Slow Growing Metastatic Melanoma

The only reason I created this web page was to see if any other people had metastatic melanoma like I have.. 

The first time was in 1991, while the 2nd occurrence was in 2005. The first one was considered to be in its early stage, removed from my back, and I was on my way.  The medical insurance threw away the pathology report after 12 years, so that does not help.

The 2nd occurrence was considered slow-growing, dime-sized and on the dura of my brain. It was more dramatic as I had a grand mal seizure so an ambulance had to take me to the hospital. So as I understand it, it's unusual to have a primary site from 14 years ago.

Now I am maintenance mode.  MRIs and PET/CT scans every three months.  Which is good.

The 3rd occurance was in my right lung. They performed a resection, Dec. 27, 2006, which went fine. Problem with lung surgeries is that they deflate the lung, then reinflate. Takes a few weeks to recover.

OK the 4th occurance was again on the dura of my brain. My doctor calls this "berry-picking". Works for me. They tried to do a gamma-knife procedure, but the head gear couldn't fit on my big head. So a couple of weeks later I had the cyber-knife procedure, Feb 2, 2007. Took a few months for that area to get back to normal, but no unexpected problems.

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