Breslow 0.84, Clark 3
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Hello, I was diagnosed two days ago. I have no history of melanoma in the immediate family, but everyone else I have told about this tells me it will be fine because they “know someone who also had it”.
I have an appointment with a surgeon for WLE in 10 days. Is someone out there with similar “measurements” who can share their experience?
I feel so numb and so very, very scared.
Hi Elsap I’m sorry you have to deal with this. Melanoma is very scary. When I was first diagnosed I was very scared. It is normal to be scared but as time goes on it gets better. I was diagnosed in July of 2012. Nodular, 1.25 Breslow, Clark’s IV. I am doing fine. I’ve had several biopsies done and no more melanoma. It took me several months to calm down over my diagnosis.
Your diagnosis seems to be on the border of whether to get a Sentinel Lymph Node biopsy. Where was your melanoma located? Has the Dr. asked you whether to get a SNB?
Please try not to freak out. It truly does get better with time.
There are others on this forum with a lot more expertise and hopefully they will chime in to offer you support.
Hi Elsap, I rarely check this site, but hopped on today and saw yor post. I had a similar melanoma – .86mm / Clark’s 3. I was diagnosed in early April and had the WLE on July 31 – bit stressful to say the least.
I had an Lymph node biopsy-because there was regression,and also because my dermatogoloist freaked me out.
Everything went well – no further signs of melanoma.
I have had a few more biopsies, but more or less feeling back to normal.
Just try and relax as much as possible and I also recommend staying away from google….not worth the anxiety.
Ask away if you have any other questions.
S
Do you have other attributes of your pathology you can share with us? Where was the lesion on your body? Women have the best prognosis and usually on the extremity. Did you have a mitotic factor? That can tell whether there was active cells dividing. But the depth of .84 is most important and some institutions will suggest a SLNB if over .75. Try to focus on the present moment, breathe deeply and you will get through this. We all have at one time or another with different coping mechanisms. I was .76 23 years ago with mitotic of 1, and vertical growth phase. Thank so much for sharing your experience and advice. I am dreading this wait and fear and anxiety. “My” doctor was neither reassuring nor forthcoming. She just referred me to another doctor for the WLE and said afterwards I had to go back because “there are others [moles] that need looking into”. I have in the meantime arranged to have my case file transferred to a different oncology hospital, where they will hopefully be, if not more reassuring, at least more forthcoming.
The lesion that was removed was on my lower chest. Under mitotic its says “not observed”, regression is “absent”, angioinvasion (?) “not documented” and microscopic distance to the margin “1.5mm”. Conclusion pT1A.
The first I head of SLNB was on this site. As for pT1A, I first decoded it on Wikipedia… I think you can see why I am changing doctors. It is the new doctor I will be seeing on October 30th, and after reading your replies I will most definitely be asking about SLNB.
Again, thank you for being there. I am very much struggling here.
Your melanoma does sound low risk. Please read here to find out more about staging, SLNB, etc: http://melanomainternational.org/melanoma-facts/newly-diagnosed http://www.drmihm.com or one of the great places such as UPENN, UCLA, Sloan Kettering etc.Catherine, Thank you – I wish the doctor who saw me had told me that clearly. As it was I was left to my own devices, with 10 days time on my hands to do nothing but worry.
And since I found this site (and read other users alerts about staying away from ad-hoc sources), I have not looked anywhere else.
Cohanja,
Thank you – that was uplifting.
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