JulieO

Monica

You CAN survive.  I am stage IIIB and my lesion was deep and ulcerated on my left ankle.  I had a melanoma positive node in my knee based on the Sentinal Node Biopsy.  I did one month high dose interferon, then made it through 4-5 more months of low dose and then stopped.  That was 6 years ago and I have never looked back, other than to appreciate EVERY day of my life, love my family even more and value all the lessons that experience taught me.  Probably the best advice I believe I could give you is to try, try, try not to let the unknown about your melanoma consume you.  I know you are waiting for some results right now, which is tough.  But in the bigger picture of your diagnosis, trying to figure out exactly what is going to happen to you is impossible.  It is a complete waste of time and in fact, if you let your thoughts consume you and over take your life right now, the melanoma has partially already "grown" inside of you by making you worry so much you give up actually living your life right now.  I know how upsetting this dx is and how hard it is to try to live a normal life right now…..but once you realize that worrying or researching constantly about your disease will NOT change your outcome, you will start to feel free to live life again.  When you really think about it, NObody on this earth knows what their future holds…when they will get sick or when they may be in an accident or when they may even die.  Being dx with cancer sure seems to put you closer to some of these worries, but until that day really comes, worrying about it will not make it come later or sooner.  Melanoma is such an unpredictable cancer….it's hard to hold on to the statistics because as you will see here on this website, they are beaten every day.  So if you can, try to let go of figuring this all out….take each day as it comes, do what treatment you feel comfortable with, and run with it.  Hang in there, let people help you, and take good care of yourself.  I'm sorry that you are dealing with this.  

Monica

You CAN survive.  I am stage IIIB and my lesion was deep and ulcerated on my left ankle.  I had a melanoma positive node in my knee based on the Sentinal Node Biopsy.  I did one month high dose interferon, then made it through 4-5 more months of low dose and then stopped.  That was 6 years ago and I have never looked back, other than to appreciate EVERY day of my life, love my family even more and value all the lessons that experience taught me.  Probably the best advice I believe I could give you is to try, try, try not to let the unknown about your melanoma consume you.  I know you are waiting for some results right now, which is tough.  But in the bigger picture of your diagnosis, trying to figure out exactly what is going to happen to you is impossible.  It is a complete waste of time and in fact, if you let your thoughts consume you and over take your life right now, the melanoma has partially already "grown" inside of you by making you worry so much you give up actually living your life right now.  I know how upsetting this dx is and how hard it is to try to live a normal life right now…..but once you realize that worrying or researching constantly about your disease will NOT change your outcome, you will start to feel free to live life again.  When you really think about it, NObody on this earth knows what their future holds…when they will get sick or when they may be in an accident or when they may even die.  Being dx with cancer sure seems to put you closer to some of these worries, but until that day really comes, worrying about it will not make it come later or sooner.  Melanoma is such an unpredictable cancer….it's hard to hold on to the statistics because as you will see here on this website, they are beaten every day.  So if you can, try to let go of figuring this all out….take each day as it comes, do what treatment you feel comfortable with, and run with it.  Hang in there, let people help you, and take good care of yourself.  I'm sorry that you are dealing with this.