was diag. with metastic iv melanoma in june of 08. this is now march 09. ive had radiation , chemo pill- temodar it mde it spread. and now on chemo dtic thru veins third treatment.  i was given one year this is ninth month , mets to lung, mass in meadiastiun, met to thyroid take cat scan next weak . whats next?

 I hope your scan went well.  My husband was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic melanoma 1.5 yrs ago (yes, he was also told 9 months to live- Guess God had other plans!).  He had similar beginning with multiple chemos, spreading anyway.  They finally threw the whole book at him (5-6 different chemos- 3 week cycles - 1 week in hospital, two weeks home then back in to start the process again).  We learned that accupuncture is a huge help in recovering between chemo treatments.  We learned that no one can tell you when you are going to die, not Dr's, not statistics, and not well meaning friends who love you.  Only God gets to make that decision.  We have learned that keeping your weight and nutrition up is key to tolerating multiple treatments.  He went with vegetarian/vegan, all organic, no sugar, no alcohol, no processed foods (I learned to cook).   I assume you are exploring trials?  Moffitt (Jeffery Weber), MD Anderson (Patrick Hwu), NHI (Stephen Rosenburg) all have some very promising trials that are getting good results.  NHI will even pay for travel to their facility in some cases to participate in the trial.  What is your Dr advising?  My prayers and love are with you. 

 My 70 yr old father was just diagnosed in March of this year 2009, with Metastic Cancer, (started in his kidney, then liver, lungs, bone and his jaw). He's never been sick a day of his life only high blood pressure...He's doing Chemo right now, on his fourth week , so far he's tolerated the chemo no sickness at all just tired the day of treatment and the day after so keeping our fingers crossed that he's spared of getting violently ill from the treatments...but anyway we don't know what its going to do for him, he's at stage 4 and right now they just keep saying we're going to try and keep him as comfortable as we can....I think I'm still in shock its hard seeing him so fragile and sick....thanks for listening and thank goodness I found this site in his doctors office, well a magazine then this site. Thanks Debra

 I'm sorry to hear about your dad, Debra. I will keep him in my prayers.  I'm 30 yrs old and was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma in Dec of 08.  I just finished 4 wks of treatment. Not fun...I was really, really, REALLY tired. (A big side affect) I was never nauseated, but I did have fever, chills, and achyness. If you need someone to chat with...feel free to write me.

Sarah

I am sorry to learn about your diagnosis.

Have you looked into some of the clinical trials:

http://www.beatingmelanoma.com/content/view/49/ --see all the treatment summary

http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/types/melanoma -- on different trials. sponsored by national cancer institute

good luck