Hi,

So glad to hear that it's an in-situ which is the best of a bad bunch! Take care & now you know what to look out for with any other moles you may have or get in the future.

Angie x

Hi Frano,

It's really good that your melanoma has been caught early. 0.6mm is very shallow and the low 'cell count' is called mitotis - this is the speed at which the cells are dividing - a low count means great news as it was growing very slowly. Good luck with your WLE next week and please let us know how you get on,

Angie x

Hi,

I hope your dressing appointment went well and that you aren't waiting too much longer for your results.

Angie x

Hi Angie

The dressing changes are going well and the nurse says it's healing nicely.

Its the waiting that's the worst. It's only been two weeks so I know I will probably have a long wait as yet. I didn't ask at the time of excision how I would get my results is asked the nurse in clinic. She said they would phone if it's bad and need me in or send a letter if it's ok. Now I have a complete meltdown when the postman doesn't bring me anything I know the waiting will be over soon though so just hanging on in there. 
 

I hope you are doing well x

Thank you Angie. Absolutely it's a huge relief to have caught it when in situ and I will definitely be more vigilant in checking my skin from now on. Lost my dad to melanoma only 3 years ago so of course I was fearing the worst. Sadly he was diagnosed after finding a lump and doctors never found a primary tumour so I guess he was an unusual case. Though if it wasn't for my dad being diagnosed I'd probably never even have noticed this mole until much later. I knew nothing about melanoma or the warning signs and never checked my moles as I'm not a particularly moley person. So I feel very lucky that I knew to get it checked!

May I ask you about margins for an in situ melanoma? I had thought I would still need a WLE even for in situ but was told at my results appointment it was completely removed and I don't need any more surgery. They took a 5mm margin in the biopsy. Is that the standard margin? I was a bit overwhelmed at the time to ask more! Off to get my vitamin D levels tested today x

I'm sorry to hear you lost your dad, especially to this disease. The good thing, as you say, is that you noticed the mole before it got any worse.

Normally a Wide Local Excision takes another 1cm for every 1mm of thickness (so a 2mm depth melanoma would have a 2mm margin. Added to the margin taken at the initial excision, it could mean anything from 5mm or bigger eliptical excision). A WLE for a melanoma in-situ is always 5mm so, as your initial excison was already 5mm, they are confident they removed a large enough margin first time around. So yes, it's a standard margin for an in-situ. I hope this helps and I'm glad you are having your Vitamin D levels tested as it's very important that melanoma patients have a higher level than the general public. 

Angie x

Hi,

It's good to hear you are healing well. I know the wait can be crippling, especially now you are worried every time the postman calls. As we say in the 'melanoma trade', we pull up our 'big girl' pants and grit our teeth because we have no other option. Keep busy and hopefully you won't be waiting too much longer.

Angie x

Good afternoon

So this morning I got the phone call. As I was going for my dressing change the consultant said I could go and see her afterwards and she hung on espcecially to me. I have melanoma in situ. Do not benign but best possible apart from that. Just got to have another excision at some point (they are meeting Friday to discuss). Feeling so much better now I know. Hopefully that will be the end of it but I am going to drive myself nuts checking every single mole from now on (not necessarily a bad thing). 
 

thank you all so much for the support. I wish everyone well for the future and hopefully we can all carry on kicking cancer's backside X

Hi Saz,

Great news that you got your results and are feeling much better now! As you say melanoma in situ is not the best result in the world but its the earliest stage and a much better result than it could have been! I certainly count my lucky stars every day that I caught mine when still in situ :) Hope all goes well with your further excision and hopefully you can breathe easy now x