Alyssa Baumann

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting.  We will be posting  updates here.  Alyssa was first diagnosed with stage 3b Melanoma in 2010 at the age of 16. She had surgery to remove the Melanoma and some  affected lymph nodes. In the spring of 2014 we found out the cancer had spread to her lungs , she had surgery to remove the cancer.  Alyssa's cancer was  now considered stage 4. Alyssa's cancer remained non-active until spring of 2016 when she noticed 2 metastasis under her skin. She had both removed and it was confirmed they were Melanoma.  Alyssa had a scan of her brain in June 2016.  She had  3 tumors in her brain as well as considerable edema(swelling)  causing paralysis of her right arm and seizures on the right side of her body.  At the beginning of July Alyssa began a Targeted Therapy as well as a strong dose of steroids (to reduce the swelling in her brain).  With the goal of shrinking the tumors and swelling as quickly as possible so Alyssa could receive SRS surgery(Steriotactic Radiation), which is a high dose of radiation directly to the tumors. In September 2016 another spot of concern showed up on the scans making 4 areas of concern. Alyssa underwent SRS to treat the 4 spots. This surgery was a success and 2 of the four areas are completely gone, one is barely visible and the largest is smaller and none have edema.  In October Alyssa began an additional type of treatment  called Immunotherapy(this therapy is administered every three weeks through IV infusion.).  The goal of immunotherapy is to teach Alyssa's immune system to "see"  Melanoma as a threat and attack it. On Alyssa's most recent MRI a very small and treatable tumor was discovered.  She will receive SRS surgery to that tumor on December 1st.  We aren't expecting any side effects from the surgery other than Alyssa being tired for a couple of weeks. It will be painless. We will continue the updates.  We thank and praise Our  Lord God for all of our miracles small and large, and we thank him for all of you.