Lymph nodes removal?

I had .77 and one node was affected.  It was considered to be in very early stages.  I then had all nodes removed and all were clean.  1.5 years later I am stage 4 as it moved to other lymph nodes.  Not meaning to scare you but to encourage you to stay on top of it and be aggressive and vigilant.  

I had .77 and one node was affected.  It was considered to be in very early stages.  I then had all nodes removed and all were clean.  1.5 years later I am stage 4 as it moved to other lymph nodes.  Not meaning to scare you but to encourage you to stay on top of it and be aggressive and vigilant.  

I had .77 and one node was affected.  It was considered to be in very early stages.  I then had all nodes removed and all were clean.  1.5 years later I am stage 4 as it moved to other lymph nodes.  Not meaning to scare you but to encourage you to stay on top of it and be aggressive and vigilant.  

My fathers sentinel node was positive so they removed all the others, none was affected… he progressed to stage IV after 3 years ( was on interferon for a year)…

so yes, it was kinda pointless to remove all the Lymph nodes, but then again, if they would be positive, it wouldn't be for nothing…

We would still probably choose to remove them, i personally hate 'what ifs'… you can live without those nodes anyway…

But many people advocate against node removal, so i guess it's up to personal comfort and preference….

Good luck with whatever you choose…

Patrisa

My fathers sentinel node was positive so they removed all the others, none was affected… he progressed to stage IV after 3 years ( was on interferon for a year)…

so yes, it was kinda pointless to remove all the Lymph nodes, but then again, if they would be positive, it wouldn't be for nothing…

We would still probably choose to remove them, i personally hate 'what ifs'… you can live without those nodes anyway…

But many people advocate against node removal, so i guess it's up to personal comfort and preference….

Good luck with whatever you choose…

Patrisa

My fathers sentinel node was positive so they removed all the others, none was affected… he progressed to stage IV after 3 years ( was on interferon for a year)…

so yes, it was kinda pointless to remove all the Lymph nodes, but then again, if they would be positive, it wouldn't be for nothing…

We would still probably choose to remove them, i personally hate 'what ifs'… you can live without those nodes anyway…

But many people advocate against node removal, so i guess it's up to personal comfort and preference….

Good luck with whatever you choose…

Patrisa

Hi my primary was on my right calf and was 3.5mm. I had my SLNB and a skin graft done,and they removed 1 lymph node from my groin and it came back with small microscopic traces. My surgeon then ordered a full body CT scan to see if i had spread else where. It showed the adjacent lymph node was enlarged and a i had a deeper pelvice lymph node that was inlarged. The surgeion then recomended doing a complete lymph node dissection. I thought long and hard about this because it is a very personal choice and you have to come to terms with whatever you choose. I chose not do to the lymph node dissection because the surgeon told me that i had at least a 50% chance of lymphadema for the rest of my life. He also told me that i only had a 25% to 35% chance that doing the surgery would keep me from proggresing. I tried to enroll in a clinacal trial and was deniend. I eventually got hooked up with a oncologist i like i had a PET scan done on Nov 5 and nothing light up not even those lymph nodes and about a month before that i could feel the one and now i cant. My oncologist said it was probably healing from the SLNB. I had my first Yervoy treatment on Nov14 and even tho i only had one treatmeant i had a pulmanary drug toxicty reaction to it, in which i developed pnumona from the treatmeant and was hospitalized for 6 days and now on steriods and doing great. I would choose to do it all over again. I meet with my oncologist today and right now i cant do any other treatmenat becasue I am NED from my last pet scan and Yervoy was the only thing she would give me with being stage 3B. She told me if i was to move to stage 4 then we would try something else but for now just moniter me with Pet scans every 3 months and do my skin checks at the derm. What im trying to say is only you can make these kinds of chocies, and you have to be at peace with whatever you choose. There is no right or wrong answer. I wish you all the best in your journey.

Jon

Hi my primary was on my right calf and was 3.5mm. I had my SLNB and a skin graft done,and they removed 1 lymph node from my groin and it came back with small microscopic traces. My surgeon then ordered a full body CT scan to see if i had spread else where. It showed the adjacent lymph node was enlarged and a i had a deeper pelvice lymph node that was inlarged. The surgeion then recomended doing a complete lymph node dissection. I thought long and hard about this because it is a very personal choice and you have to come to terms with whatever you choose. I chose not do to the lymph node dissection because the surgeon told me that i had at least a 50% chance of lymphadema for the rest of my life. He also told me that i only had a 25% to 35% chance that doing the surgery would keep me from proggresing. I tried to enroll in a clinacal trial and was deniend. I eventually got hooked up with a oncologist i like i had a PET scan done on Nov 5 and nothing light up not even those lymph nodes and about a month before that i could feel the one and now i cant. My oncologist said it was probably healing from the SLNB. I had my first Yervoy treatment on Nov14 and even tho i only had one treatmeant i had a pulmanary drug toxicty reaction to it, in which i developed pnumona from the treatmeant and was hospitalized for 6 days and now on steriods and doing great. I would choose to do it all over again. I meet with my oncologist today and right now i cant do any other treatmenat becasue I am NED from my last pet scan and Yervoy was the only thing she would give me with being stage 3B. She told me if i was to move to stage 4 then we would try something else but for now just moniter me with Pet scans every 3 months and do my skin checks at the derm. What im trying to say is only you can make these kinds of chocies, and you have to be at peace with whatever you choose. There is no right or wrong answer. I wish you all the best in your journey.

