Good afternoon,
I'm new here and thought I'd ask as few questions to you lovely people out there in the world in a similar position to myself
For a bit of background I finally had it confirmed I had a Level 1B melanoma removed at the end of July, I then had a referral for a wide skin excision and sentinel node biopsy but at which point I was told I also had a Basal Cel Carcinoma on my left cheek.
I've had all of this surgery just last Monday, I was at hospital for 14.5 hours total and wondered for some advise and updates and how everyone found the following:
- since diagnosis and throughout how are you sleeping? I'm managing 5 hours max, I'm 41 and really even when exhausted my brain struggles to turn off and when it does I wake up at stupid o clock and cannot switch off again.
- the Wide Skin Excision was alot larger than I thought, how quickly were your stitches removed? Tomorrow I'll be on my final dressing change before I'm back to hospital on Tuesday
- the Basal Cell on my face is in an awkward spot, it doesn't bother me that much but does anyone have any personal tricks for me once the dressing has been replaced next week?
I'm currently signed off til mid/late October which is a very long time for me as I run a pub in London. Switching off is hard for me too.
So sorry if I am waffling my way through this, thank you all for being here, for anyone who replies. Hope everyone is in good spirits xx
Hi Carl201807956b and a very warm welcome to the online community which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
I’m Anne, one of the Community Champions here on the Online Community, and I've had both melanoma and basal cell carcinoma (BCC).
The online community is divided into different support groups so I'm going to recommend that you also join the skin cancer group as you'll then connect directly with others who have had a BCC removed.
To join, just click on the link I've created and, once you've joined, you can start a new post in the same way as you did here and join in with existing conversations by clicking on 'reply'.
I can see that you've already found and joined the melanoma group and I'm sure you'll find lots of people willing to share their experiences with you if you copy and paste your question from here into a new post there.
It would be great if you could put something about your diagnosis and treatment into your profile as it really helps others when replying to you and also when looking for someone on a similar pathway. It also means that you don't have to keep repeating yourself. To do this click on your username and then select 'Profile'. You can amend it at any time and if you're not sure what to write you can take a look at mine by clicking on my username.
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
