I’m back from surgery
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I’m back from surgery

› Forums › General Melanoma Community › I’m back from surgery

  • Post
    • December 11, 2016 at 12:35 am
    Aloha14
    Participant

      I had the lympsocinigraphy yesterday and it wasn't as scary as I thought. The tracer moved pretty fast and I was only on the table for about 45 minutes.  The shots were tolerable. There were 2 sentinel nodes. Does anyone know if more than one node is a sentinel node does that mean you have twice the chance of the cancer spreading?

      The Wide Excision surgery went ok after a 4 1/2 wait in the pre-op as the hospital was behind schedule. The surgeon was able to pull the skin from my side/back of my calf to the front so no skin graft needed. I didn't realize that the surgeons don't check as they go to see if there's cancer cells still left. Of course all of the removed skin went to the lab. I wonder how they know they got it all ? or if there's cases where there's still come cancer left. The lymph nodes removed were right next to each other so I only have one long scar. 

      Thanks to all for your support.

    Viewing 11 reply threads
    • Replies
        • December 11, 2016 at 1:44 am
        Janner
        Participant

          The surgeons can't just see the cancerous cells when they remove the tissue.  For melanocytes to show up best, the skin is prepared in paraffin and stained so the melanocytes stand out.  They will give you a "clear margin" estimate on the pathology report.  For a lesion under 2mm, the margins are 1cm.  If your pathology reports shows something much smaller than that, they would go back in and take more.

          • December 11, 2016 at 1:44 am
          Janner
          Participant

            The surgeons can't just see the cancerous cells when they remove the tissue.  For melanocytes to show up best, the skin is prepared in paraffin and stained so the melanocytes stand out.  They will give you a "clear margin" estimate on the pathology report.  For a lesion under 2mm, the margins are 1cm.  If your pathology reports shows something much smaller than that, they would go back in and take more.

            • December 11, 2016 at 1:44 am
            Janner
            Participant

              The surgeons can't just see the cancerous cells when they remove the tissue.  For melanocytes to show up best, the skin is prepared in paraffin and stained so the melanocytes stand out.  They will give you a "clear margin" estimate on the pathology report.  For a lesion under 2mm, the margins are 1cm.  If your pathology reports shows something much smaller than that, they would go back in and take more.

              • December 11, 2016 at 3:11 am
              jennunicorn
              Participant

                I'm sure you're glad to be done with surgery. Now the wait for results can be hard. They'll test the tissue from WLE, almost always it comes back with clear margins. I had 3 lymph nodes light up from the radioactive shot and then when the surgeon was in there he saw another one deeper in me that was lighting up and he took that out too. 3 of the 4 of mine removed were positive and 2 of those were sentinel and one was not. But, others have had multiple sentinel nodes light up and have them all be clean. Some only have 1 light up. Our bodies are all different, but I don't believe that having more than one light up means there's a higher chance of spread. 

                Wishing you an easy recovery and sending positive vibes for good results!

                • December 11, 2016 at 3:11 am
                jennunicorn
                Participant

                  I'm sure you're glad to be done with surgery. Now the wait for results can be hard. They'll test the tissue from WLE, almost always it comes back with clear margins. I had 3 lymph nodes light up from the radioactive shot and then when the surgeon was in there he saw another one deeper in me that was lighting up and he took that out too. 3 of the 4 of mine removed were positive and 2 of those were sentinel and one was not. But, others have had multiple sentinel nodes light up and have them all be clean. Some only have 1 light up. Our bodies are all different, but I don't believe that having more than one light up means there's a higher chance of spread. 

                  Wishing you an easy recovery and sending positive vibes for good results!

                  • December 11, 2016 at 3:11 am
                  jennunicorn
                  Participant

                    I'm sure you're glad to be done with surgery. Now the wait for results can be hard. They'll test the tissue from WLE, almost always it comes back with clear margins. I had 3 lymph nodes light up from the radioactive shot and then when the surgeon was in there he saw another one deeper in me that was lighting up and he took that out too. 3 of the 4 of mine removed were positive and 2 of those were sentinel and one was not. But, others have had multiple sentinel nodes light up and have them all be clean. Some only have 1 light up. Our bodies are all different, but I don't believe that having more than one light up means there's a higher chance of spread. 

                    Wishing you an easy recovery and sending positive vibes for good results!

                    • December 11, 2016 at 6:46 am
                    Aloha14
                    Participant

                      Thanks for the replies. Jennunicorn, did you have a lot of swelling near the lymph nodes that were removed? I just noticed that I have a bruiseat the incision, and the inside of my leg is swollen about 6 inches from the incision. Did you get treatment for the positive lymph nodes?

                        • December 11, 2016 at 8:29 am
                        jennunicorn
                        Participant
                          Yes I was swollen for a while and had some lymph fluid build up on the scar which took a couple of months to go down.

                          After finding out I had multiple positive nodes and was staged 3b, I decided to do adjuvant Yervoy (Ipi) since that had been recently fda approved for stage 3. Didn’t work for me, but has worked for others. Hopefully you don’t have to worry about any of that.

                          • December 11, 2016 at 8:29 am
                          jennunicorn
                          Participant
                            Yes I was swollen for a while and had some lymph fluid build up on the scar which took a couple of months to go down.

                            After finding out I had multiple positive nodes and was staged 3b, I decided to do adjuvant Yervoy (Ipi) since that had been recently fda approved for stage 3. Didn’t work for me, but has worked for others. Hopefully you don’t have to worry about any of that.

                            • December 11, 2016 at 8:29 am
                            jennunicorn
                            Participant
                              Yes I was swollen for a while and had some lymph fluid build up on the scar which took a couple of months to go down.

                              After finding out I had multiple positive nodes and was staged 3b, I decided to do adjuvant Yervoy (Ipi) since that had been recently fda approved for stage 3. Didn’t work for me, but has worked for others. Hopefully you don’t have to worry about any of that.

                            • December 11, 2016 at 6:46 am
                            Aloha14
                            Participant

                              Thanks for the replies. Jennunicorn, did you have a lot of swelling near the lymph nodes that were removed? I just noticed that I have a bruiseat the incision, and the inside of my leg is swollen about 6 inches from the incision. Did you get treatment for the positive lymph nodes?

                              • December 11, 2016 at 6:46 am
                              Aloha14
                              Participant

                                Thanks for the replies. Jennunicorn, did you have a lot of swelling near the lymph nodes that were removed? I just noticed that I have a bruiseat the incision, and the inside of my leg is swollen about 6 inches from the incision. Did you get treatment for the positive lymph nodes?

                                • December 11, 2016 at 7:48 pm
                                Aloha14
                                Participant

                                  Thank you for your reply Jenn. I'm sorry to hear the medication didn't work for you. 

                                  • December 11, 2016 at 7:48 pm
                                  Aloha14
                                  Participant

                                    Thank you for your reply Jenn. I'm sorry to hear the medication didn't work for you. 

                                    • December 11, 2016 at 7:48 pm
                                    Aloha14
                                    Participant

                                      Thank you for your reply Jenn. I'm sorry to hear the medication didn't work for you. 

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