kareylou

Thanks for your reply! You have been through so much. My discomfort is so minimal compared to what I’ve read you have endured. They just said to alternate ibuprofen and tylenol. It keeps the pain to nothing when I am not using my arm, but not so much when moving. Praying for you as well (and have been since I have read about your saga!!).

Thanks for your encouragement! I had 6 punch biopsies on Thursday to help them determine how far into my freckled areas they may need to remove. Worst case scenario is that they will “skin” me–taking all the skin that is freckled off my arm. I am hoping that won’t be the case, but now, as I look at my arm, I keep seeing suspicious markings… Best case is that the doctor will do mohs to remove the affected areas around my incisions. I’ll keep you posted. I can’t seem to find anyone else who has experienced this kind of melanoma dx… Thanks again for cheering for me!!

Update: had my surgery a week ago Tuesday. They took out all three primaries and three lymph nodes. The node incision and the upper arm incision were closed by dermabond but the lower two that were right near each other was closed with a very rough incision (my son commented “bride of frankenstein”) because the surgeon assumed they may not have had clear margins. Fast forward to yesterday when she called with the pathology. Lymph nodes are clear! That was a huge answer to prayer. My margins, however, on all tissue taken out, were not clear. I have a large patch of freckles on my arm that they believe could all be premelanoma or melanoma in situ since this is what they found in the tissue they removed. So, my surgeon will be reviewing my case on Monday with a team of docs to figure out where to go from here. But all in all, I am thankful for the clear nodes!!!

Thank you for your response. I am not thrilled about one day of surgery–I can’t imagine 40 in 11 months. My surgeon is in a melanoma group but the dermatologist is a general one. Do you think it would be advantageous to find a dermatologist that specializes in it as well? Have you had sentinel node biopsies with any of your surgeries? You must be weary. I will be praying for you as well.

Thanks again.

Karen

I have not had my surgery yet so have not been staged. All of my melanomas that will be excised tomorrow are primary. By pathology reports, they are 2- pT1a moles and 1- pT2a mole. The margins were not clear on the biopsy so my surgeon suspects we will be moving 2 of them to the next level (thus pT2a & pT3a). What I have seen online stated that if there is cancer in the node they remove, the standard is to take all the lymph nodes in the area. That is what I was referring to. Sorry if I wasn’t clear.