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Super congrats! Hope you celebrated for days!

John, thanks so much for your joyful post! Wonderful to read of your enduring good health. Timely for me as am getting scans tomorrow. Last time I was at the 2 year mark, docs told me melanoma had spread. Hoping for better news this go round. And so your uplifting words resound.

Wishing you all continued good health,

Cindy

Jenn, so much congrats to you! Your five years is well within sight. Hope you are planning a fabulous celebration.

Best,

Cindy

Grace, thank you for sharing your story and I am glad that you are feeling so much better. Something that I have struggled with as a survivor is that melanoma does not always progress/get treated in a linear way. But so fortunately, our amazing docs and researchers have/are developing more than one trick up their sleeve to outsmart the disease. Best to you, and hope that you are back to running very soon.

Cindy

Jen, wonderful news! Happy New Year to you.

Very sad about MarkR. His getting treatment in Israel (based in part on his amazing donors, which must have made him feel greatly cared for and supported) sounded so promising. Thinking of his family.

Wow so much to catch up on in these 3 weeks since I’ve been off the forum. The brain mets/low survival study sounds heavy (as a symptomatic brain met survivor). The loss of MarkR. Celeste’s news about increased chance for other cancers. But good news as well with new and promising treatments. All goes in the compost heap, doesn’t it? Happy New Year, all. Celeste and Ed, thank you for keeping us educated.

Yay! This is wonderful news! Much congrats.

Marc,

Much congrats on your 5 years! Ottawa is a beautiful place. Am sure your music makes it more so.

Best,

Cindy

Marc,

Much congrats on your 5 years! Ottawa is a beautiful place. Am sure your music makes it more so.

Best,

Cindy

Dear Amanda, so hard. Good to know you had a response from the ipi/nivo. My doc says that if my cancer returns, I will go right back on the combo as it seems to have kept it at bay. I think response takes a bit of time. Fingers so crossed for you to have a durable response.

This is wonderful, Christina! I don’t have any. But my melanoma specialist doc says it is a good sign of a response. Wear it proudly.

Hi Amanda, I often think of you and hope that you are doing well. Only to add to those above, how about a daily avocado and some of the higher fat nuts, such as cashews and macadamian? And as much olive oil as you tolerate, added to your cooked veggies. Hang in there and keep us posted as you can.

It is scary but this is a different era for brain mets. I was NED for 2 years (after a recurrence) when 3 brain mets popped up. SRS (including 1 to a tumor almost too big to zap with this protocol and inaccessible through surgery), taking steroids while getting immunotherapy which is supposedly a no no as it is thought to compromise effectiveness, and only being able to get 1 of the 4 recommended combo ipi/nivo due to immediate side effects (as in, started the day after treatment). Pretty comparable to the way I’ve lived my life, not in a direct fashion and not as typically considered optimal! But 2 weeks ago, got a continued all clear from my doc. This brings me to 1.5 years again NED. And happy words from my doc such as that this could have been a limited, regional recurrence. Hang in there. Stay strong.

Wow. Thanks for sharing this, both of you. My latest CT report was way more descriptive than previously and noted minimal calcification on non-aortic arteries. Oh boy. Will be following up.