I had to share…3 years ago today, my husband was admitted to the hospital for an extremely low blood count. Over the course of the next 2 weeks, he went through many tests, had a small bowel resection and was eventually diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic melanoma. His doctor gave a prognosis of 6-9 months. Over the next 12 months, he endured a thoracotomy, 4 doses of Ipi, Zelboraf, a craniotomy, and gamma knife. About 18 months after his original diagnosis, he had a PETscan that showed NED. He remains that way, as of scans last week (yes, it’s been 3 years!). He has been on zelboraf for 28 months. It’s not been easy…he now has permanent kidney damage, mild brain damage (he struggles with some cognitive skills), a seizure disorder, scars all over, and is exhausted much of the time, BUT, he is alive and we can continue making memories with our 3 boys. What I’m trying to say is to not give up…there is hope and people do live with stage 4 melanoma.
