Father newly diagnosed (Bay Area, California)

[Devojka]

Hello everyone,

My dad was just recently diagnosed with (unconfirmed) stage IIB melanoma with ulceration. The reason why I say it is unconfirmed is because he was diagnosed out of the country (eastern Europe) and they didn’t do any nodule tests or scans. He flew here to the states and we were referred to clinic at Stanford. While we were waiting for an appt confirmation from stanford we reached out to CPMC who were able to get us in next Thursday with Dr. Kashania and Dr.Leong. Stanford is scheduling an appointment for us some time next week as well but we have yet to confirm on a day and time. To be honest, communication with CPMC has been much easier so far but Stanford is much closer to where we live.

This type of situation is more or less completely unprecedented for me. Needless to say, it makes me feel clueless. At the stage that my father is in, does it make sense to keep both consultation appointments to determine which center we prefer? Should we try to do certain tests and scans prior to these appointments with other doctors who aren’t necessarily specialists but are able to see us sooner? I see my dad is frustrated and anxious with the waiting, it’s been more of a time lapse than he was expecting.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Biljana

[Catherine Poole]

I think I answered this somewhere, but first step is to get the pathology reviewed at one of these fine institutions. From there you will figure out whether a sentinel node biopsy is needed. Let us know how things go.

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