r/melahomies

I just started with Braf and Mek inhibitors, and I'm miserable!! I can't even keep the pills down the nausea is so bad. Does anyone have any wise words for me? Does it get better or is this what I should expect for the next 6 to 8 months?

How do you get over the guilt from being so upset and scared when there are so many worse cancers or even worse melanomas? I was just diagnosed through biopsy in Sunday. I don’t know anything, haven’t even had the consult with the doctor for the removal surgery. Believed to be early stage skin. It’s hard for me because I feel like the overall feeling is it’s not a big deal, but it feels like a really big deal. Trying to balance my reaction.

Anyone put a tattoo over your WLE scar?

Hello everybody and thank you again for your helpful advice in the past couple weeks since I’ve been diagnosed with my melanoma. I just found out today that when I have my WLE and sentinel lymph node biopsy next week that I will then have to wait six weeks to get the results. I am trying to avoid approximating a cat with my claws stuck in the ceiling for a month and a half! Can any of you please share helpful mantras that you have used? One that I have been thinking is “God has got me.” No worries if you’re not religious; any mantras are helpful. God bless you all.

1 year ago today I got my WLE and I am so lucky that they were able to get it all. As you all know all too well, there have been many appointments and checks and such since then. I have some concerning spots that were keeping an eye on (in honestly the most inconvenient spots like my eyeball, hand, and vulva) but my derm hasn’t wanted to biopsy just yet.

I think the anxiety will always be there because it could always come back, but today, 1 year cancer free! This group has been a huge help in that. So thanks!

Diagnosed stage 3 in early Jan 2025 after I had a random lump in my thigh removed during a hernia repair that turned out to be a metastatic melanoma tumor, no primary found(MUP). I started Keytruda in Feb '25.

In May '25 I had a WLE at the original tumor site plus a lymph node removed that was suspect. They lymph node was previously biopsied and came back negative but showed necrosis and mild uptake on scans. Both the WLE tissue and lymph node came back negative last May as well as PETs being all clear.

Last Keytruda infusion was June '25 which we stopped early due to the NED results and because I was starting to see side effects(pancreatitis, AKI)

Most recent scan this week just came back clear today! Year one of NED is in the books now. Onward to year 2!

I had a WLE and SLNB last week and took a few days off work for surgery and recovery. I don’t have my results yet.

I’ve been forced to tell several people like my manager and CEOs and others. I just don’t know how to explain my feelings when asked.

Most people have made very genuine inquiries and I feel stumped on how to express the turmoil.

I get results maybe next week and until then I’m just edgy, moody, not my usual self. Not to mention I’m bleeding self pity from my pores.

Been using dual Immuotherapy since October 25 to treat Stage 3 Melanoma (primary on my ear with tumors in the lower two lymph nodes, which are both now inactive after 5 .ves since ghe 2nd infusion. Primary is still active but shrunk 70%. Then suddenly 10days ago major abdominal pains which ended up being Gall Bladder Cholicyctitis. The Gall Bladder removed 6 dsys ago, however yesterday got pathology report on the removed Gall Bladder through the surgeon and metastasised Melanoma polyps have bee. Found in the removed Bladder. As the Melanoma has metastasised into another body organ, technically now stage 4. Worst of this is that a PET scan 6 days before I started getting the severe pains, I had a PET Scan and no active tumours other than the primary on the ear were shown. Now having to restart a new treatment regime to take into account that there maybe other organs affected but not showing up. Just rather peeved off.

I just heard about this from a MD Michael Christoper on IG who works out of Tucson. My derms don't do this every visit and now I'm freaking out a bit that I have another melanoma developing that has been overlooked. Does your derm look at your skin with this method every time?

I, 45F living in Santa Fe, NM, was diagnosed with melanoma in situ on my left anterior shoulder in early April, with WLE surgery on May 8th. Immediate family history of multiple basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas and an aunt who passed of melanoma that spread to her brain like lightning in 2004. Understandably, I was a bit nervous since the sun and I have been frenemies at best for the majority of my life. Oh, and a couple of weeks after my diagnosis, my mom who I live with was diagnosed with an extremely rare sarcoma, and we will be moving to get her specialized care in another state. Hence, I will need to find another dermatologist after just now finding this one I truly like.Fun times.

Regardless, what I came here to say after lurking and reading y’all’s posts as bedtime stories is… thank you. Thank you for being brave enough to ask the questions some of us are too shy to ask. Thank you to those who share the stories, no matter the ending. Thank you for all the tips and tricks only those who live it know about, aside from the nurses and those individuals might be magic.

Please know, while my story is going to be one of vigilance and alert rather than treatments just yet, I will try to honor the unspoken code set by the warriors who post only to help others out of love and kindness. It’s what we need most in the world. Like I said before, y’all are the best.

Hey melahomies. Unfortunately we got the updated staging and things have progressed to stage IV.

My bf (25 yo AAM) now has:
• Numerous mm size lung mets/nodules
• Metastasis to T12 in the spine
• Two golf ball sized tumors in his right leg

He previously did Keytruda, then ipi/nivo, but unfortunately had progression/growth on both.

The next step is TIL therapy. We’ll be traveling to a hospital about 2 hours away for treatment. His tumor harvest surgery is officially scheduled for 6/17.

Trying to stay hopeful while also processing how heavy all of this is. Really just been hard to manage his pain. If anyone here has experience with TILs, especially after failing immunotherapy, I would really appreciate hearing your experience/advice.

