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Subungual Melanoma Tests

fozzy1234
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Hi everyone,

I'm new here and just looking for some advice or any experience anyone may have. My husband is having a thumb biopsy this week and had an x ray this morning which we are awaiting the results of. We are both very scared as we had thought he had a fungal infection and much to our suprise were reffered to an oncologist by the dermatologist after 12 months of asking for a referral from the GP to the dermatologist. The oncologist said he has never seen anything like my husbands thumb and it could potentially be subungual melanoma. His thumb has no dark line which I think is distinctive of subungual melanoma but I know it can present itself without this. His thumb nail is extremely deformed, his thumb joint is very swollen and the skin on his thumb is very sore. He is also very tired all of the time and has lost weight. We went to the GP a few months ago for the tiredness and they dismissed it as long covid from when he had covid in December 2020.

Has anyone got any experience with this? It's a very scary time.

Thank you everyone.

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    Hi,

    I'm afraid I don't have personal experience of subungual melanoma as mine is superficial spreading (a mole on the skin), however, there are many posts on the forum from those who are going through or have gone through a similar situation as your husband. If you search on the word subungual in the Search Forum bar at the top of the page you will see the recent posts. 

    I hope the biopsy results come through quickly and that they can make a swift diagnosis & start treatment immediately. By referring you to the oncologist already it sounds as though they are ensuring your husband's treatment can be started quickly if the results show it's SM. I know how scary a time this is but it's good that they are working so fast and there is still the chance, even if it is SM, that your husband's tiredness and weight loss is due to Long Covid.

    Good luck and please let us know how your husband gets on,

    Angie (Stage 3 melanoma patient since 2009)

     

  • Offline in reply to AngieT

    Hi Angie,

    Thank you so much for your reply.

    I will do that and see what experiences people have had with SM, its very daunting and seems to have come so out of the blue. The oncologist has been fantastic and seems to be hurrying everything along but I think this makes me panic more that there is something.

    Thanks again for your reply and I hope you're keeping well.

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    Hi. I hope things are going well for you and your husband. 
    I'm also in a quandary, having a dark pink stripe under my big toe nail. I've had two melanoma primaries already, and the first one was without pigment, amelanocytic, so I'm being taken seriously and sent for biopsy. 
    I wonder though, whether your experience could help me make sense of the biopsy procedure, and [@AngieT]‍, if you read this, I think you said you know people with SM?

    I've been scheduled for a punch biopsy through the nail bed. I'm troubled by this because it's nowhere near the origin of the discolouration. I think they ought to be biopsying under the cuticle somewhere.  This is borne out by my reading so far.  
    I'd value knowing how other people have been biopsied, please, whether I'm unnecessarily worried about missing the source of the colour and maybe being fibbed off with a false negative!

    thank you

     

  • Offline in reply to Blackcurrant

    Hi,

    I'm going to send you a friend request so that we can chat by private message if that's OK. 

    Angie x

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