Hello
I had a melanoma on my ankle removed at the beginning of September. The wound refuses to heal. I have been told that although it was <0.5 mm thick and stage pT1a I have to have a wide local excision and skin graft which will mean that I cannot walk for about 4 or more weeks. With what has happened to the original site I think that it will take a lot longer. I live alone, do not have relatives and only a few friends. I also have two dogs. As the original wound has not healed in almost four months I am concerned that the wide local incision will also not heal and the skin graft will not take. I am thinking that I may refuse the WLE. No one seems to be able to tell me the statistics for the possibility for a recurrence or spread at this early stage. Has anyone else refused a WLE?
Hi Melanoma 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 was diagnosed with melanoma 9 years ago now. Mine was on my arm, so not in the same place as yours, and healed fine.
The online community is divided into different support groups so I'm going to recommend that you join me over in the melanoma group as you'll then connect directly with others who have the same type of cancer as you and may have decided not to have a WLE.
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'.
It would be great if you could put something about your diagnosis and proposed 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"
