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So instead of drinking green beer today, I am sitting here thinking about how to write this. I'm thinking I will just take the "rip the bandaid" off strategy. My Melanoma is back...and according to all of my Dr besties (Thank God for them), it is Stage 3. Which is weird to me, because somehow I just must have slept thru Stage 2. Sigh.
Some of you may know or remember that I had a mole removed on my thigh about 7 years ago that was found to be melanoma. I had a bigger area removed surgically and had scans to make sure it didn't spread past the skin level....and wahlaa it was just a distant memory. I have religiously gone to the dermatologist every year, have been pretty good at listening to my mom about slathering on sunscreen and have been wearing all of her big ugly, floppy sun hats.
So fast forward to now, when you know, there really isn't anything stressful or exciting going on in our life. In the midst of moving our family across the country for Jerome to start his appointment as US Surgeon General, I felt a couple swollen lymph nodes on my bikini line on my melanoma side. Of course when you have a history of melanoma and you find swollen nodes you immediately call the Dr...well, that is unless you are me. If you are me, you wait about 2 months and then casually mention it to your Dr friend, who proceeds to FREAK OUT...and then you call the Dr.
So to make a long story short (too late)...one of good things about being out here (and Jerome's position) is that they have something called Executive Medicine at Walter Reed Military Hospital. I went in the same day that I called, and before they even saw me in person I had a PET scan and CAT scan scheduled for the next two days. So the PET scan showed that I have three lymph nodes that have something going on in them (I don't know the correct lingo)...basically they are about 2-3cm big and have cancer activity in them. We won't know if it's truly Melanoma until they biopsy them, but since they are nodes right next to the old site, it's pretty much a no brainer.
So what's next? I meet with an Oncology team (that sounds scary) on Tuesday to form a plan. There are different ways to attack this, so they need to figure out what's best. It will most likely be a combination of surgery, radiation and then a year of immunotherapy (which I have been told is like chemo without the side effects...fingers crossed that is true, because, I have been growing my hair for a long time, so will not be happy if I start losing it!). And then...let's all pray, hope and beg that it will be WAHLAA...a distant memory once again.
Thanks for all the love and prayers.
XOXO,
Lacey