I have just been diagnosed with a Stage 1B melanoma on my upper arm. I’ve been offered an SLNB, but apparently the waiting list is currently 6 to 8 weeks without taking into account Christmas delays.
if I opt for an SLNB that uses fluorescent dye rather than the gold standard radio isotopes, I could shave two weeks off that waiting list. It’s really hard to decide. Do I go for a procedure which is felt by the surgeon to be as successful as the established procedure, but has no scientific studies to back that up at the moment? Or do I wait a couple of extra weeks and go for the procedure which has the highest probability of correctly detecting any cancerous lymph nodes?
i’m not sure how fast these cells multiply if they are in the lymph nodes. Will 2 weeks make a huge difference.? Mentally, I know that every day of not knowing seems to count
Has anyone else had to make this decision? If so, what did you do?
Hi SilverAspen I have no experience to bring to the table...... but let's look for some replies to come in.
You may find it helpful to put this post up in the dedicated Melanoma support group that you have already been posting on....... as this group does not get a lot of traffic coming through as most people stick to the cancer specific groups.
