Bob, how goes the battle?

Weren't you starting your treatment this week? (Forgive me if I got that wrong.) In any event, how are you doing?

How about an update bob?

Dammit.....calling Bob and Seaoat. I don't like this.

Bob was OK yesterday

Hallmarkgard wrote:Bob was OK yesterday

That's true - Bob was posting on the Political threads yesterday.  Still, would like to hear how he's feeling.

Joani, I'm with you in wondering where Seaoat is.   Troubling, given his recent weakness.   Or maybe he's just on the road again.  Can't recall what he gave us recently for travel date(s).

Saw Bob today, he's doing good and did not see this thread. I told him to report but he had some things to do.

ppaca wrote:Saw Bob today, he's doing good and did not see this thread. I told him to report but he had some things to do.

Thank you.

Yes, thanks, ppaca.

Sorry I didn't see this thread till now.

I took the first treatment of the immunotherapy drug called Yervoy on Tuesday.
It's now about 48 hours since the treatment and so far I haven't experienced any side effects. 
But in reading some patient blogs on the internet I discovered that many patients don't experience side effects until after the second treatment.
I will receive a total of four treatments over a 12 week period (3 weeks between treatments).
After that I will get scans to see if the melanoma has progressed and created new tumors.
And then I will receive the second drug treatment using the drug called Opdivo. 

From what I'm able to determine,  this is the prognosis with the Yervoy followed by Opdivo regimen.
On average,  the two drugs will stop the progression of the cancer for about one year from when the treatment ends.  And then the cancer will begin to progress again.
So if I come in as average,  that means I will have six months of treatment time followed by a year of non-progression.  In other words,  I'll have a good year and a half of healthy life left.  After that the cancer will come back and do me in.  That is unless a new treatment is discovered in the meantime to extend the lifespan of metastatic melanoma patients even longer.

Glad you did well.

Thank you so much, Bob, for sharing all this. Wish we could fix it for good, but, as you say, maybe something better will come along in the interim. All best hopes go with you! Please keep us in the loop as treatments progress.

Thanks,  Joani and Linda.

When the time comes I'll go to MD Anderson in Houston and see what's available in the latest drug clinical trials.   A good many immunotherapy drugs are currently being tested and more are to come.

And I didn't mean to sound so cynical and pessimistic with that last post.  It's just that I'm not the kind to go in for false expectations.  I go by the percentages.  BUT,  it is actually true that, for some patients,  Yervoy plus Opdivo seems to have put SOME patients into what appears to be permanent remission. 
And the reason I'm optimistic about that is actually because I play the percentages.
It was a real long shot (about 15%) that my melanoma would metastisize in only 2.5 years.  There was an 85% five year survival rate.
SO,  now that I've had a long shot come in that's not in my favor,  I'm due for a long shot to come in that IS in my favor.  lol

By the way,  I've really been educating myself about this immunotherapy to treat cancer.
I'm fully convinced that within 5-10 years they will have developed an immunotherapy drug that will put all melanoma in indefinite remission.  And hopefully by then they'll have immunotherapy that works as well with other cancers.

Bob wrote:By the way,  I've really been educating myself about this immunotherapy to treat cancer.
I'm fully convinced that within 5-10 years they will have developed an immunotherapy drug that will put all melanoma in indefinite remission.  And hopefully by then they'll have immunotherapy that works as well with other cancers.

I have been impressed with your research, knowledge and your desire to actively participate in your treatment.

Thanks for the update, Bob. I do appreciate your straight forward approach to understanding and learning about the melanoma and the treatments. I mentioned in a post the other day that you should go by Ever'mans and talk to them about things that will keep your immune system up while undergoing the treatments. My dad took two supplements - one was "greens" and the other "fruits" and we know for sure they kept his appetite up and he had no nausea. He decided at one point not to take them because "they're just too damn expensive." After not being able to eat Thanksgiving dinner and spending lots of time in the bathroom he told my mom that the money didn't matter and went back on the supplements.

