Hi everyone,
First of all, I'm sorry for my bad English, it's not my native language! And also, sorry for this long post.
I am a 24 year old woman from the Netherlands. I've had a brown streak with slight Hutchinson's sign on my left ring finger for about 7 to 8 years now (so I guess it started at 16/17). I went to the dermatologist to monitor the nail and it's streak and came back every few months until 2017. The dermatologist told us that the streak was most likely benign as it appeared at an early age and didn't change over time. We didn't continue the checkups but the derm assured me to contact again if the streak showed any change of other symptoms such as pain.
Fast forward 3 years, it is now 2020. A lot of things happened in those 3 years and I didn't really look after my nail anymore because I couldn't see any rapid changes happening. I wore nail polish constantly and even had acrylics for a while (wasn't aware of the risks of this). Furthermore, there were more important things in life and my family to really care about.
But then my nail started hurting. At first I didn't think much of it as I hurt my finger in 2019 by slamming it between a car door. My finger has been kind of sore ever since. However, a week ago I started experiencing some kind of aching in my cuticle more regularly. So I contacted my dermatologist again to have it looked at. Unfortunately, my former derm was not available so I had another one examining it. It was clear that the streak became much darker and the pigment changed as the streak now existed out of 3 little streaks. The whole streak widened for about 1mm, I think and is now 3-4mm.
It is now a possible subungual melanoma. I have been referred to another, more experienced hospital for a second opinion and most likely a biopsy this Monday.
I have been sick to my stomach with stress and nerves for a week and constantly panicking. I'm stressed that this subungual melanoma has been growing for a long time and has already spread to my lymph nodes. I'm being scared that I will die of this, just as I'm about to get married and buy a house. This kind of melanoma has a very bad prognosis.
Has anyone had any experience with nail biopsy and (possible) subungual melanoma? Has anyone got some sort of advice for me as I'm getting ready to have the biopsy and probably bad news?
Thanks for reading!
Emily
Hi Emily and a very warm welcome to the online community
Waiting for an appointment and possible biopsy can be an extremely anxious time and we all understand how you feel right now.
Could I suggest that you join us over in the melanoma group where you can ask questions, share experiences and get support. I myself was diagnosed with malignant melanoma on my arm 4 years ago and I know that there have been others in the group who have been worried about subungual melanoma in the past.
To join just click on the link I've created and then choose 'click to join' or 'join' (depending on the device you're using) on the page that opens. You can then introduce yourself and post your question in the same way that you first posted this message in the New to the Community group and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'. To save time just copy and paste it from here into a new post in the melanoma group.
I'll keep an eye out for you joining
x
Hi,
Nice to meet you En thank you very much for your reply and warm welcome.
I will join the melanoma forum and put my post on there!
No problem, see you over there
x
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