Starting yervoy soon

[Trisha716]

Hello everyone,

My name is Trisha I have a 5 year old, 3 year old and 1 year old!! I recently had a wide excision done and a biopsy on lymph node which came back with a small trace of melanoma . I’m going to start yervoy treatments in the next 2 weeks, just curious on side effects and any help I’d greatly appreciate..!! I’m getting nervous.. thanks in advance

[jennunicorn21]

The regular side effects that are easy to tolerate are fatigue, itchy skin, mild skin rashes. There is a whole lot of side effects that are possible, not everyone gets them (I did Yervoy twice and never got a really bad side effect, worst I ever experienced was a 3 week fever, which sucked, but not life threatening). If you ever have diarrhea that cannot be controlled by immodium, a really bad headache that doesn't go away after a couple of days, fatigue to the point of not being able to get out of bed in the morning, things like that you will need to report to your oncologist right away so they can get it treated without having permanent effects. I highly recommend starting a daily probiotic, I have always taken one and I think that helped a lot to avoid any of the GI side effects, was on immunotherapy for 2 years with no GI issues.

Hopefully it goes smoothly and with minor side effects for you!

[Trisha716 in reply to jennunicorn21]

Thank you for the response. I appreciate any tips that I can get! Glad to hear you’re at the end of the road with treatments..!!

[Robynfine]

Hi Trisha,

Everyone reacts different. One of my good friends has had an intense itch but it was controlled with creams and Benadryl. He is currently on a lower maintenance dose and is NED! I had all kinds of side effects and had to go off after 2 doses. I ended up in the

hospital with ipi colitis. But two doses worked for me and I have been NED for three years and 11 months. I wish you the best and don't stop believing!

[JohnFC]

I'm currently on yervoy .I will have my fourth treatment tomorrow. The most frequent side effects I have is fatigue and nausea. I have been to the ER twice for uncontrollable nausea and vomiting. The first 6 weeks my skin was very sensitive, shaving was uncomfortable. The scariest thing is that my liver enzymes went super high about week 9 and we had to delay until it improved. There was talk of prednisone if there was no improvement. Also I have seen noticeable tumor growth since beginning treatment, the hope is that the tumors have enlarged because they are swollen with immune cells trying to kill them. We will do scans in a few weeks to determine any progress.