himynameiskevin's Profile

I'm Kevin, 26, an only child born and raised in Tucson AZ until moving out to San Diego CA 5 1/2 years ago. Where I've lived since. I mistakenly spent the majority of my life in too much sun. Jobs.. hobbies...free time. I had a funny mole checked out on my back in 2007 that turned out to be melanoma. An area of my back was removed and the doctor said I was good to go. Ship shape as long as I stay on top of it. Got check ups regularly. 3 months, 6 months, Year... Late July of this year (2010), a couple bumps popped up in the same area and I was told I have stage IV melanoma, with tumors on my back, one on my chest, one in my liver, bunch in the lungs, and one a little nodule in my brain. Stereotactic Radiation appears to have successfully taken care of the brain lesion. Happy for that. I did IL-2 in September and it unfortunately was not the magic bullet for me. I went through with the "Adoptive Cell Therapy" at the NIH in Bethesda MD. It was very beneficial for some time. After about 8 months, scans showed one of the lesions in my lung getting bigger. Ended up trying Yervoy here at home and finished that on Dec 20th 2010. Today on Jan 13th 2011, results show at three lesions in my brain, so more stereotactic radiation with be scheduled in a few days. As far as the rest of my body, I won't know for a few days. Hoping for the best. Since the beginning of all this, some days are better than others, but I'm staying pretty genuinely optimistic and hopeful about the situation. One bridge at a time...