SLNB on face

Hi Paul,

I imagine the discomfort in the SLNB dye injections is related to the sensitivity of the skin. In my case, it was the tip of my nose and the dye injections hurt. But its over soon enough, and is an important part of the process to determine your treatment.

Best wishes to you and I hope results are negative! Cindy

Hi  and a very warm welcome to the online community and in particular the melanoma group.

I'm very sorry to read that you've recently been diagnosed with melanoma but you've come to a great place to ask questions and get support. 

My SLNB was in  my left armpit so I'm not going to be much help with how a SLNB around your cheekbone area might feel. I can tell you that where mine was was painful for a few days and then became uncomfortable for probably a couple of weeks.

I'm tagging Miranda2 into my reply as I'm fairly sure she had a SLNB when she had a melanoma removed from her face and, if I'm right, hopefully she'll be able to share her experience with you.

Do you have a date for your surgery yet?

Hi latchbrook

Many thanks for your kindness. I haven’t had a date yet, but I was told that it will be between 3 and 5 weeks. I’m already finding some comfort from posts on this group, especially the prior posts on anxiety and reading other people’s experiences 

Thanks again, I will certainly keep posting my progress.

Hi

I am sorry to hear about your melanoma. It is not something anyone ever wants in their lives.

latchbrook, you are right, I did indeed have an SNLB on my face. I was given gas because they said it is very painful and difficult to get the local anaesthic right in that area. Mine was just above my cheek bone. Yours might be positioned differently and be less sensitive.

The gas made me float away quite nicely and I felt no pain at all. However, coming back to earth was a bit traumatic. I came to screaming and in a dreadful panic, sure that I was slipping away from this world. It is not uncommon apparently to have a strange but very temporary reaction, when coming off the gas. 

Afterwards, other than a sore throat from screaming, there was no pain.

My melanoma was a T2b and four years later all is well.

Good luck with your procedures and let us know how they go.

(By the way one of my friends had a BCC  on the top of her ear. The surgeon did an amazing job maintaining the shape of her ear. You would have to look very closely to see that the operated ear is smaller than the other. She did say that it was pretty painful afterwards and took about a month to settle down so you should plan ahead to make your life easier for a few weeks after your op.)

Take care

Miranda 

Hi again ,

The procedure you are referring to is the procedure to locate the sentinel lymph node (the node closest to the tumour and therefore the one that could be impacted if the melanoma had started spreading). The biopsy itself is done when the sentinel node has been removed. I got the dye injected into the area where the tumour had been (cheek bone area) and the sentinel node was just under my jawbone, directly below the tumour area. There was no melanoma in the sentinel node.

I also had breast cancer nearly 10 years ago and the dye was injected into the tumour area too. The surgeon even showed me with a sort of Geiger counter how the dye in the sentinel node could be seen. It literally glowed blue under my skin when under the machine and he could say exactly where the sentinel node was!

I would guess that the injection will be into your ear in your case and not your face. 

Take care

Miranda

Hi Miranda2 

I promised to provide an update following my wle and slnb which I had done on 28th April on my stage 1b lentigo malignant melanoma on my right ear helix.The whole process was nowhere near as bad as I was fearing, with the injection into the top of my ear to locate the lymph nodes the only real discomfort that I felt. I had 3 lymph nodes removed from my jaw line and have healed really well. My ear is slightly smaller than the left one and sticks out a bit more, but I’m really not concerned in the slightest about that.

Happily, the biopsy results were negative, with 3 monthly check ups now set up for the next two years.

Great news the biopsy was all clear. I am awaiting biopsy results ( my sentinel node removal was next to my left ear). Praying for good news 

Everything crossed for you.