Jon

Hi my primary was on my right calf and was 3.5mm. I had my SLNB and a skin graft done,and they removed 1 lymph node from my groin and it came back with small microscopic traces. My surgeon then ordered a full body CT scan to see if i had spread else where. It showed the adjacent lymph node was enlarged and a i had a deeper pelvice lymph node that was inlarged. The surgeion then recomended doing a complete lymph node dissection. I thought long and hard about this because it is a very personal choice and you have to come to terms with whatever you choose. I chose not do to the lymph node dissection because the surgeon told me that i had at least a 50% chance of lymphadema for the rest of my life. He also told me that i only had a 25% to 35% chance that doing the surgery would keep me from proggresing. I tried to enroll in a clinacal trial and was deniend. I eventually got hooked up with a oncologist i like i had a PET scan done on Nov 5 and nothing light up not even those lymph nodes and about a month before that i could feel the one and now i cant. My oncologist said it was probably healing from the SLNB. I had my first Yervoy treatment on Nov14 and even tho i only had one treatmeant i had a pulmanary drug toxicty reaction to it, in which i developed pnumona from the treatmeant and was hospitalized for 6 days and now on steriods and doing great. I would choose to do it all over again. I meet with my oncologist today and right now i cant do any other treatmenat becasue I am NED from my last pet scan and Yervoy was the only thing she would give me with being stage 3B. She told me if i was to move to stage 4 then we would try something else but for now just moniter me with Pet scans every 3 months and do my skin checks at the derm. What im trying to say is only you can make these kinds of chocies, and you have to be at peace with whatever you choose. There is no right or wrong answer. I wish you all the best in your journey.

Jon

 My original melanoma (Nov 2015) was on my neck but was  thin (originally said to be .35mm, then my onc said .6) and without any other alarming characteristics therefore a sentinal node biopsy was not indicated, only a WLE.  4 months later I had a swollen lymph node in my neck, it was removed, and positive.  Scans at this time (April 2016) showed a other enlarged nodes in my neck and a couple of very small nodules in my lungs.  There was never any discussion about not doing the CLND.  I had my left neck CLND in May with 3 more infected nodes out of 59 removed.

Subsequently the lung nodules continued to grow and one was removed (Nov 2016) + melanoma.  So in reality, I was stage 4 since the original scans, we were just unable to prove it until now.  

My CLND was a life changing event.  I have  nerve pain in near my scapula with any sustained activity including walking, shoulder dysfunction (winged scapula) and significant neck stiffness.  A nerve was transected and reattached during my surgery but it seems 7 months later not to be resolving.  Not to say that this is something I can't live with, but before this I was a runner, very active and now I have to pace myself, I'm on neurontin and baclofen, I go to PT 2 times a week, live on tylenol and ibuprofen etc.

I don't know whether not doing the CLND would have made a difference in my progression- possibly I would have had increased metastisis.. my oncologist has said that the fact that my lung nodules have been growing quite slowly is a good indicator.   It was done and that is it, but I think it should be a part of the discussion before undertaking such a potentially major procedure.  

All the best-

Peggy

 My original melanoma (Nov 2015) was on my neck but was  thin (originally said to be .35mm, then my onc said .6) and without any other alarming characteristics therefore a sentinal node biopsy was not indicated, only a WLE.  4 months later I had a swollen lymph node in my neck, it was removed, and positive.  Scans at this time (April 2016) showed a other enlarged nodes in my neck and a couple of very small nodules in my lungs.  There was never any discussion about not doing the CLND.  I had my left neck CLND in May with 3 more infected nodes out of 59 removed.

Subsequently the lung nodules continued to grow and one was removed (Nov 2016) + melanoma.  So in reality, I was stage 4 since the original scans, we were just unable to prove it until now.  

My CLND was a life changing event.  I have  nerve pain in near my scapula with any sustained activity including walking, shoulder dysfunction (winged scapula) and significant neck stiffness.  A nerve was transected and reattached during my surgery but it seems 7 months later not to be resolving.  Not to say that this is something I can't live with, but before this I was a runner, very active and now I have to pace myself, I'm on neurontin and baclofen, I go to PT 2 times a week, live on tylenol and ibuprofen etc.

I don't know whether not doing the CLND would have made a difference in my progression- possibly I would have had increased metastisis.. my oncologist has said that the fact that my lung nodules have been growing quite slowly is a good indicator.   It was done and that is it, but I think it should be a part of the discussion before undertaking such a potentially major procedure.  

All the best-

Peggy

 My original melanoma (Nov 2015) was on my neck but was  thin (originally said to be .35mm, then my onc said .6) and without any other alarming characteristics therefore a sentinal node biopsy was not indicated, only a WLE.  4 months later I had a swollen lymph node in my neck, it was removed, and positive.  Scans at this time (April 2016) showed a other enlarged nodes in my neck and a couple of very small nodules in my lungs.  There was never any discussion about not doing the CLND.  I had my left neck CLND in May with 3 more infected nodes out of 59 removed.

Subsequently the lung nodules continued to grow and one was removed (Nov 2016) + melanoma.  So in reality, I was stage 4 since the original scans, we were just unable to prove it until now.  

My CLND was a life changing event.  I have  nerve pain in near my scapula with any sustained activity including walking, shoulder dysfunction (winged scapula) and significant neck stiffness.  A nerve was transected and reattached during my surgery but it seems 7 months later not to be resolving.  Not to say that this is something I can't live with, but before this I was a runner, very active and now I have to pace myself, I'm on neurontin and baclofen, I go to PT 2 times a week, live on tylenol and ibuprofen etc.

I don't know whether not doing the CLND would have made a difference in my progression- possibly I would have had increased metastisis.. my oncologist has said that the fact that my lung nodules have been growing quite slowly is a good indicator.   It was done and that is it, but I think it should be a part of the discussion before undertaking such a potentially major procedure.  

All the best-

Peggy