New Hear

Hi Mack and I'm sorry to hear your mum has melanoma on her leg.  Take a big deep breath and don't panic.  The doctors have given your mum a diagnosis from  ? a biopsy of a mole perhaps.

What happens next if they've removed the mole is the usually carry out a wide local excision to check for any very local spread. They work to a prescribed depth of skin removal depending on the depth of the original mole depth.  This is called a WLE.

If the mole is fairly shallow (again there are prescribed depths) then no further treatment is needed but skin checking/scans.  If the depth is a certain(again prescribed) depth they may check for infiltration to the nearest local lymph nodes(SLNB).  All these tests are for staging the disease not treating it. Body scans may also be recommended.  

The docs then decide based on the stagingvto commence treatment.  That's all the practical things but emotionally you can support your mum as I'm sure you will and don't worry too much for now.  You can also try the forum that is for family and friends of someone going through cancer treatment to find others in exactly your position hon.

I send you and your mum all my good wishes, take care x

Thank you yes she had biopsys taken she has lots of small ones but scan shows its not spread yet (thank god) they are going to do immune herepy I think they called it and laser together. I think i am just in a panic you see my glass is always half empty so i think worse case i missed what doctor said all i could hear was side affects. I heard not as bad as chemotherpy and that was good but its only me &my mum and i only work parttime min wage and i worry about bills too i know i shouldnt but mind is running like a train is this normal or am i odd ? 

You are definitely acting normally and not oddly.  We go into shock on hearing bad news and often don't hear all that's been said to us so the first thing is to find a person who can explain to you exactly what's going on in a slow and measured way.  There should be a nurse specialist attached to the dermatology team or the cancer team who you can call and arrange to see. Or the secretary of the consultant doctor.  Immunotherapy is the newest and latest treatment available and is proving to have good results for lots of people.

The best thing to do is to find one of the doctors/ nurse specialist to explain again to you and for you perhaps to take a friend or someone with you to listen and take notes.

I would also advise you to ring or message the Macmillan Financial advice section as they will be able to let you know what you are entitled to.  Hope that helps c