True story. Not selling snake oil, here.

I appreciate your research and updates too Bob. I spent way too much time in the sun and didn't have good skin for it. I've had more skin spots (usually called pre-cancers) removed than I can count. It's prolly just a matter of time until they find a really bad one. It's kinda funny... the rest of my family have nice skin that tans... but I was the one that spent all of my actives in the sun burning.

I am glad you are comfortable after the first treatment. It is an adventure with wonderful days and not so wonderful days, but each day is special regardless.

Thanks for your support,  Joani,  SheWrites, Pkr and Seaoat.

And glad to see you posting again,  Seaoat.

PkrBum wrote:I appreciate your research and updates too Bob. I spent way too much time in the sun and didn't have good skin for it. I've had more skin spots (usually called pre-cancers) removed than I can count. It's prolly just a matter of time until they find a really bad one. It's kinda funny... the rest of my family have nice skin that tans... but I was the one that spent all of my actives in the sun burning.

Get someone,  a friend,  a doctor,  etc. to look at your backside and anywhere on your body you can't see yourself and have it done regularly.  And when you're looking at your skin look for this...

https://www.google.com/search?q=melanoma&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-6ZmItYHMAhUM4yYKHVE8AJYQ_AUIBygB&biw=1280&bih=865

The goal is to see it AS EARLY as you can.  If I had seen mine earlier it may not have ever metastisized. 

I'm now remembering all those weekends I spent at the beach as a kid getting burned by the sun.  Little did I know that one day it would come back to haunt me.

Bob wrote:

PkrBum wrote:I appreciate your research and updates too Bob. I spent way too much time in the sun and didn't have good skin for it. I've had more skin spots (usually called pre-cancers) removed than I can count. It's prolly just a matter of time until they find a really bad one. It's kinda funny... the rest of my family have nice skin that tans... but I was the one that spent all of my actives in the sun burning.

Get someone,  a friend,  a doctor,  etc. to look at your backside and anywhere on your body you can't see yourself and have it done regularly.  And when you're looking at your skin look for this...

https://www.google.com/search?q=melanoma&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-6ZmItYHMAhUM4yYKHVE8AJYQ_AUIBygB&biw=1280&bih=865

The goal is to see it AS EARLY as you can.  If I had seen mine earlier it may not have ever metastisized. 

I'm now remembering all those weekends I spent at the beach as a kid getting burned by the sun.  Little did I know that one day it would come back to haunt me.

Thanks... I don't have any that look like that presently. I got checked all over in january and am scheduled to see the dr in the fall to remove some that are pre-cancer and use the chemo cream. I don't know if you ever did that... but damn that stuff tears you up... especially the face. I do it every other year and it lasts two weeks. The second week is hell as your face is covered in scabs and so raw it makes you nauseated. Many spots weren't even red or showed any signs of spots. Once it heals though the difference is amazing... completely clear skin. I sure dread it though... lol.

I am sitting in bed with the wife and we looked at the photo of someone's back on your link.....her comment was my back looks worse. My back and shoulders were victim of horrible Florida sunburns when I was a kid. I have had it checked at least three times and I almost felt like I was a complainer because the dermo doc said I had nothing, but they would burn off some of the benign moles to lessen the clutter of the same on my back. It is amazing how in one generation we have learned so much about mistakes of our childhood. I remember a suntan billboard for coppertone where a dog was pulling at the bikini bottoms of a child exposing a white butt and deep brown tan everywhere....culturally this whole idea of tanning was strange......

I'll inject a random tidbit here.   Most people don't know that the Coppertone girl is the actress Jodie Foster.

boards of FL wrote:I'll inject a random tidbit here.   Most people don't know that the Coppertone girl is the actress Jodie Foster.

Interesting,  bds.  I didn't know that either.

Hmmm, really? I'm 55 and Jodie Foster is 53. Those billboards were started in 1959. Can't be her unless she is a later model that replaced the original? Guess that could be.