Nodular Malignant Melanoma – first surgery 9 24 2020

Good Luck Bill, I had a nodular melanoma Breslow 7 mm, perineural and vascular invasion, ulcerated, mitotic rate 15. Not good since nodular melanomas are extremely aggressive. But, and there is always a but, when I advanced to stage 4 and began immunotherapy I responded immediately to Keytruda and have been NED for 3 years. Hope that helps a little. If you have any questions please contact me.
Again Good Luck!
Bill

Will be sending you every good vibe tomorrow, Bill!!!! Glad you have been able to maintain your sense of humor. Not easy these days, especially given what you are dealing with!!! But every bit of grace and humor we can muster helps us get through it, doesn’t it??? Glad tomorrow you will be one step closer to putting all this behind you! Hang tough! C

Best wishes for a good outcome and healing!

Hi BIll,

I had a very weird nodular melanoma myself. I am a french canadian caucasian and had an amelanotic ulcerated nodular melanoma under my right foot where the sun never shines, Breslow at least 2.85mm (all margins involved so it was deeper for sure, will never know how deep…) without apparently other bad factors. (Bad enough!) Thought to have so called «rare isolated cells» in one sentinel lymph node at first. I challenged that and switched my care to more expert followup. Two years in and 3 more pathology readings later, there wasnt any clear lymph node involvment despite my really bad initial tumour.

Be your own advocate. Your life depends on this. Question. Again. And again. Until sufficient experts confirm. After that, get your plan in place. You can do it. Hell, I sunk so deep, I thought I would not see my 52nd birthday. ANd guess what? It’s tomorrow. And I’m still here and NED. I never thought I would. Ever.

You will get there too.

Courage and loving thoughts.

M

I had an absolutely terrible black eye and 12 inch wound from a new craniotomy. I thought it looked good enough by then to pass out candy at last Halloween. One kid eyed me really suspiciously— is that real? I said yes and he said no it isn’t!!!! And ran away. So really, this is the best time of the year!!!

Best wishes and a speedy recovery along with all the bonuses. Good to get some additional benefits.
Mel

Hello Mr. Bill,

My husband had a 10.5 mm nodular melanoma on his head and when they did his surgery it was a 10.5 cm taken off and then they cinched the area down to about 4 cm. In closing the area up he had a skin graft taken from his thigh. He said the worst part was the skin graft area on the thigh but that his head felt like he had a stocking cap on that was small and felt to tight. He got the face lift from all of that skin being pulled together from the surgery. His SNB came back negative. At the time his was done they weren’t doing anything for stage III as this was in 2008. He later progressed to Stage IV and did a clinical trial with Ipi (Yervoy) 10 mg/kg and GMCSF and has been cancer free since July 2012. The best of luck to you.

Judy the loving wife of Gene

Thinking of you today MrBill!
First, I love your profile pic, that is awesome. Second, my husband had a 22 mm nodular melanoma removed. His was on his upper part of back/shoulder. We are 6 1/2 years out now from surgery, his was a very interesting case as well. His nodular melanoma also increased very quickly, it grew within a month or so (I didn’t even know it was there, my daughter saw it when they went swimming) and he woke up one night and said it felt like he was sleeping on a golfball. I remember the first time I saw it in the consultation at MD Anderson before surgery (I still wish I had thought to take a picture), I had to leave the room I was crying so hard, had to go sit in the restroom. And when I first saw the pathology report before the consultation, was a bit overwhelming. . But again, we are here still 6 1/2 years later after surgery. I know the head is such a sensitive area, so I’m wishing you the absolute best. My husband was lucky, he could put a tshirt over his scars, etc., not so easy with the head.

Wishing you a great surgery (and possible facelift 🙂 )and they get it all out and then more good news with the pathology/any scans after the surgery. You are in the limbo period which is very hard since have to wait until get more information after surgery. You will get the surgical pathology though which will give you even more info. And glad they are doing the SLNB, will give you even more important information. And you most likely will have the option of doing adjuvant therapy which is really awesome.

Hugs!