I had one Interferon infusion left when I showed my medical oncologist a weird lump on my head in one of our weekly appointments. It seemed like it popped up out of nowhere. He figured that it was probably a keloid scar that was developing, because he hadn't noticed anything when he examined me the week prior. I wanted so badly to believe that it was just scar tissue building up, but I had a feeling that it was more than that. The shooting pains I had with my first melanoma were back too. I sat in the doctors' office for four hours the day they did the biopsy. We found out two days later that the cancer was back and growing faster than before. In just a weeks' time, the raised skin turned into an exposed tumor - bigger than a marble, but smaller than a golf ball. This is when I became really terrified. It wasn't the thought of more surgery or treatment that scared me; it was looking at my mom, stepdad, little brother, loved ones and imagining having to say goodbye. I was so hopeful that the infusions had worked and I was onto the next phase, which might include some sense of normalcy. I had done everything they had told me to in order for this to go away and it wasn't enough. |
Later that day, my oncologist requested we meet with him right away to discuss a spot that showed up in my chest on one of the scans. I would have to get an MRI to confirm that it was just nothing and thank goodness it was clear, finally some hopeful news. Now that we knew exactly where the cancer had spread to, it was time to figure out a new treatment plan. I was given the option to enroll in an upcoming trial at another facility, but that wouldn't be for a couple weeks. A couple days passed when I received notice that I had been approved for this brand new drug so again, we arranged to meet with my doctor immediately. This drug is so new that it wasn't even out when I had my surgery back in February. It was decided that I would begin another series of infusions as early as the following day. I would have started sooner if they were available to us that day. So far, I've only had one treatment and there were hardly any side effects, it was like night and day compared to the Interferon. All we can do now is wait and see if it is working.