Hillary Castaneda
I was diagnosed with stage 3 invasive malignant melanoma on October 16th 2021. I was 28 years old, mom of 2 little boys, and never imagined I would be going down this cancer journey.
2 years ago I went to my dermatologist for a check up and had a new mole on my head. They did a shave biopsy and it came back as benign.
Then the same mole came back bigger and uglier. I went back to the dermatologist for my yearly check up and they did another shave biopsy and it came back benign again. That was this year in April.
By August, it had come back again bigger and right behind it was a skin colored raised new mole that wasn’t there in April. I went back to the dermatologist the first week of October and they did a shave biopsy of both spots.
The Original one came back as benign for the 3rd time, but the new skin colored raised one came back as level 4 invasive malignant melanoma.
They sent me to a Surgical Oncologist, and I had my first Wide Excision on November 16th 2021. She decided to extend the borders of the wide excision to include the original mole because it already had dark satellite little moles around it. We went ahead with the wide excision and the margins came back positive and it had spread to one lymph node in my neck.
We did another wide excision on December 2, and the margins still came back positive. So we did another excision on December 6, and finally the margins were negative. I ended up with a wound that was 6cmx6.1cm. It was big.
We also did a MRI of the brain and a Pet scan and both came back negative thank goodness. The pet scan did show the areas where I had melanoma, but that’s why we are doing immunotherapy.
Since the wound was so big, we decided to go with a scalp reconstruction with a plastic surgeon. On December 16th 2021 they did multiple skin flaps and a skin graft from my abdomen to close the wound. It took 53 staples and 30 stitches to close everything. Thankfully, it healed really well!
My oncologist started me on Opdivo on December 23rd 2021. I completed 21 doses over the course of 2 years!
Since then, I’ve had 2 more wide excisions for abnormal cells. But so far all scans are clear and I am NED!
I have learned so much from this journey. I have learned that I am stronger than I think. I have learned to smile through it and find joy in everything. I have learned to enjoy each moment with my kids and husband.
I am so thankful for all my team and my doctors, and for the fellow melanoma warriors I’ve met on this journey!
