Me, 54 year old male. Mid-December 2018, a large mole on the back of my upper-left arm started bleeding. My daughter, who was home visiting for Christmas convinced me to finally get it checked. After the holidays had passed (Christmas, my birthday, wife's birthday, our anniversary) I decided to make the appointment with a dermatologist. That happened on February 6th. After full-body examination and local anesthetic, after removing the scabbing, the doctor took out a 2cm (yes, 3/4-inch) mole and sent it for analysis by a dermatopathologist. A week later, results came back. It's a malignant melanoma of 4.3mm Breslow thickness, with ulceration and lymphovascular invasion, 5 mitoses/mm2, primary classification pT4b.
She referred me to a melanoma surgeon for consult and further treatment. Met with him on February 15th. Plan is to do a sentinal lymph node biopsy tomorrow (2/25), and remove about a 2-1/2 inch circle on my arm, then do a skin graft from my thigh to my arm. Depending on the outcome of the SLNB, chances are looking high that I'll be meeting an oncologist next to talk about the next steps.
Suddenly, I'm totally preoccupied with learning more than I ever wanted to know about melanoma, and at the same time growing more and more nervous about the future. All of the sudden, everything else in life has shifted to the back burner. Looking forward to learning more here, hearing everyone's stories of victory, and commiserating on the challenges.
Papa Chris
.
