Sorry for the long wait between posts, but there hasn’t been much to tell. Today we traveled to a nearby city to see the specialized oncologist my local oncologist had referred me to a few weeks ago. The visit was good, but turned out to be a bit long. I was examined by this new oncologist and they confirmed for me that my PET/CT scan results were indeed clear and that immunotherapy is the treatment they want to pursue now.

The other treatment options (further lymph node removal and radiation) my local oncologist had mentioned during that last visit are apparently “older” options and don’t actually work very well on melanoma. I was told neither option would bring my recurrence chances down more than about five percent. This new oncologist said that they don’t like to use those treatment options anymore, except in very specific situations where the immunotherapy is not possible. They also explained that the “treatment” the oncologists have been talking to me about is not a treatment for any cancer I may currently have, they did confirm I’m currently clean, but it is done more as a preventative measure to help lower the chances of recurrence. Currently they said that considering the 3b (IIIB) staging, the chance of recurrence sits around 62%, but the immunotherapy treatment should cut that down to about 30-35%.

After he was done with his part, the oncologist we originally came to see referred us to a hematologist he works with on the same floor, who then gave us some more detailed information about my treatment situation and was able to answer our questions without leaving us confused this time. 🙂 Today we were impressed enough with the doctors we spoke to, and their staff, that we have decided we want to transfer my ongoing care and preventative treatments to them rather than continue with my local oncologist. They really seem to have it together at this facility. They examined me, gave us a lot of detailed information, got me registered as a new patient and gave us a treatment plan and scheduled me for follow up visits all within the span of just a few hours. It did take longer than we had initially planned, but both Michelle and myself feel much better about this arrangement.

I am scheduled to return in a few weeks to start getting the immunotherapy medicine, which is apparently a going to be administered though an IV, and we were told it only takes between 30 and 60 minutes to complete the treatment each time I come in. I’ll be returning every three weeks for the next year to get the medicine infusions and I’ll also be returning every three months for follow up scans to keep an eye on any possible signs of recurrence.

The medicine is unfortunately quite expensive so they helped us apply for financial aid today in order to lessen that cost (how much it is lessened depends on the response to the application.) They told us this medicine is $9,000.00 per infusion, which will get very expensive very fast if I’m supposed to be going in every three weeks with no financial aid or insurance to cut that cost down. Open enrollment for insurance is coming up soon, so I’ll be trying again to get insurance on November 1^st in order get that health insurance coverage as soon as possible! Hopefully, once I do get insurance, I’ll only have to pay full price for the services rendered and medicine that has been administered prior to January 1, 2024.