Time between biopsy and WLE

Hi FatOldSun, I was thinking that you will have put a lot of training into the marathon so I can understand why you won’t want to miss it apart from the raising money from Macmillan. I had an unknown primary so I haven’t had a WLE, and none of us know where your first excision was as to how the WLE might affect your running if the marathon was to be in a recovery period. 

I’m thinking that if you contacted the key worker that you probably have that they could avoid that day and could advise on what I was wondering above. The work trip, well if you needed to rescheduled the op, that might double the wait, and your health is more important than work, if it were me that wouldn’t enter into any thought process for me. 

Some others had the SLNB at the same time so recovery was different for them, for others who had only a WLE as the melanoma was small I hope they can give yo7 there experience, as they may have considered a wait, usually everyone wants it done ASAP.

Thanks, yes I should have stated that it's at the top of the calf, just below the knee, so it would definitely hamper me. Even the original wound is still a bit sore, even though I didn't do much for a month after the initial op. Probably down to lots of camping and walking in the last month. I'm not in a position to run the marathon, more a fast walk with occasional jogging, due to recovering from injury, but I'd still love to do it. I'll see what they say when they call to arrange the op. Originally they offered me the consultant appointment in September, it was just luck that it was brought forward, so they can't be that fussed about it!

This turned out to be academic. While I had the pre-op assessment (MRSA swab) back in September, I've still not had a date through for my WLE. Therefore I was able to complete the marathon and raise about £600 for MacMillan in the process, which I was very happy about.

Hi FatOldSun, 

Congrats on the completion of marathon.

I am microbiologist so as a guideline, MRSA pre-op screens are usually done 2-4 weeks before the surgery, so I'd suggest you check with your team to see if they've got the results and have assigned you a date yet. It happens that sometimes MRSA result needs to be repeated etc and link off communication is lost between the lab and department and patient ends up waiting unnecessarily. 

Thanks Elmyra

I think the NHS are reading this as they phoned this morning to book in my operation for next Monday. I have to get a Covid swab done on Friday afternoon and then isolate for the weekend, which is a bit boring.

I'm supposed to be going to Manchester on Tuesday, staying in a hotel till Friday, but I'm not sure what the recovery recommendations are as the person who phoned me to make the appointment didn't know. It's a 4 hour journey in the car, but I can share the driving and it's an automatic so my left leg wouldn't be doing anything.

Big brother is watching us

Glad you have a day for the op.

I had a WLE on my thigh for my 1.1 mole, just above my left knee and SLNB on my groin under general anesthesia. On the day after the surgery, I was just sleeping tbh and woke up for a bite and loo only. I was told that l have to wear compression socks for 2 weeks and keep my leg elevated for a week. Next day, I had some pain and don't think I could drive if I had to. I was signed off from work for 2 weeks after surgery by the plastics team. On week 2 when my stitches and dressing were removed, my GP extended the sick note for another 4 weeks, as I do 8-10k steps on an average day at work, so there was no way I could go back to that. I was told no swimming, cycling, running for 6 weeks.

Hope this helps to give you a rough idea on recovery, although might be different for you as your melanoma area seems to be smaller than mine and everyone's recovery varies. 

I'd suggest you to speak to your nurse or plastics team before the surgery, so they can advise you how long it'll take to recover.

Good luck for Monday. 

That sounds a bit worse than mine, I hope! Mine's just a local anaesthetic and I'm not allowed to drive home afterwards. She suggested 48 hours of no driving is the recommendation. Elevating will probably be recommended as it was for the first op. However the consultant I discussed it with in September reckoned it would take about 3 weeks to heal, which is optimistic based on how long it took for the first one to heal - in fact it's still not healed fully. At least this time I have no pressures to rush back to fitness, I can ease gently back into it.

I had my WLE on Monday, at Wycombe Hospital. It was a lot more involved than the original removal of the mole, which only took around half an hour and I was able to leave as soon as it was done. This time I was in a ward for a couple of hours, and they checked blood pressure and temperature and asked all sorts of questions. When it was time for surgery, I was hooked up to the blood pressure monitor and it really felt more like a more major operation.

The original excision had taken 3mm around the mole, so they were to take another 7mm. They were hoping not to need a skin graft but we're prepared to do one. After they'd done the WLE, they put the first stitch in and I could feel the skin around my leg really stretching very tightly. However, they were able to continue and did a very neat job, with no skin graft required. It took about 45 minutes I think. The local anaesthetic was beginning to wear off towards the end and I could feel each stitch going in, but as there were only 5 more stitches I told them not to bother with more anaesthetic. It was like a little scratch, nothing too painful.

Afterwards they bandaged me up and took me to the recovery area where I was able to drink some water. They were still monitoring blood pressure. After several minutes they wheeled me back to the ward, where I spent another 90 minutes. They brought me toast and a drink. Then I was able to call my wife to collect me. Walking to the car park was slow but manageable.

The last three days, I've been comfortable laying down with my leg raised, but moving around has been painful. Every step has felt like my leg is being ripped open. I've done the absolute minimum, only walking around the house when really needing to. I even used a walking pole to help get around and particularly up and down the stairs. It's very difficult not to use the calf when walking, but I've found walking sideways like a crab has helped a bit. Today, there are small signs of improvement but I'm not going to do anything different.

On Monday I can remove the bandages down to the gauze. Then two weeks after that, I'll be going back in to have the stitches removed.

I'm very glad I didn't decide to go to Manchester, there's no way I could have managed! It's so much worse than the initial operation. Thankfully my son was very helpful while my wife was away for a couple of days.

I'll keep you posted on how things progress.

Wow, that's brave well done for not asking for more anaesthetics.

Sounds like you had a long day, glad it's gone well and skin graft was not needed.i did not realise myself how serious and proper surgery WLE is until it was done tbh.

Take it easy and hope you can focus on your recovery. 

I forgot to mention... In true NHS style, I got home from the operation to find all the useful information about the operation on my doormat! No wonder the nurses were confused about a few things as I hadn't followed some of the procedures outlined in their letter. Only simple things such as what to do on arrival, bringing slippers and a dressing gown etc.

Not much improvement today, it's impossible to straighten my leg as it stretches the stitches too much. It's the same if I bend my foot upwards as this is pulling the calf muscle. The surgeon reckoned it would be two weeks before the skin gets used to being stretched so hopefully walking will be getting easier by next weekend.