I am a male with Metastatic Melanoma Stage 4b. Clinical trials have been saving me. Latest is GSK B-RAF inhibitors. Jan07 Original Site was my left thigh. Removal, sentinel node removal, all clear. Mar09, golf ball in left groin. Removal. Lymphandectomy Jun ’09. Reoccurrence in chest Dec10. Inoperable. BRAF trial Apr ’11, still on trial.

Still thriving as of May 2015!

Diary Entry – Melanoma Patient

Amazing, when I wrote this diary title down – September 2014, I recalled how it was not that long ago that I refused to write dates. For over 2 and a half years, I lived in 3-week blocks. Couldn’t plan anything, couldn’t do anything, because I was so close to being finished. Two stints in a hospice house proved that. Yet here I am today and now I keep track of my entries by writing the date.

So Fall is upon us, the leaves have changed color and are falling in great numbers. The mornings are brisk but the afternoons get warm…well, warm for us up here, I suppose. Went for a good walk today through the forests, I just love the colors and the smells of fall. It was great.

My dizziness still eludes myself and the docs. This is good as it means Mr. C is not visiting at this time but all the same I am frustrated at not being able to get “normal” again. I think I am well enough to go back to work…well, I want to anyway but it certainly won’t work if I can’t get there without falling down.

I read another person’s post about their recovery and how the length of time it takes tends to baffle them. That really helped. The only people I know that have been to the edge like myself and have made it back just aren’t the same people they were going in and have conceded to not working anymore. I am bored without the work and being a part of something bigger. These are long days at home, long, especially when the body is working fairly well compared to what it was. Summer is gone and fall is here, next comes winter so I better find a hobby cause winters are long up here.