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Melanoma Diagnosis

jambolino
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I am a 60-year-old male, I am physically active, with weight in proportion to height; My BMI is fine. I do Pilates enjoy long walks and horse riding. I have never felt better. I do not drink or smoke and eat healthily.

About three months ago I noticed a small bump just above my left collar bone and didn’t really take much notice of it; a month ago the lump had grown to the size of a golf ball. I saw my GP during lock down who said the lump looked ‘suspicious’ He sent me for a full set of blood tests and referred me on the two-week cancer pathway for more investigation. The blood tests all came back fine.

I had a telephone consultation with a doctor at the hospital, because I did not have any of the red flag cancer symptoms, he took me off the cancer pathway. Now being a little concerned I went and saw a consultant ENT surgeon privately within a day, he performed an endoscopy of my nose and throat and everything looked fine but as the lump was in a bit of a funny place he could not be sure what it was so ordered further tests.

I had an MRI scan of my neck; Ultrasound and a biopsy of the lump. A week later the consultant contacted me to say the biopsy results were inconclusive and indicated abnormal cells; possibly cancer so he ordered a more invasive punch biopsy and a whole-body PET scan to indicate if the cancer had spread

.I had an urgent phone call yesterday to go to the hospital, I saw my consultant and have been diagnosed with stage 4 Melanoma; this has now also spread to my Liver; Lungs and Spine. The lump on my neck is an infected Lymph node.

The hospital is currently devising a treatment plan; possibly Immunotherapy but without any treatment I will probably have six months to live but I am a positive upbeat person and am determined to make the best of what time I have and try to beat this. Maybe if I had got the lump checked when it was just a small bump; things might have been different, I don’t know; I now have to look to the future and move on.

What I really cannot get my head around is that I feel fine, I can walk miles, run without getting out of breath I have no loss of appetite and haven’t lost any  weight, I eat well’ I do not have any abnormal moles and my blood tests all came back perfect; apart from the lump on my neck there is no indication whatsoever that anything is wrong with me; I have no symptoms at all.

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    Hi,

    I'm so sorry you find yourself in this position, especially as you feel so fit & well. That's the problem with melanoma - if there is no obvious dodgy looking mole the first thing you notice is a painless lump. Sometimes even a lump doesn't appear and the first sign is the pain or symptoms from the metastasis to an organ, bones or the brain. Melanoma is so unpredicatable & it doesn't even show up in blood tests - that's why your bloods were fine. Australia are currently researching a blood test that will pick up melanoma but it's still in it's trial phase.

    It's not unusual for someone to have melanoma and have no obvious 'mole' - sadly dodgy moles can regress and disappear but they've already caused their damage internally & this sounds like what has happened to you.

    Because you haven't any symptoms (weight loss, pain etc) there is hopefully a chance that immunotherapy may be able to work it's magic quickly. If you don't mind, I will send you a friend request. If you accept it I can send you more information by private message - I think you may find it helpful.

    Keep up the positivity and I hope the treatment plan is put into place quickly,

    Angie (Stage 3 melanoma patient)

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