stage 3 diagnosis back in 03. Two of those docs agree with me that I might have just as easily been stage 4 in 03, maybe was, probably was..for the same reason. If my surgical onc had seen me prior to my dermatologist excision, that tumor in 03 might have been classed as a 'distant subcutaneous tumor', making me stage 4 just like the tumors in 08.

I'm not sure it matters particularly if I have been stage 4 for two years or 7 yrs. I'm NED! and so are YOU. That's the thing to celebrate and remember. With melanoma, you just have to deal with whatever it throws at you right when it happens. It's ..charlie used to call it 'capricious'. it is definately unpredictable.

But right now, it is Aaron 1, Melanoma 0.

OH.. I meant to mention to you that MY first subQ shot after 'boot camp' was hard too. And.. my first shot of every week was always a little bit tougher than the other two. Because of that, I changed my shots to Sunday, Tues, and Thurs. This way.. I had a little rally for the weekend. I had a lot of musical stuff to do on the weekends so it worked out pretty well to have more energy then.

I had to quit interferon in my 9th month, but probably should have quit in my 6th..since that's when the fatigue and coughing and weight loss really hit it's pinnacle.

Good luck to you Aaron. Thanks for updating us. I just have a feeling are gonna do GREAT. you have the fighting spirit!

Dian

You are right that staging should be more individual, and it is..those staging guidelines have to be done in some kind of scientific way, but each patient should be treating as an individual. It is not always so cut and dried. If you hang around here for a while, you'll see people who can't even get their doctors to give them a stage..because it's ambiguous.

Using myself as an example. I advanced to stage 3 in 2003 when a lump formed on my arm at the site of a previous melanoma. My SNB was clear, but the surgeon found two satelitte mets when doing the wide excision, which put me at stage 3. Except that the original mel at that site was 'in situ' in 1983. Something that never should have 'spread'

The staging wasn't as important to me as the treatment at that point, which was interferon, which I did.

Then in late 2008, I progressed to stage 4 via distant subcutaneous tumors in my left leg.

Since then I've talked to PLENTY of doctors about staging, and in so doing have discussed the basis of my stage 3 diagnosis back in 03. Two of those docs agree with me that I might have just as easily been stage 4 in 03, maybe was, probably was..for the same reason. If my surgical onc had seen me prior to my dermatologist excision, that tumor in 03 might have been classed as a 'distant subcutaneous tumor', making me stage 4 just like the tumors in 08.

I'm not sure it matters particularly if I have been stage 4 for two years or 7 yrs. I'm NED! and so are YOU. That's the thing to celebrate and remember. With melanoma, you just have to deal with whatever it throws at you right when it happens. It's ..charlie used to call it 'capricious'. it is definately unpredictable.

But right now, it is Aaron 1, Melanoma 0.

OH.. I meant to mention to you that MY first subQ shot after 'boot camp' was hard too. And.. my first shot of every week was always a little bit tougher than the other two. Because of that, I changed my shots to Sunday, Tues, and Thurs. This way.. I had a little rally for the weekend. I had a lot of musical stuff to do on the weekends so it worked out pretty well to have more energy then.

I had to quit interferon in my 9th month, but probably should have quit in my 6th..since that's when the fatigue and coughing and weight loss really hit it's pinnacle.

Good luck to you Aaron. Thanks for updating us. I just have a feeling are gonna do GREAT. you have the fighting spirit!

Dian