› Forums › Cutaneous Melanoma Community › Too long to wait for lymph node dissection/wide excision?
- This topic has 5 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 1 month ago by
Rob578.
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- March 15, 2018 at 12:20 am
I am new here, and to this, and sorely need advice from people who know, please!
I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma on Feb. 7th, one week after having the mole removed from my leg.
I have been in a bit of denial, I guess. I finally consulted with a surgeon the last week of February.
She wanted to do a wide excision on my leg, and sentinel lymph node removal / lymph node dissection (removal?) all at once, hopefully in March.
However, due to scheduling difficulties twixt surgeon and plastic surgeon, I just got a surgery date of April 9th, which is over 3 weeks away, and two months since my diagnosis.
Is this typical, or is this too long to wait?
I don't feel like I have many options — terrible insurance — but should I be exploring further?
This hospital (Virginia Hospital Center) is well-rated and geographically convenient to me, so I feel lucky to be scheduled there.
But my father is panicking and wants me to check out Cancer Treatment Centers of America.
For what it's worth, the mole removed was pretty deep, 1.9 mm, non-ulcerated, "clear but narrow margins." It looked scary for over a year before I had it removed, so already feeling quite pessimistic and don't know if that's clouding my judgment.
Thank you for any advice/thoughts!
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- March 15, 2018 at 12:46 am
It's actually been studied – no changes in survival. Anything within 90 days is actually pretty normal. Some places get you in immediately, but more often there is some type of wait. It's more important to get it done than to worry about a few weeks. As for CTCA, I don't believe they take insurance and the SNB will be done under general. (WLE at the same time but WLE by itself could be done under local). You could be looking at a pretty hefty bill. CTCA doesn't offer anything unique in terms of treatment for melanoma – except their whole body approach, I guess. But in terms of treatment, they do the same things everywhere else does. Melanoma isn't their specialty and you'd be better off finding a good melanoma specialist close to you. If there is one at your hospital, great. If you SNB comes back clean, good news. If it is positive, you might want to look at bigger cancer centers nearby if you can find one with a melanoma specialist. This field is changing fast and you want the most up-to-date person specialist and a center that sees lots of melanoma. Just my 2 cents. Good luck!
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- March 15, 2018 at 12:52 am
Thank you for your quick reply! I was so relieved to have it finally scheduled, my heart sank that perhaps I need to look further. I have an oncologist lined up but will concentrate on finding a melanoma specialist for afterwards.
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- March 15, 2018 at 7:12 pm
If its any comfort I had no primary on the skin but a neck lymph node that was swollen and mistaken for a sebacous cyst. This grew in my neck close to 6 months to 5.4 cm. Although it had melanoma traced inside all other 60 nodes were benign. And head MRI and body CAT scan were clear. So your wait time given its primary was on skin level is no need to worry.
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- March 15, 2018 at 1:11 pm
Greta, as people on this forum repeatedly say, and whose advice my husband and I took, you want melanoma specialists. If Virginia Hospital Center is close to you, so is the Inova Melanoma and Skin Cancer Center in Fairfax. They're melanoma experts, and we've been so impressed with my husband's – and my – care, including by the surgeon who recently did my husband's sentinels lymph node biopsies (SLNB) and wide local excision (WLE).
For your father's comfort level, the director was the melanoma center director at the Washington Hospital Center and started up the Inova melanoma center, along with his chief oncologist. It's a team approach, with the first visit being with a dermatologist (in our case the director), surgeon, oncologist, one at a time, with a nurse navigator for support. The hospital care was also excellent. While expert treatment trumps everything, it doesn't hurt to be treated with concern and warmth.
Someone else on this forum posted to me very positively about the Center when we were looking. My husband's initial dermatologist referred us to the melanoma center. He also mentioned Hopkins or possibly Washington Hospital Center as other choices, but said if he was being treated himself he'd go with Dr. Venna, at the Melanoma Center. It's not just about whether a hospital has an excellent reputation; we wanted doctors who obsessively involved in melanoma treatment and study.
If you want to ask any questions about the center, feel free to contact me through this board and we can email or chat on the phone.
(BTW, I'm not saying one center or hospital is always the end all and be all – if down the road other options are needed, they're out there, For us that might mean travel out of state.)
Whatever you choose, good luck –
Beth
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Tagged: cutaneous melanoma
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