Hello everyone, my name is Emily, I'm 23 years old and I'm a health care assistant. 
 

About a year ago, I noticed a very thin brown/dark line on my toenail. I'm fairly certain there was no injury before and it kept growing back in after trimming my nails. I didn't think much of it until I received a new patient at work and read through their pre admission assessment. One of their conditions was subungual melanoma and, when I then did a full body map on this patient, I realised what it was and that it looked similar to my own toe. 
 

This prompted me to pay some extra attention to my toenail and I realised that, slowly but surely, the dark band was spreading to cover more area. 
 

I tried a number of fungal nail treatments, trying to say positive, but when none of those had any affect, I decided to contact my gp via their online service. 
 
I was expecting them to offer me some different treatments for fungal nail, but after assessing some pictures and asking me some questions (how many toes are affected? 1. Is the nail yellow/chalky/crumbly? No. Do I have any other symptoms, fatigue? Generally feeling unwell? Yes.) decided that she was confident it was not fungal nail and suggested an urgent 2 week referral to a dermatologist who she thinks will want to take some biopsies. 
 

I received a letter a few weeks back saying that because of coronavirus, appointment times may be a little different and take longer to come through. I understand that these things take time but it's been 2 months now of worrying and stress. 
 

Over this time, I've noticed that the black band has now extended on to my nail bed/the skin around my nail and it's becoming of increasing concern to me. It may be nothing (fingers crossed) but early diagnosis one way or the other is always preferable. 
 

I was wondering if there was any way I could push for an earlier appointment? Or possibly even find out a rough estimate of when my appointment may be, to ease some of the anxiety and uncertainty. 
 

Thank you for listening to me rant on! And thank you in advance for any advice or reassurances you may be able to offer me. 
 

I hope you all stay safe in these uncertain times, 

thank you, 

Emily