Hi all, I hope everyone is doing as well as can be expected. I have just had my first consultant appointment with Dermatology for a suspicious mole in the webbing between my little toe and the adjacent toe. They believe it to be a malignant melanoma and they are referring me to another hospital to have surgery to remove it, which will probably be sometime in July, all being well.
Of course this is all quite worrying in itself, however it's also complicated by the fact that I've just accepted a job as a teaching assistant in a local school, starting in September. My current job is desk-based, and therefore the surgery would not affect my work (presumably). However, I am concerned about starting a job where I will be on my feet a lot, quite soon after having foot surgery. (I have not yet handed my notice in for my current job).
Can anyone here advise on recovery time for this kind of surgery, and if I'm perhaps safer to inform the school of my situation and request a later start date, if they are able to accommodate? I don't want to mess them around by having to request time off, when I haven't even started the job! The consultant also said I might need to have a second surgery, so if that's the case it would almost certainly impact on my ability to walk around a classroom (and even get to work, since presumably I won't be able to drive for a while either).
Another thing I wanted to ask people was how many follow up appointments I can expect after the surgery, since the new job will be five days a week and I would have to take time off for appointments. My current job is 3 days a week, so I am able to be more flexible around medical appointments.
It's silly but I am feeling more stressed out about the job situation than the cancer itself - I had breast cancer a few years ago so I've had the whole full on cancer treatment experience, chemo, rads, surgery. I'm thinking at least this time I'm not facing chemo, and I don't think radio is on the agenda.
Sorry for the long rambling post, I feel like my brain has overloaded and I can't seem to think very rationally about anything, maybe I am overreacting and everything will work out.
All advice is much appreciated! I'm aware this may be a fairly uncommon type of problem so if you've got no advice please feel free to pop up and just say hi!
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