Hi guys! Sorry I didn’t reply to some messages - a lot has happened in a short period of time. We went on our vacation to OBX, NC and the elbow got significantly worse. It was two times the size of the other. I will attempt to attach the picture with this post. But anywho! The elbow was worse with some pretty serious pitting edema. Ryan got his infusion of Keytruda yesterday and his oncology team came over and checked out the elbow - they ordered a STAT x Ray to rule out fracture. Impression stated there was no fracture but his “fat pad” of his elbow was significantly swollen. Nurse practitioner is calling this osteoarthritis. He is now on 70mg of prednisone daily as of yesterday - and it is slowly but surely bringing relief even after 2 doses. Still VERY painful.. but not getting worse like it was day by day. So we are hoping to taper quickly of course. Anything over 20mg of prednisone and he can not get immunotherapy.
MRI of elbow is Thursday. PET on 20th. Praying that it is still stable.. the oncology team has a few things up their sleeve. I will gather all our thoughts and share them here! I know in the last week some pretty cool things have happened in the melanoma world! A phase IIb trial was fast tracked - and a new Keytruda combo! Still have a chance to re challenge Taf Mek.
Ryan’s blood work looks great! Calcium levels are still well within normal limits so the bone isn’t breaking down to the point of it being released into his blood.
He keeps fighting.. I’m so proud of him..
Brother with stage 3 melanoma 
New member — husband stage IV melanoma
Full brain radiation and immunotherapy questions
