Questions???

Dear Ashlee,
with all my respect to this difficult time you are going through and my full understanding for your fear please stop panicing. Not because it does not help yourself (this is your problem and I hope you will come over feeling sorry for yourself), but because of people like Janet who posted yesterday about the devastating condition her husband Don is in. What would you feel in her situation when you read a post "my life is over" from someone with stage 0?
Please enjoy life, get married, have a lot of children… and if it doesn't work please get professional help.
Best wishes

Dear Ashlee,
with all my respect to this difficult time you are going through and my full understanding for your fear please stop panicing. Not because it does not help yourself (this is your problem and I hope you will come over feeling sorry for yourself), but because of people like Janet who posted yesterday about the devastating condition her husband Don is in. What would you feel in her situation when you read a post "my life is over" from someone with stage 0?
Please enjoy life, get married, have a lot of children… and if it doesn't work please get professional help.
Best wishes

Dear Ashlee,
with all my respect to this difficult time you are going through and my full understanding for your fear please stop panicing. Not because it does not help yourself (this is your problem and I hope you will come over feeling sorry for yourself), but because of people like Janet who posted yesterday about the devastating condition her husband Don is in. What would you feel in her situation when you read a post "my life is over" from someone with stage 0?
Please enjoy life, get married, have a lot of children… and if it doesn't work please get professional help.
Best wishes

Melanoma spreads via lymph vessels and/or blood vessels.  Neither type of vessel exists in the epidermis, the layer of skin where melanoma in situ (stage 0) exists.  That is the reason there is such a high survival rate for stage 0.  There is no way for the lesion to spread.  It doesn't matter if melanoma is a slow or fast spreading cancer – it can be both.  But in your case, there is no way for it to spread because there were no blood/lymph vessels in proximity to the lesion.

So, what can happen?  You have your WLE.  All this is doing is making sure than there are no rogue cells that escaped the biopsy.  Then, nothing.  That's it.  Setup periodic derm visits to watch your skin.  Live life.  Move on.  It's what most everyone with melanoma in situ (Stage 0) does.  Go off and live their lives.  They don't really post here much unless they are newly diagnosed because there are no treatments after surgery, and no reason to stick around because likely their melanoma is gone forever.

Melanoma spreads via lymph vessels and/or blood vessels.  Neither type of vessel exists in the epidermis, the layer of skin where melanoma in situ (stage 0) exists.  That is the reason there is such a high survival rate for stage 0.  There is no way for the lesion to spread.  It doesn't matter if melanoma is a slow or fast spreading cancer – it can be both.  But in your case, there is no way for it to spread because there were no blood/lymph vessels in proximity to the lesion.

So, what can happen?  You have your WLE.  All this is doing is making sure than there are no rogue cells that escaped the biopsy.  Then, nothing.  That's it.  Setup periodic derm visits to watch your skin.  Live life.  Move on.  It's what most everyone with melanoma in situ (Stage 0) does.  Go off and live their lives.  They don't really post here much unless they are newly diagnosed because there are no treatments after surgery, and no reason to stick around because likely their melanoma is gone forever.

Melanoma spreads via lymph vessels and/or blood vessels.  Neither type of vessel exists in the epidermis, the layer of skin where melanoma in situ (stage 0) exists.  That is the reason there is such a high survival rate for stage 0.  There is no way for the lesion to spread.  It doesn't matter if melanoma is a slow or fast spreading cancer – it can be both.  But in your case, there is no way for it to spread because there were no blood/lymph vessels in proximity to the lesion.

So, what can happen?  You have your WLE.  All this is doing is making sure than there are no rogue cells that escaped the biopsy.  Then, nothing.  That's it.  Setup periodic derm visits to watch your skin.  Live life.  Move on.  It's what most everyone with melanoma in situ (Stage 0) does.  Go off and live their lives.  They don't really post here much unless they are newly diagnosed because there are no treatments after surgery, and no reason to stick around because likely their melanoma is gone forever.

Like Janner said. Make sure to keep your regular derm visits. That way they can spot anything new showing up and take care of it so you remain at stage 0. You might also want to be a little careful in the sun. They have special clothing with uv protection, sun block, hats, etc. But really all that is doing is helping keep another spot from showing up on your skin so they don't have to remove yet another spot.

But otherwise yeah with regular derm visits you can stay stage 0 forever. Maybe take pictures of yourself to doublecheck your skin if you don't want to put your full trust in your derm. Also some derm's can do full body photo's and they compare to your previous visits. Also if you are really concerned about trusting the first place you might want to make sure they got it all. If I understand right their report shows it did get everything but I think you can have it re-tested somewhere else if you don't want to put your full trust in the first place. I imagine if you did do that the report would come back the same but it sounds like it might give you more peace of mind.

So yeah if you have to be a stage then stage 0 is where you want to be.

Artie

Like Janner said. Make sure to keep your regular derm visits. That way they can spot anything new showing up and take care of it so you remain at stage 0. You might also want to be a little careful in the sun. They have special clothing with uv protection, sun block, hats, etc. But really all that is doing is helping keep another spot from showing up on your skin so they don't have to remove yet another spot.