I am unfortunately in the “low,” percentage of people with heavy fatigue from Keytruda. It’s getting to me. I am finishing month 5 of the therapy and I feel flat out awful: debilitating fatigue, my skin is crazy reactive to heat, had some sores start up in my mouth, etc…

Reading that there is a not insignificant chance that these are now how I feel, even after I stop taking Keytruda (hopefully)… well, like I said, it’s getting to me.

I typically power through and try not to complain. I was in the best shape of my adult life when I got the diagnosis in December 2025, and of course that’s not the case now. I feel terrible whether I work out or do anything or not, so I have at least been forcing mussels back to the gym and all the things I do normally, even if with less duration or intensity.

I am fortunate that so far, I do not have any other tumors or growths and that my testing is all still positive. I have scans coming up over summer that will show what’s up. I grateful for the fact that the cancer seems to have been managed so far.

But when I read that 96% of Keytruda users have long term effects, mostly “mild.” But that 4% have severe long term effects, I had a bit of a moment.

Just bitchin’ to save my wife from having to hear it.

If I had not lived in a society where I was taught that tanned skin was more attractive than my natural light skin color I wouldn't have used beds and laid in the sun intentionally year after year. If I had been accepting of my natural light skin color and educated that tanned skin was a sign of damage I wouldn't have been diagnosed with skin cancer and biopsied and cut and now worry for the rest of my life, monitoring for more skin cancer. Fake tanners promote the lie that tanning makes us prettier and more attractive. There's a skin cancer survivor on instagram who has had many disfiguring cancers removed which left terrible scars on her face and body and been through hell but is having a giveaway with a bottle tanning lotion and I personally feel that we should be promoting the look of healthy skin, not damaged skin. Fake or not, tanned skin is damaged. Anyway, the cognitive dissonance is strong when you have had multiple surgeries and treatments as the result of tanning and she's still promoting tanned looking skin. I'm not sure if you understand me but it's upsetting. And now we have new rules for younger teens that makes it easier to use dangerous tanning beds. It doesn't make sense. What do you think about fake tanning lotions?

I had my plastic surgery consult on 5/15. Confirmed malignant melanoma, but only 0.3mm so I need a 3cm WME scheduled for 6/1. It could have been so much worse.

Thank you to all my homies who helped put my mind at ease the past 2 weeks. I'm not looking forward to the scar/indent on my arm...but I'll take it over additional cancer treatment any day.

Be well new friends. I'll check in once I'm post-op.

I've had squamous and melanoma removed, I live in high desert and am so uncomfortable in the constant sun. Constant worry about ongoing sun exposure. I'm planning on moving (I live in a medical desert as well so I have another good reason to go where there's better access to healthcare) Has anyone moved to a more moderate climate after skin cancer diagnosis and felt it was worth it?

Hello! Just wanted to share my recent experience with others who have been through similar

I was diagnosed with a PT1B melanoma on my back in February, 1mm breslow Clark level 3.

I've just had a WLE on Tuesday, and an SLNB which annoyingly for me the CT scan flagged a node in each armpit as ones to biopsy 😫 so I'm currently a bit of a t junction of soreness 😂

Just awaiting results of the SLNB, the consultant said the chance of positive was 20% so I went for it.

Is anyone else currently waiting on test results?

The best (not really) thing about this all is I don't sunbathe and have never bothered to! We think perhaps a couple of childhood sunburns have led to this who knows. Whatever the cause I'm grateful to have caught it early enough to have lower chance of lymph node involvement but we will see.

I'm now a little paranoid about all my other moles though!

Hey folks,

I am not sure if it's a good place to write, but I wanted to share my experience and get it off my chest. I (29M) had a small mole combined with dermatofibroma for approx. 10 years by now. Two years ago, I started doing more regular skin checkups as I have a fairly light skin. Late last year the mole was flagged as slightly suspicious and it took several dermatologists to assess it as it caused quite some confusion.

Overall I went to see maybe 7 or 8 different specialists, and the opinions were always 50/50. Some of them considered it suspicious, some of them said that it's nothing to worry about. This year I finally got it removed because it was causing me way too much anxiety.

Two weeks ago the results came back, and the histopatology doctors assumed it to be a atypical melanocytic tumor that they considered to be a regressive melanoma (because of the nearby fibrotic tissue) in pT1A stage. It had 0.7mm thickness, negative PRAME, Less than 1 mitosis/mm², clear margins and was removed in its entirety. The diagnosis came with a note that there were no definite signs of regression, no ulceration, etc. Basically, as good as a diagnosis can be considering the first part of it. A part of me is even still coping that it was a false positive because of the result ambiguity.

I will be having a second surgery to excise some more skin around it soon. However, I am stuck with a terrible anxiety. The doctor who saw me for the results didn't explain anything to me; only mentioned that at this stage, further organ scans, biopsies, MRIs etc are generally not recommended, and I simply need to observe my skin regularly in addition to removing a larger margin "just in case". Admittably I was in such a shock that I also didn't think to ask for any details. I simply booked an appointment and turned into a vegetable for 2 weeks. I am overthinking every single mole on my body even though they were checked relatively not too long ago.

This week I will be seeing the doc again (hopefully it will be the same doctor who cut it out in the first place and actually saw it in its original state) for the second surgery and want to ask my questions then. For those of you who also struggled with the anxiety: what questions are good to ask?