New to all of this

Sorry that you had to join this club but you are with some marvelous people. Is waiting Is waiting three weeks from now going to change anything? Most, most likely no. Having said that, you are the boss, if it bothers you find a doctor that can perform the surgery earlier. 

I think you'll understand what I mean when I say welcome, but I wish you didn't have to be here. 🙂

As I recall, it was about two weeks between my first consult with the surgeon and my first excision/sentinel lymph node biopsy. I know when you have to wait it seems like forever. I've spent my time since last November waiting. First for brain radiation after an MRI found a new met, then waiting for 30 days for a follow up MRI, now waiting for my doc to talk to the radiologist who noted a new abnormality to see if he can get the radiologist to equivocate enough about it so he can squeeze me into another trial. The best I can tell you is if you are concerned about the amount of time you have to wait for a treatment or procedure, speak up. My wife is an RN, and something she has told me over and over during my journey with this disease is that the patient, unfortunately too many times has to be his/her own advocate.

Good luck to you!

-Bill

I'm So sorry you are here. My husband told me he had melanoma on Friday, February 7th, I called MD Anderson that next Monday, and he had surgery on February 17th with a surgical oncologist at MD Anderson who specializes in Melanoma. My husband's actual growth was much larger than what the original punch biopsy reported (this isn't your case, but that is why I think they had any sense of urgency since it looked pretty bad on his shoulder).  I just checked his records on this timing since it was in 2014.  I don't think it matters to wait a week or several weeks, I think what would concern me is the surgeon, is the surgeon a specialist in oncology/melanoma.  If this surgeon is your first choice and specializes in this, then waiting is the best option.  But I can understand the anxiety of having this on you and wanting it out.  I definitely went Terms of Endearment on the scheduling staff of MD Anderson when I called them after the diagnosis and not sure that got us in quicker or not, or me on a list of hysterical spouses.  What I've learned is that you have to advocate for yourself or your loved one to get what YOU need.  Let us know if you need anything else during this wait.  It's a tough time, always waiting for results and we didn't do the scanning until he was healed from surgery, etc.  Many hugs.