Hi Anastasia, 
Thanks a lot for your reply. This helps. 

LD 

Hi LnoelleD, 

I'm 3wks post surgery for wle which is also just below and on the inside of my left knee. My wound is now an L shape 6" down and 5" across. They closed it using a hatchet skin flap. How are you getting on now? Are you still getting pain or are you back to normal day to day activities. My knee feels like it's been wrapped in several layers of clingfilm and feels very tight. I can't bend my knee to manage stairs and I can just about hobble outside to get into the car for hospital checkups but that's about all. I've also got a wound in my groin from lymph node biopsy. The wound their has samosa healed but is incredibly tender and feels bruised yet the skin doesn't look bruised.  I had thought I'd be back to work and driving by 4wks post surgery but clearly not. Im keen to hear the recovery time from wle around the knee and some reassurance that it will eventually heal. I'm still waiting on my results to find out if the melanoma has spread. Thanks in advance  

Hi Sarahlou43, 

Sorry to hear you're still in pain. I'll be honest and tell you that it took much longer than I expected (I am 31, fit and healthy so I expected to be fine within weeks) but I am now 4 months post surgery and I'm about 98% back to normal. I was still in a lot of pain up until about a month ago. It was hard to bend my knee and I had pains in different areas of my leg when I walked. I tried to make sure I went for a walk most days even when it was sore and I feel like that helped alot. I also felt like it was tightly wrapped in cling film. That describes it perfectly. It doesn't feel like that anymore though and im back to the gym using the cross trainer and bikes and even squatting which I could not have imagined a few weeks ago. It will take time but you'll get there! For others the healing time may have been alot sooner but being at the bend of the knee we were very unlucky! 
I also had the lymph node biopsy on the top of my thigh near my groin and it still looks bruised but it's fine. The scar is kind of purple and gets darker after a shower. It's a bit tender still but no where near the way it was. 
I really hope that your results come back negative and your pain goes away as soon as possible :) 

Thankyou so much LnoelleD that's really helpful.  We have a holiday to the lake district booked end of October but I think its unrealistic to think I'll be doing much in the way of long walks as I had hoped.  

I've been told by my surgeon to still rest with my leg elevated as when he checked it in clinic last week he said the wound was still "unstable". It's bandaged up and I have a support stocking on so I'm barely doing any walking.  

Did you have something similar initially? 

I'm back in for a checkup next week do hoping I can start doing more and taking short walls. 

If you don't mind me asking what was your results from the wle and biopsy?  My mole was 2mm but it appeared and grew in just a matter of 6 months. I can't fault how quickly I've been dealt with from the initial gp appt then dermatology then the 1st op to remove the mole and this latest wle and node biopsy has taken just 9wks. But the waiting now is the hardest, just want to know either way. They said it might take 4-6wks for the results so I know its normal wait times. Thanks for listening 

Aw I hope you still go and have a great holiday. You can still get away and just rest as much as you need. My lymph node results came back negative thankfully!! They told me 4-6 weeks too but they happened to be back within 10 days. They found a normal mole within my lymph node which I found very strange but no melanoma for now! My melanoma was 1.1mm, it was nodular melanoma which is the most agressive kind and the mitotic rate was 20 (5 is high, from what I was told) so I was very lucky to have caught it when I did. It sounds like we have a very similar story, mine started and grew very very quickly within a matter of weeks. And yes I can't fault the time it took for me to be seen either. It was 10 weeks between the initial biopsy and the WLE. 
Before the surgery I only anticipated the scar and the scar being sore, but there's so much more internal damage that has to heal, especially being at the bend of the knee. The whole front of my leg is numb from all the nerves being cut, so that has taken some getting used to. But it's a small price to pay for what could have been a very bad situation. I think you'll start to feel a lot better very soon, just know it could take time and can't be rushed. A few weeks or months is only a small amount of time in the grand scheme of things. Any other questions please feel free to ask :) 

Many thanks, you've been a great help.  I've now got an appointment for Mon 6th Sept to get results so that will be almost 5wks from the wle surgery. Hoping the lengthy wait is an indicator that they've got all the melanoma out now. 

When did you start taking short walks? I asked my keyworker and she just said when I feel ready but I was last told by a different nurse to rest and keep leg elevated. So I don't know really. I feel like I'd like to walk just a few mins or so but I don't want to cause any damage. Being upright on my leg at home more than 15mins and it swells up and starts throbbing so don't know if walking will help or not yet. Thanks for listening 

Hi,

Because of the type of surgery you had I wouldn't spend too much time on my feet until at least after the next appointment. Standing in one place for any length of time won't help - it's better to walk around the house or garden for 5 minutes at a time and then rest with the leg elevated in between the walks. Standing in one place and not elevating the leg means the lymph in the leg doesn't move around - it collects & seeps into the tissues which causes the swelling. This then impacts on the surgical wound. 

I hope this helps & it starts to heal quicker. When you can go out for a walk, build it up - a 10 minute walk, then a 15 minute walk and so on. Elevate afterwards and you will soon know when not to push it too much - listen to your body!

Angie

Thanks Angie that's very helpful. I will try a gentle 5min walk and take it from there.