Please Help!

I'm not sure if any of you can help me but I'm going crazy.  I had an abdominal ct done because of some mild left upper quadrant pain.  The report came back that I have a possible hyperenhancing lesion in the far left side of my liver!  I have to have a PET scan done now to rule out a recurrence of melanoma.  ( i had stage 1, clarks 2 in my left upper thigh 8 years ago).  The reason I say possible lesion is because the radiologist only can see this lesion on one picture and thinks it could also just be artifact.  I had another picture in the same series that also showed artifact in a close but different location.  I am so scared and I hate waiting until Monday to talk to the drs!!  I just don't understand because I just had my annual chest x-ray, cbc, and liver enzymes drawn last week and they were all normal.  I also had an abdominal ct scan in early oct for an ovarian cyst and it was completely normal.

I'm getting about 10-13 more moles removed on Wednesday just because I always have a tendency to grow weird moles.  I get my pictures taken yearly at a melanoma clinic and I've had about 15 normal moles removed since I was first diagnosed.  According to my pictures from September, none of my moles have made any huge significant change since then.  Anyone have any input for me on any of this??  I'm only 26 with an almost 2 year old and I'm so frightened!!!!

On 4/1/2007 Kah21 wrote:

I'm not sure if any of you can help me but I'm going crazy.  I had an abdominal ct done because of some mild left upper quadrant pain.  The report came back that I have a possible hyperenhancing lesion in the far left side of my liver!  I have to have a PET scan done now to rule out a recurrence of melanoma.  ( i had stage 1, clarks 2 in my left upper thigh 8 years ago).  The reason I say possible lesion is because the radiologist only can see this lesion on one picture and thinks it could also just be artifact.  I had another picture in the same series that also showed artifact in a close but different location.  I am so scared and I hate waiting until Monday to talk to the drs!!  I just don't understand because I just had my annual chest x-ray, cbc, and liver enzymes drawn last week and they were all normal.  I also had an abdominal ct scan in early oct for an ovarian cyst and it was completely normal.

I'm getting about 10-13 more moles removed on Wednesday just because I always have a tendency to grow weird moles.  I get my pictures taken yearly at a melanoma clinic and I've had about 15 normal moles removed since I was first diagnosed.  According to my pictures from September, none of my moles have made any huge significant change since then.  Anyone have any input for me on any of this??  I'm only 26 with an almost 2 year old and I'm so frightened!!!!

The chance of stage 1 recurring is pretty slim, especially after 8 years.  However, you have to wait for the PET to be sure.  Since everything else looks good, try to remain positive.

At the age of fifteen, I noticed a small spot on my chest which began to grow. My doctor said it was nothing and to just watch it. When I was sixteen and a junior in high school, the spot had changed in color, size, shape, and boarders. I visited a dermatologist who just glancing at it said "it wasn’t good". In January 2000, I underwent surgery to remove the mole and I was diagnosed with Melanoma.

The cancer had spread. I had two more surgeries in three months where my lymph nodes under my left arm where removed. Later, I learned my grandma and my grandpa had Melanoma as well. Around my 17th birthday I started a year of interferon treatments. I missed a lot of school because I always felt like I had a bad flu. On my 18th birthday I finished treatments just in time to go to my senior prom and graduation. I was so happy to be cancer free.

After this experience I thought I could do anything and I left home to go to college in New York. I was cancer free for five years. My junior year of college my cancer returned. I was having trouble breathing and was rushed to the hospital. Chest x-rays showed a large mass attached to my lungs. I was rushed home to get test done which showed it was the cancer.

I was now diagnosed with Stage 4 Melanoma. I immediately started high dose Interleukin 2 treatments in the hospital. I was so scared. In January, I spent one week in the hospital, one week at home, and another week in the hospital. They were the worst weeks of my life. In July, I started another round of the treatment.

The CT scans showed no signs of cancer. In august 2005, I transferred to Regent University, in Virginia Beach, VA. I am going to graduating college on my 24th birthday which is May 5th, 2007. I recently got engaged on the beach in Hawaii. And I am looking forward to being two years cancer free soon.

I would love to chat. Where do you go to the doctors? I go to the University of Michigan Hospital, cancer center.  

Try going on MPIP's message board.  It is a great source of information and easy to navigate.  It helped me with all my questions.  Lots of immediate responses. 

Good luck and hang in there

Hi I am so glad I read your posting I am 25 years old and had a mole removed from my chest a month ago and was it was diagnosed melanoma. I had a sentinel node biopsy and they removed three nodes under my right armpit and one came back cancerous. So my doctor removed the rest of my lymph nodes and one more came back cancerous.  So now I am having a CT scan and meeting with an oncologist.  They said I probably will have interfuron.  We will see.I am staged as a III not sure if its a,b,or whatever.  I was scared at first but after hearing people's stories it comforts me. I have great support from my family too.  It was just nice to hear someone with the similar cicumstances as myself.