Waiting for biopsy results

Were you assigned a cancer specialist nurse either in dermatology or oncology or wherever you received your diagnosis…. Ring and ask if your not sure they maybe able to direct to where/ who can give you those results or the alternative is get the phone number for your consultants private secretary and tell her/him your situation & ask if they could arrange a phone or video consult …it’s worth asking

wishing you all the best  

Hi Allyona & thanks for your reply. No, I wasn’t assigned a specialist nurse when I was diagnosed. I feel like I’ve more or less been left to get on with it by myself.

i have spoken to the secretary and she said the same as the appointments clerk. However, after explaining the situation, she was going to speak to him and see if he wants to move the appointment sooner. I will give them til next week and if I haven’t heard anything I’ll get back in touch with her.

Hi, 

I had the same diagnosis in November and still waiting for the same procedure you had. What hospital did you go to? 

Hi Leetiss

When i received the diagnosis, I was told that all the melanoma had been removed and the WLE wasn’t considered to be an urgent procedure. I was quite surprised when I received a plastics appointment a couple of weeks after.

My hospital is part of the Betsi Cadwalader University Health Board and I had to go across the border for the WLE. I am finding it quite a challenge to get things done, as the two health boards don’t seem to speak to each other.

If I was in your situation, I’d contact whoever gave you your initial diagnosis and give them a shove.

Good luck!

Hi LampY  - just wanted to reply as that's the same health board that I'm with and could hopefully offer some information. I know that the clinical nurse specialist that you would have been assigned is currently on maternity leave (she went off last year shortly after my diagnosis), and that they haven't got cover in for her and I believe she may be back early June. I was told to contact my dermatology consultant's secretary with any issues I had. I found the same with plastics appointments as the consultant only comes over twice a month, but I was able to arrange through the CNS to travel to Whiston to see a consultant sooner - not sure if the secretaries could see if you could travel to them for an appointment rather than wait for them to come to you?

From my experience, I think the follow up you'll be having will be to give information after the operation, what (if anything) they found, and then you'll be back with dermatology going forward, and potentially oncology if they think further treatment is needed. This was the case with me, at least, but I did have my WLE and SLNB done privately because of broken equipment in Whiston/St Helen's and I was looking at a long delay to get stuff done. After a follow-up with the consultant who performed my surgery I then had all other contact with my dermatology consultant who I see every 3 months (or at least one of their team), but I was also referred to oncology for immunotherapy so see a consultant there too at present.

Hi Tochee,

we are considering going private. We don’t have any private cover so would have to pay ourselves. Would you mind sharing how much it cost to go private so we have an idea of what it could be?

Hi tochee

Thankfully, I managed to get my appointment moved and it’s next week.

Yes, the appointment will be for the results and to discuss further treatment if necessary. I’m guessing they’ll also want to see the skin graft to see how that’s doing.

I'm glad they moved it sooner, and hopefully all is well and healing.

Hi Leetiss , unfortunately it wasn't cheap and I had no insurance either. I don't have an exact figure without going through the paperwork, but I think to final amount was in the region of £9k. This includes initial consultation, tests and screening, SNLB scan, histopathology, follow-up consultation, and the surgery. My surgery had additional elements (removal of another mole, and SLNB from two sites when only one was planned) so there were additional costs for that plus the histopathology for them. I was lucky enough to be able to stay with family so was able to be done as a day case (which saved at least £1000 that would have been charged if I stayed overnight) and didn't have any extra travel/accommodation costs.

Happy to offer more info if you'd like, please just ask.