It’s four months now since I noticed the raised black spot on my arm and this afternoon I’m going for CT scans. I’m female, 75 years old and I’ve written up my experience pretty fully in my profile, so please take a look at that if you wish.
I’d like to mention two things that I’ve found important so far. The first is to try to take ownership of what I call my ‘cancer pathway’. This started for me when instead of waiting two/three weeks for my GP to see me after I’d emailed in photos of the spot, I went to Boots and got a screen for £40 through ScreenCancer. They called me and sent me their rather scary report the very next day and I used this to twice call and, basically, bully my way into the surgery within two days. I was referred at once. Since then I have tried to be proactive, asking if a procedure can happen sooner, offering to take a cancellation. Now this may actually have had very little to do with the pace at which I’ve progressed, but it makes me feel responsible and involved and positive.
The second thing is to be informed and curious about melanoma, to ask questions. Googling has its dangers but there’s a lot of interesting stuff out there - even the research papers, often very technical, have their useful bits. What NICE has to say about targets and changes to procedures is a good place to start. For example, there seems to be a move away from the usual SLNB to identifying lymph node involvement via CT scans, and that is what they’re doing for me. Remember, knowledge is power, it really is, and it can help with the stress and fright that we’re all subject to. Good luck all!
