The Beginning 23/10/10

18 months ago I had a mole removed from my back, it happened to be Melanoma.  At the time I under went surgery and had clearance around the melanoma.  I was told I was all clear.  Great time to get on with life.

4 weeks ago I found a lump  under my arm about the size of half a ping pong ball, back to the doctors and off to the surgeons.  Three weeks and many tests later the diagnosis I'd been dredding the Melanoa had spread to my lymph system.  Ok that's pretty bad, but approximately 60% chance of survival, there's hope.

Booked for surgery to have the lymph nodes removed, however before I could get this done my wife managed to get me into one of the top Melanoma specialists.  Off to see him yesterday, well he was really honest with us.  It doesn't look good.  The original CT showed some small spots on my abdomen, the surgeon thought they were nothing, the oncologist thins they are further spread of the disease. 

What's this mean, well there's a few options:

1. It's spread to the abdomen, average life expectancy 6-9 months
2. It's spread to the abdomen and I get accepted onto a research trial and get 2-3 years
3. It hasn't spread to the abdomen and I have surgery to remove the lymph nodes and have 60-70% chance
4. There is only one spot on the abdomen and I have two lots of surgery one to remove the lesion on the abdomen and one to remove the lymph nodes with hopefully good survival.

We are all hoping for option 3.  So it's off for another round of tests over the next week to see which option I face.