Exercise after excisional biopsy for potential melanoma??

Hi everyone,

 

I'm a 23 year old student who has had an excisional biopsy of a very irregular mole yesterday on my left breast, just waiting for the pathology result to find out whether it is a melanoma or just severely dysplastic. The excision went really well, I thought I would faint or feel sick during it as they do it while you're awake but I actually surprisingly didn't mind it at all and even now I don't really have any pain at the wound though it was a fairly large excision with a few stitches (probably at least 3-4 cm in length). 

I was just wondering if anyone could give me some info about when I will be able to start exercising again. I have ehlers danlos syndrome (joint issues) so I need to do pilates/physio every day to keep up my muscle and core strength as this really helps with my symptoms of this. When I had the excision the nurse just said don't do anything strenuous, however they didn't say for how long I need to avoid this for. Because of the location of the stitches (just above my nipple on my left breast) I don't feel that moving around or exercising should really be a problem as this isnt a part of my body which is under a lot of tension from activity, but equally I dont want to increase the risk of hypertrophic scarring as I am already high risk due to being young and the location of the excision (as well as the ehlers danlos which also predisposes me for it). 

Any advice would be massively appreciated, thanks! :) 

  • Hi,

    The usual advice is to wait until the stitches are removed or for 2 weeks if they are self dissolving stitches. Due to the area of the excision I would suggest that only walking would be advised. Any weight bearing exercise could still stretch the chest muscles which may then put pressure on the breast. You may be able to just do the Pilates and physio that doesn't include the upper body (ie. not the Plank). Perhaps build up slowly to the weight bearing exercises after a week if the wound appears to be healing OK. I hope this helps, and good luck with your results. Please let us know how you get on,

    Angie (Stage 3 melanoma patient)

  • Hi, I’m currently in a similar situation. How long did you wait in the end? 

  • Hi Louise, I hope you don't mind me stopping by, but I just wanted to let you know that this discussion hasn't been active in over 2 years so there's a chance you may not receive a reply. 

    I really hope that won't be the case, but if that does happen, do feel free to reach out to others on more recent discussions you find about this topic when using the search forum box at the top of this page.

    Kind regards,

    Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator