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Melanoma diagnosis

Beansdrive
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I've recently been diagnosed with what they believe to be Stage 1a Melanoma. I had a mole removed in October of last year and have only just received the results. My Dr has referred my for a wide local excision but said I may have to wait up to 8 weeks. I can't help but feel concerned about how long this is being left for considering the original mole was removed over 6 months ago. Should I push for the procedure to be done sooner or consider private?

  • Hello Beansdrive

    I'm sorry to hear that you've recently been diagnosed with stage 1a melanoma. It's understandable that you're feeling concerned about this news. 

    We have some information on our website about stage 1 melanoma that you might find helpful. I'm also going to tag in  to my post. Angie is one of the forum members who has been living with melanoma for a number of years and has been great at offering support to other forum members. Hopefully, she will pop along when she's able to share her experiences with you. 

    I also wonder if you might find it helpful to talk things through with one of our nurses. I know they will be happy to offer any advice, information and support they can. They're available Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm on 0808 800 4040. 

    Best wishes, 
    Jenn
    Cancer Chat moderator 

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    Hi Beansdrive and thank you Jenn for the mention.

    I'm so sorry to hear about your diagnosis & that you've waited so long for the results & are having to wait a long time for the WLE too.

    Sadly, the wait for further surgery is getting longer than we would hope but the thing to focus on is that your melanoma was removed in October & that it was Stage 1a. This is a very early stage which means it hasn't grown very deep. No cell can break away once it's been removed and the chance of a cell having already broken away to travel internally is 1%. This means the delay of having the WLE causing any spread is infinitesimal, unless the cell had already broken away before the melanoma was removed & it's been sitting in the tissue surrounding that area. Almost all wide local excision biopsies come back negative for melanoma in the surrounding tissue, which means any Stage 1a patients who later find their melanoma has spread, has been due to the cell breaking away & starting to travel through the lymphatic system or blood before the melanoma was removed. I hope that makes sense?

    That still doesn't help the mental trauma of having to wait so long. Can I suggest that you call the hospital and say that you are happy to take any last minute cancellation they may have (if you are available to drop everything & get there with a few hours notice). Hopefully you may be lucky.

    Please let us know how you get on,

    Angie (Stage 3 melanoma patient since 2009)

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