Melanoma diagnosis

Hi Jennie

I’m sorry to hear of your diagnosis. Deep breaths. I was diagnosed with a stage 1A melanoma on my upper left arm in Sept after it was removed in august. I’ve just had my wide local excision a week ago. I’m not sure what else they told you. I was told the cancer cells were removed with the initial excision and the wle was just precautionary but I’m going to ask my skin cancer nurse for the results either way as I want to know they are definitely clear.

I wasn’t offered a SLNB as mine was 0.2mm and described as very thin. If you have any questions about the wle I’m happy to advise as it sounds like our moles were in a similar place.

Whilst it’s a scary time you’ll probably find things move quite fast now which gave me confidence.   

Hi Jennie25

Sorry to hear your news - I know it's a terrible shock when you first hear the words "you've got melanoma", however I would just point out that a Stage 1b staging suggests that they've caught the cancer early, and hopefully they can resolve the issue without too much intervention

I had both the WLE and the SLNB as I've always felt that if you're up against cancer, you use whatever tools you can to gain the advantage.  As it happens, they both showed progression of the disease and informed the medics on future treatment (in my case, additional surgery followed by immunotherapy).

It all sounds grim I know, however after two years of treatment, I've been to see my oncologist today and he's confirmed I'm free of cancer and can stop treatment (I was diagnosed Stage 4 back in 2021).

Good luck to you going forwards - please let everyone know how things progress, and please ask any further questions if I've confused rather than aided you!!

Hi KBS Does sound like our moles were in the same olace.  Unfortunately mine is 0.9mm thick, I have a Clarks score of 3 and my mitoses are high as well.  Not sure what anything means, but the dermatologist said that the mitoses score usually means a recurrence, so she is going to give me a thorough going over check soon.  However, I have had 4 blood clots in the last 2 years and have been sent for umpteen tests before being put on Xarelto for life.  At the moment I am feeling a bit like a tailors dummy with pins sticking out of me!  This is why I am being offered the sentinel lymph node.  Oh, and a scan to check whether it has already progressed!

Just hoping that they have caught this in tine.

Dear Emo  So sorry to hear of your melanoma, this is what I am afraid of, but I think that you have to be aware of what things could be like.  Just hoping that my SlNB will be positive, although I rather think that it might not be.  My dermatologist said that my mistoses and clarks score were high, so not to expect.  She has made us an appointment with an oncologist already!  You have helped me, as it just shows that you can come out the other side intact.