Hello jasmine3, 

Poor you going through this at such a young age and having to deal with a stage 3B melanoma diagnosis and with the site being in the neck it must be a rather scary prospect for you but I am sure you will be in the best possible hands for the surgery. Our website has useful information on the wide local excision which I hope will explain to you what to expect. You can also find out more on our website on the sentinel node biopsy and I hope that you will hear from the experience of others who have been through this before and that they will tell you more about how the recovery process was for them. It would be especially great in your case to hear from someone who had a neck sentinel lymph node biopsy and who had melanoma located in the neck. 

I just came across this thread posted only just today by Glyn648 who mentioned they had been diagnosed with metastatic malignant melanoma and I am not sure exactly where this member's melanoma was located but it may be good person for you to connect with and share treatment experiences. 

Feel free also to give our cancer nurses a call on this free number 0808 800 4040 - their line is open Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm and I am sure they will be happy to answer questions you may have on these procedures or anything else that springs to your mind. 

Best of luck for your surgery. I hope it all goes well for you. 

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator