Hi Mike, I read your bio back in August and your story and message has been really inspirational to us! I’m the friend Askingforafriend was asking for – that sounds super confusing, and I’m also a Mike!
And Bubbles, or C on your blog, your blog has been a gift! I’ve been trawling through it and learned so much that I couldn’t have done without it, so thank you for sharing!
It’s been two months since we originally got the diagnosis (my mum is the patient) and it has been a rollercoaster journey ever since! Initially the scan showed cancer in my mum’s liver, stomach, spline and lungs, and they later found that it has spread to her bones in her spine, as well as spreading to her skull and brain. She underwent targeted radiotherapy for her back and brain for about 2 weeks, and as she was undergoing treatment she had a number of complications – risk of hypercalcemia because of the bone metastatis, lung infection and fluid in her lungs, low phosphate levels. She was very ill and we weren’t sure she would be able to leave hospital, but thankfully she started to make a recovery from the complications.
It turned out she was BRAF positive and in mid august she started the BRAF and MEK inhibitor targeted treatments. She was discharged at the beginning of September and since then has been doing alot better, with her pain finally under control and able to walk again! She recently had a checkup and they think she’s responding well to the treatment, which is hopefully the awesome meds you talked about doing the work and we’re really hopeful ahead of her scan next month.
I’ve found it hard to digest more information about Melanoma in the last few weeks after the frantic researching in the first few weeks, but I now feel ready again to talk more and get to know great people like you both with inspiring stories. We’re feeling extremely positive and grateful right now, and it means a lot that we have support and are not alone 🙂
