Hi, I have just had my first surgery for suspected nodular malignant melanoma. The full lesion was removed from my neck - it was large. I now have a 4 to 6 week wait for the histology results. I’m beside myself with fear and anxiety. I just feel like every moment there could be secondaries growing that should be treated.
I would really welcome and appreciate advice and experience on how to get from here to the results day without imploding or from anyone with nodular melanoma on treatments as I feel like if that’s what it is then that’s it for me. I just feel overwhelmed and under informed and don’t want to google anymore as I’m finding it petrifying. Thank you so much.
Hi Lottie10 and a very warm welcome to the melanoma group which I hope you'll find is both an informative and supportive place to be.
Just to give you some context, I was diagnosed with an amelanotic melanoma 8 years ago and had to wait 6 weeks for the results.
I found that filling my time doing things that I enjoyed helped me spend less time worrying about the 'what ifs'. Lots of people find mindfulness really useful and, if this is something that interests you, clicking here will take you to the NHS page about it.
You are right to avoid Dr Google as you'll only end up down rabbit holes, reading out of date information and generally frightening yourself. After all, no one ever goes on Google to report good news only bad news.
If the lesion does turn out to be melanoma then, depending on the depth of the melanoma, you might only require a follow-up procedure called a wide local excision (WLE) and the optional sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB). I've had both these procedures so happy to chat through what's involved.
Hopefully you'll be back here in 6 weeks time telling us that the lesion wasn't a melanoma but, in the meantime, try to remember that no amount of worrying will change the outcome but it will ruin the present.
((hugs))
Anne
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
