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My husband just diagnosed with melanoma
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Dec 06, 2005 - 12:52 pm
Hi. My huband just got diagnosed with a type2a malignant melanoma. He had this ugly mole on his back for at least 9 years but lately it had been looking worse. I always bugged him about going to the dermatologist but he kept making excuses. So his mole started bleeding and I made the appt. and told him he HAD to go and he went. As soon as the p.a. saw the mole she said " OK the Dr has a surgery in an hour but we're taking this off now." His mole was about the size of a nickle but his incision was about 6 inches long. Three dats later they told us it was maligant and he would have to go to an oncologist ASAP. They made it 2 days later. Well, we went yesturday and the dr. said it was a type2a without ulcerations and he made us appt. fora surgery to put in a dye for his lyphnodes. So you see I'm lost, confused and just need some help and knowledge from people who have been through this or are going through this right now.What can I expect with this upcoming surgery and what is it's purpose? I know i'll be coming back and asking more questions as the Dr. appts.continue. They also talked about a PET scan and an injection he may have to take for a year, what are the common side affects? They mentioned we could do the meds for 90 days along with chemo, which would be better? I would appeciate any help and responces. God bless. |
Joined: Jul 2005
I am sorry to hear about your husband's diagnosis.
From your description, I assume that he will be having a sentinel node biopsy. I am copy/pasting a description of this procedure below. First let me say that I assume after they do the sentinel node tracking your husband will have a wide excision where his primary tumor was removed to make sure there isn't any residual melanoma left where the primary was removed. When I say primary I meant the mole which has already been removed.
When I had the sentinel node biopsy I went to the hospital as an out patient. First they did the tracking of the sentinel node (described below); I was under general anesthetic for the sentinel node removal and wide excision so I can't describe the surgical part. My mole was on my hip and my sentinel node was in my groin area. I was able to go home that evening and within a week was fairly well recovered. I got the results of my sentinel node biopsy at my one week check up.
Since my sentinel node was positive I ended up having a complete node dissection later. Not everyone elects to do that even with a positive node and I recommend that you take this one step at a time. The complete node dissection does require a short hospital stay (one night for me but sometimes that is 2 or more). However, hopefully your husband won't have a positive sentinel node and that won't be an issue.
Since your husband's doctor mention injections for a year, I assume he/she was talking about interferon. Interferon is the only FDA approved adjuvant treat