Excision

hi

armpits are special aren't' they

I had a whole boob removed but it was the tiny incision in my armpit that had me climbing the walls.

welcome to the online community, sorry you've had to come and find us

I'm thinking I should signpost you to pain relief but I'm not even sure we have a group for that.

5 days seems excessive so I'm going to say go back to your team, your surgeon specifically and see if they've missed something obvious.

describing the pain is a challenge I never got on top of, can you try and describe the pain ?  or where you think the pain is emanating from?

Carolyn

xxx

Hiya Carolyn,

it feels like I’ve got constant normal niggles of pain and then I go ahead and attempt to do something crazy like moving my arm and the area around the excision feels like someone is tearing apart my muscle with their bare hand while pouring a cup of fresh tea on it (I paint with words)

xxx

Hi Vrs,

I've had two mole excisions recently. One on my back which was absolutely fine and didn't bother me too much and one on my inner thigh (pretty high up). The one on my inner thigh bothered me for a good few weeks. I think it depends on where it is. Obviously moving was irritating it as well as rolling over in bed, sitting down, getting into the car and basically everything else that I used my leg for!

It also didn't heal as quickly as the one on my back and I had to go back to the nurse later to get my stitches out (at 13 days rather than the 10 days it took my back). 

The wound site on my inner thigh can still be tender if I scratch it or bump it and it's been around 6 weeks for me. I suppose it may just take time. 

I would say that if you notice excessive pain and / or redness or swelling then go straight to see someone about it as it may be a sign of infection. 

I hope this has helped a little!

Thanks MH20,

infection is something I’m obsessing over a little bit right now I think as I’m hitting the “everything is going wrong” stage. Now I’ve talked myself down from the ledge I think it is just a case of where it’s situated. If it’s gets worse I’ll call the dr and go from there. 

Xxx

Hi , I hope since last night your pain has improved. I have never had a mole removed but I have had surgery to a groin lymph node due to melanoma. I wanted to welcome you to the community and suggest you join the melanoma group for access to people from all stages of melanoma and all positions on the body ! who might be able to give you a sympathetic ear and any experience that they have. I’m putting the link below for you to click on. 

https://community.macmillan.org.uk/cancer_types/melanoma/discussions

I was given a card with my skin cancer nurse specialist details on it, and told to use it when I felt I needed her, I hope you were given the same. Paracetamol is all I’ve needed for pain relief and to not wait for the pain but anticipate that it will come, if you’ve tried that, it may be time to make that phone call for professional advice. The night time seemed the worst when I had nothing to distract myself from any pain, and the pain came before I remembered to take the paracetamol. I can imagine in the arm pit you may be knocking it with your arm as well, My scars were across my stomach and so more painful when I sat down.

i hope you come over to join us.