But otherwise yeah with regular derm visits you can stay stage 0 forever. Maybe take pictures of yourself to doublecheck your skin if you don't want to put your full trust in your derm. Also some derm's can do full body photo's and they compare to your previous visits. Also if you are really concerned about trusting the first place you might want to make sure they got it all. If I understand right their report shows it did get everything but I think you can have it re-tested somewhere else if you don't want to put your full trust in the first place. I imagine if you did do that the report would come back the same but it sounds like it might give you more peace of mind.

So yeah if you have to be a stage then stage 0 is where you want to be.

Artie

Like Janner said. Make sure to keep your regular derm visits. That way they can spot anything new showing up and take care of it so you remain at stage 0. You might also want to be a little careful in the sun. They have special clothing with uv protection, sun block, hats, etc. But really all that is doing is helping keep another spot from showing up on your skin so they don't have to remove yet another spot.

But otherwise yeah with regular derm visits you can stay stage 0 forever. Maybe take pictures of yourself to doublecheck your skin if you don't want to put your full trust in your derm. Also some derm's can do full body photo's and they compare to your previous visits. Also if you are really concerned about trusting the first place you might want to make sure they got it all. If I understand right their report shows it did get everything but I think you can have it re-tested somewhere else if you don't want to put your full trust in the first place. I imagine if you did do that the report would come back the same but it sounds like it might give you more peace of mind.

So yeah if you have to be a stage then stage 0 is where you want to be.

Artie

Hi Ashlee,

Take a deep breath, relax. You are Stage 0, so your melanoma was caught early. Can it return? Yes. But for  99-100% of Stage 0 patients it does not returm. Right, you have a 99-100% chance of never seeing it again. Most of us here wish we were in a situation like that.

Another piece of advice I'd like to offer is to please STOP reading about melanoma on the internet. There is a lot of scary and outdated information on the internet about it. I'm not telling you to never read up on it, but you're in such a dither right now, that it would be in your best interest to just put that off for a while.

Things like cancer cause a change in routine for us. Change is scary for some of us. For you, your new routine will be getting routine skin checks by a dermatologist, stop going to tanning beds (if that's something you were doing), wear sunscreen, and make the shade your best friend. Is there anything scary about those things? Of course not. You get over the shock of the diagnosis, pick up the pieces and move on.

Hi Ashlee,

Take a deep breath, relax. You are Stage 0, so your melanoma was caught early. Can it return? Yes. But for  99-100% of Stage 0 patients it does not returm. Right, you have a 99-100% chance of never seeing it again. Most of us here wish we were in a situation like that.

Another piece of advice I'd like to offer is to please STOP reading about melanoma on the internet. There is a lot of scary and outdated information on the internet about it. I'm not telling you to never read up on it, but you're in such a dither right now, that it would be in your best interest to just put that off for a while.

Things like cancer cause a change in routine for us. Change is scary for some of us. For you, your new routine will be getting routine skin checks by a dermatologist, stop going to tanning beds (if that's something you were doing), wear sunscreen, and make the shade your best friend. Is there anything scary about those things? Of course not. You get over the shock of the diagnosis, pick up the pieces and move on.

Hi Ashlee,

Take a deep breath, relax. You are Stage 0, so your melanoma was caught early. Can it return? Yes. But for  99-100% of Stage 0 patients it does not returm. Right, you have a 99-100% chance of never seeing it again. Most of us here wish we were in a situation like that.

Another piece of advice I'd like to offer is to please STOP reading about melanoma on the internet. There is a lot of scary and outdated information on the internet about it. I'm not telling you to never read up on it, but you're in such a dither right now, that it would be in your best interest to just put that off for a while.

Things like cancer cause a change in routine for us. Change is scary for some of us. For you, your new routine will be getting routine skin checks by a dermatologist, stop going to tanning beds (if that's something you were doing), wear sunscreen, and make the shade your best friend. Is there anything scary about those things? Of course not. You get over the shock of the diagnosis, pick up the pieces and move on.

I'm seriously wondering if "Ashlee" is trolling. She keeps posting the same type of thing and stressing that she's Stage 0, but she doesn't bother to reply to the responses she's gotten on earlier posts or take part in the conversations. She's getting the same message repeatedly that there's really nothing to panic over at Stage 0, but still comes back with a new twist on the same story. And the kind melanoma folks here with much bigger fish to fry keep responding. I'm just wondering if we're being had.

I'm seriously wondering if "Ashlee" is trolling. She keeps posting the same type of thing and stressing that she's Stage 0, but she doesn't bother to reply to the responses she's gotten on earlier posts or take part in the conversations. She's getting the same message repeatedly that there's really nothing to panic over at Stage 0, but still comes back with a new twist on the same story. And the kind melanoma folks here with much bigger fish to fry keep responding. I'm just wondering if we're being had.

I'm seriously wondering if "Ashlee" is trolling. She keeps posting the same type of thing and stressing that she's Stage 0, but she doesn't bother to reply to the responses she's gotten on earlier posts or take part in the conversations. She's getting the same message repeatedly that there's really nothing to panic over at Stage 0, but still comes back with a new twist on the same story. And the kind melanoma folks here with much bigger fish to fry keep responding. I'm just wondering if we're being had.