My Name is Katie, I am known on social media as, My_Melanoma_World. I’ve been married since 2005, to an absolute angel. His name is Benji and he done everything for me and our family. Giving up so much for his family! He is gratuitous and supportIve. Always shows unconditional love! I consider him a superhero. He is the best caregiver and father. We have 2 girls, 19 and 13 years old. They are beautiful and smart, through and through. We have grown into something special, as a family.

I was diagnosed on 9/26/06, with a 9mm discolored, dark, risen mole under my left forearm. It was a very quick removal. A deep shave biopsy, that made make my world blow up. Two weeks later, the results were in, Stage IIA Melanoma, skin cancer. Sentinel Node surgery, showed cancer hadn’t spread. Forward to 2008, my 1st is starting kindergarten and we had a new born baby girl. I just forgotten about Melanoma but two weeks after my 2nd daughter was born, I found a ping pong size tumor in my left armpit. I assumed right away, it was a clogged milk duct. The breast clinic confirmed, after a needle biopsy, that it was Melanoma! I had done everything right, I couldn’t understand how, this can happen. Unfortunately, it’s all to common!

I was fighting at 100% capacity. I spoke up often, when I felt my therapy wasn’t working & I was always for, surgery, I wanted the tumors out!! Things got really scary, 2010, my oncologist told me they were trying to turn my weeks into months. I was covered, 100+ tumors all over my body! Slowly, chemo therapies started working, together possibly, 2 therapies, Onc. thought, were shrinking my tumors. What changed my story, was Target Now Testing, where they tested my tumor to find a reacting therapy! Temozolomide, Carboplatin, Taxol, showed the most promise. Ended up being Temozolomide and possible Ipililmumab, that changed the course of my story. Haven taken ipiilimumab right before temozolomide, my oncologist thought it was possible the two worked together, to shrink tumors.