My melanoma treatment update.

I haven't been following your story but I'm interested. Getting my yearly skin check that is going on two years, in a couple weeks. Best to you....

It was found by chance.

That's why I am going to kick the shit out of this melanoma. All of the doctors have said, this is unusually.

when I go in. I am a bit of a hypochondriac. At stage two though, I think you will absolutely kick its ass. !!!

Sucks that when you are already in a stressful medical situation, that there has to be even more stress trying to get proper treatment. I’m glad you stuck it out, and I wish you full and complete recovery and health

quickly.

They get worse by the day I swear. God's speed for a complete recovery and for a successful procedure.

Staging depends on a lot of things that they can't determine until surgery (mitotic activity - how many cells are dividing (which bumped me up a grade - the deeper portion was dividing faster ) and (2) size (I can't be staged, since mine was taken out in two parts - but radiology is imprecise as to size)

Glad you got things resolved and have sugery calendared!

However, the doctor I talked to today said level 3 is very treatable and level 4 no longer means a death sentence. Level 4 is still bad news. There is no chemo involved in treatment. It looks like I will get one year of the new immunotherapy treatments. They say these treatments are game changers in many cancers.

But fortunately, I caught mine early so outlook looks signficantly better than for most people with sarcoma.

Must be a huge relief, but it’s a damn shame you had to also deal with this stress that was somebody else’s fault.

Paz.

It sounds like your doctors are taking good care of you. Best wishes for a quick recovery.

And Fuck Trump!

It's good to have your surgery early as possible.

I was diagnosed with nodular melanoma in January 2005; stage 3C. Had surgery two weeks later. Have been in remission ever since.

You might want to check out this forum: https://forum.melanoma.org/ The patients there helped me a lot navigating my path forward.

And easy healing. You will be fine!

Good luck to you and I hope everything turns out favorably.

Or very little, anyway. They're used to the way things are, and the current situation is working okay for them, so they don't see a problem. Until one day, our jacked up health care "system" bites them or someone they personally care about on the ass.

Maybe they lose the job that they've always relied on for health insurance, and are surprised at how hard it is to find another one with equally good benefits, or they need a treatment their insurance company doesn't want to approve. Or the copay for a drug they can't survive without suddenly goes through the roof. The list goes on and on, but the bottom line is, something they've been taking for granted suddenly just isn't there, and they realize what they've been relying on was a flimsy house of cards all along instead of the rock solid guarantee they thought it was. And they go, "Wow, this really is messed up, isn't it?"

Add to that the fact that way too many Americans are ill-informed about how health care works in other countries compared to the U.S., or how our health care falls short. Too many people believe that America has the "best health care system in the world," because that's what they've been told all their lives, and get all huffy if you try to explain why it actually isn’t. What's really needed, imo, is a massive public education program. But that costs money, so good luck with that. Especially since the insurance companies have loads of money to spend on lobbying to keep things the way they are.

Bonne chance, et bien sante!!!

Oh, yeah. Definitely Fuck Trump.

I had a longtime friend die from that 4 years ago. Apparently it had spread to the rest of his body.

A friend of mine had melanoma and it was Stage 2 when they discovered it. That was 20 years ago and she’s turning 80 this year.

Thank you for keeping us up to date!

Continued success towards a healthy outcome!

And, congrats on your new squeaky wheel status. Oh, and fk Trump.

but I appreciate the sentiment.

Glad your treatment is going to happen.

You succeeded over the hard part, the insurance company.

The rest should be easy!

Y si, #@$ el p#@$#@ p#@# p#$@$##!

Have a great day!