Hello everyone,
I have been reading this forum (rather obsessively) in the last 3 weeks while waiting for my diagnosis, and have found this forum to be an extremely helpful resource. I decided to join and start posting here if it could help others.
Well, the long story short is that I am in my mid-30s, of Asian descent, really careful with the sun, and only have a total of 10 extremely tiny moles all over my body, and I have been recently diagnosed with Stage 1a melanoma, 0.2 mm Breslow depth, on the sole of my foot. My consultant is satisfied that they got everything out in first excisional biopsy, but as expected, I will be going back for a wider excision. I have been put on the waiting list as I'm not considered an urgent case. Really not looking forward to have further surgery because the sole of the foot is really a terrible site to have surgery!
I think the worst part for me was the waiting and not knowing. Once I heard the words melanoma, 0.2 mm, I was actually very relieved. I'm not sure what the future holds. Definitely worried that this will all come back worse in a few years' time, but trying not to think about that.
In case anyone finds this info useful, I contacted my GP about it and they asked me to take a photo of the offending lesion. Based on the photo, they got me to come in on the same day for teledermoscopy. The dermoscopy pictures were sent off to consultant dermatologists under the 2-week referral guideline, but within 4 days I received a letter outlining my appointment with the dermatologist at my local hospital. At my appointment, they looked at the lesion through the dermoscope again, but told me that "It did not fit any single diagnostic box." Excision biopsy was done basically within the hour. I received the histology results within 3 weeks. The skin cancer nurse called me on the phone and asked if it was ok to give me the news over the phone. My understanding is that this isn't the normal way to inform you of biopsy results, but I wonder if this is all because of Covid? Of course I said yes because the wait was killing me!
Anyway, I want to thank everyone who has posted their stories here because it has really helped me, and I'm sure will continue to help me while I deal with the wide excision.
