Just found out.

Forgot to add that as an adult/ teenager I never showed my body to the sun but as a kid ,once the sun was out the norm was “ taps aff” ( Scottish) and got burnt to a crisp. 

Hi and a very warm welcome to the online community

Everyone here understands how hard waiting for results is but as you've already had to wait 8 weeks for the first of yours I'm sure you have lots of coping techniques in place.

It's perfectly normal not to take in everything you're told about what happens next when you've just been given a cancer diagnosis. When you go for your next appointment it would be good if someone could go with you to act as a second pair of ears.

The next lot of surgery that's been mentioned to you is called a wide local excision (WLE), when, depending on the depth of the mole, a further 1-2 cm will be taken away all around the original excision site. If you're having a sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) then this will happen at the same time and the two ops will be done under a general anaesthetic.

As for how long it takes to heal, that depends on how quickly you heal and whereabouts the operations are. I had a WLE on my upper arm with a SLNB in my armpit and both sites had healed and were no longer painful after two weeks. For the first week after the operations you'll be advised to take it very easy and then in week two you'll be able to start doing things again.

Obviously we all handle things differently, and there's no right or wrong way to do things, but I didn't try and put a brave face on. For me I needed to discuss my worries with my husband and that was how I coped. However, if you don't feel that this is the way forward for you then you can come here as often as you want to discuss your worries.

Let us know when you have a date for the WLE and SLNB

x

Hi ,

I’m not surprised your head is up your arse having received bad news and still having to wait to see if there’s more!

I think healing depends a lot on where the surgical site is and how easy it is to close the wound. I had a wide local excision on my calf. I have very fleshy calves (!), so there was no problem closing my wound, even though they can’t say for sure until they start whether you’ll need a skin graft. I was under plastic surgeons for all my surgery, so I think that bit is fairly common. 
It may well be that because melanoma was found, you’ll have a biopsy of the sentinel lymph nodes - which just means the first nodes that the lymph from that specific area drains into. Because they’ve found melanoma on your foot and neck, which are both likely to have different sentinel nodes, they might biopsy the nodes in 2 different areas - although I’m only guessing. Start keeping a list of questions for your next appointment.

Also bear in mind, that even if each excision heals well and quickly individually, you are going to be quite uncomfortable having multiple surgical sites, so plan to take it easy and give yourself time to heal.

It sounds like you’re going to have a lot of uncertainty for another few months yet. Hopefully there are people you can talk honestly to without worrying about upsetting them? Your emotions will be all over the place, so don’t try and deal with it alone if you don’t have to.

Big hugs. Xx

Thanks for the reply. Got my late results back and they were clear. I have a consultation with the plastic surgeon Mon 28th and go in for another biopsy on Wed 30th for  a crusty dark mole on my back which was found during the full body visual when I got my initial results. So another wait is the menu of the day.    I talk to family ect about it but get the impression that theyve googled 1b melonoma and think that it's been found so everything is ok. Really pi**es me off to be truthful. But hey ho! Life is for the living and tomoz is another day.

Glad to hear that your latest results have come back clear .

Unfortunately, a lot of people think "skin cancer", that's not dangerous and shrug it off. I think if we had to have chemotherapy and they saw us ill from that they might think we had "proper" cancer. Anyway, enough of a rant from me!

All the best with your appointments next week. Report back to us with how you get on.

x

Wee bit of good news. With my head up my backside during my 1b melonoma results I misheard my foot results. They came back "abnormal". Still getting the full cut out though! Skin grafts in the area of the foot usually have complications so I was told it'll be stitched but expect the wound to open and will leave a big scar.( least of my worries so go for it) Another biopsy today so I'll have to wait for results.  Awaiting for dates for 2 bouts of surgery ,one local and one general. Cheers for the support folks. 

Wondering if anyone else has "abnormal" and what it means????

Hi , you certainly are having a lot of surgery which I hope your coping with ok. Well I suppose ‘abnormal’  leaves the gate wide open for anything other than normal !? Perhaps you will learn more after the bigger surgery, it funny isn’t it at the time if the medics don’t seem that concerned we sometimes just go with the flow, then when we get home and friends ask questions we think ahh I didn’t ask that, I’ve done that myself. My skin cancer nurse is good at tracking down answers for me though when I’ve rung her with a question I hadn’t asked at an appointment. I hope your is as good.

Best wishes

Wee update. Foot was done on 17th Dec so I'm hobbling along. Booked in for the radioactive gunk on 23rd Dec and on the table Christmas eve for snlb and wle. Hopefully only one area for snlb but I've been pre warned due to the area on my neck for wle it might be 3. On the plus side my back biopsy came back clear.

Thanks for coming back to us , I read back to the beginning of the post when my brain did not compute SLNB neck with having stitches in your foot. You seem to be very unlucky with loads of different areas of your body being under investigation, and a Christmas Eve op. I hope they (family, friends and staff)  make you feel very special and loved this Christmas.

wishing you well for your recovery and next op.