stage iv

we met with my oncologist today to regroup after getting the results. we had already walked through the stage iv scenario with him before i had surgery so that we would know what to expect, especially since we knew we would get the results from the surgeon before we would see him again.

i am just going to cut to the chase on this one, i don't feel like writing too much tonight.

since the melanoma is out due to the surgery, there are not treatment options that are applicable at this point in time. there are also not clinical studies at scca or locally that would match my current status. so where does that leave us?

i will have scans again in april.

if those scans do not raise any concerns (which we all know will be the case, right?), i will have scans again three months later. if the scans continue to show no areas of concerns, we would likely move to scans every six months at some point.

if the scans do show an area of concern, the next steps could vary - surgery or treatment, or combination of both.

if you look at statistics (and i am currently not a fan of looking at statistics), you would likely find that there is about a roughly 85%ish chance that melanoma will come back. statistics would also tell you that a stage iv patient would have about 12-18 months to live once treatment became a possible course of action.

but statistics are just numbers. they don't represent everyone, i know that to be the case from other stage iv patients that have beaten those odds. i don't plan to live my life around numbers. i know what they are. i know they aren't good. yes, they haunt me. but i am not going to let them define me.

statistics will make some days, like today, a lot tougher than others. there is absolutely no doubt about that. statistics scare the hell out of me. there is absolutely no doubt about that.

i am going to fight like hell. there is absolutely no doubt about that.