Question on Healing

 I had it done and was sore for a good week and then the area was tender,    I am going in 2 weeks for my Wide and SNLB surgery. Praying that healing part isn't bad,   My tumor is 1.33 and my mitosis is 8.  The the tumor is on my back more toward the side of my ribs.    Prayers for fast recovery for you.

 I had it done and was sore for a good week and then the area was tender,    I am going in 2 weeks for my Wide and SNLB surgery. Praying that healing part isn't bad,   My tumor is 1.33 and my mitosis is 8.  The the tumor is on my back more toward the side of my ribs.    Prayers for fast recovery for you.

 I had it done and was sore for a good week and then the area was tender,    I am going in 2 weeks for my Wide and SNLB surgery. Praying that healing part isn't bad,   My tumor is 1.33 and my mitosis is 8.  The the tumor is on my back more toward the side of my ribs.    Prayers for fast recovery for you.

You'll be looking at stitches for about two weeks. Of that two weeks, a few days (for me it was about three) are quite painful – I took codeine type painkillers, just over-the-counter stuff. I slept through the night but wasn't as mobile during the day with reaching, lifting etc. After that it very quickly became less and less uncomfortable. It was still tender when stitches came out after two weeks, but the wound was 100% closed so no reason why any future surgery would be jeopardised. It's been about 5 weeks for me now and I have no further discomfort whatsoever. I's pretty amazing how quickly it all heals up. Good luck – re SLNB, it's a no from me – I've never had to think about it because in Australia it's not even an option if  your mel is under 1mm (unless perhaps it was >.75mm with very nasty features like high mitosis etc). However, you need to be able to live with whatever decision you make, so choose what's best for you.

Stars

You'll be looking at stitches for about two weeks. Of that two weeks, a few days (for me it was about three) are quite painful – I took codeine type painkillers, just over-the-counter stuff. I slept through the night but wasn't as mobile during the day with reaching, lifting etc. After that it very quickly became less and less uncomfortable. It was still tender when stitches came out after two weeks, but the wound was 100% closed so no reason why any future surgery would be jeopardised. It's been about 5 weeks for me now and I have no further discomfort whatsoever. I's pretty amazing how quickly it all heals up. Good luck – re SLNB, it's a no from me – I've never had to think about it because in Australia it's not even an option if  your mel is under 1mm (unless perhaps it was >.75mm with very nasty features like high mitosis etc). However, you need to be able to live with whatever decision you make, so choose what's best for you.

Stars

You'll be looking at stitches for about two weeks. Of that two weeks, a few days (for me it was about three) are quite painful – I took codeine type painkillers, just over-the-counter stuff. I slept through the night but wasn't as mobile during the day with reaching, lifting etc. After that it very quickly became less and less uncomfortable. It was still tender when stitches came out after two weeks, but the wound was 100% closed so no reason why any future surgery would be jeopardised. It's been about 5 weeks for me now and I have no further discomfort whatsoever. I's pretty amazing how quickly it all heals up. Good luck – re SLNB, it's a no from me – I've never had to think about it because in Australia it's not even an option if  your mel is under 1mm (unless perhaps it was >.75mm with very nasty features like high mitosis etc). However, you need to be able to live with whatever decision you make, so choose what's best for you.

Stars

I guess different people have different experiences.  I had told you before that ET breezed through with less than 2 days on Percocet, which she felt she barely needed.  Her incision is about 5" long.  The swath of tissue removed was probably about 5 cm (2") wide.  The surgeon removed tissue all the way to the muscle — approx 2 cm deep from the surface of the skin.  Then her SNLB incision is about 2.5" long.  The surgeon removed just the one lymph node, which actually turned out to be 5 nodes. 

That was less that 2 weeks ago.  I have orders from the surgeon to keep ET tied down (or at least not let her work her right arm too much)  until her second followup appointment in a couple of weeks.  However, it was more than ET could bear.  Day before yesterday she dragged me out to the garden, demonstrated that she could dig up a basil plant with only her left arm and transplant it to a pot for overwintering.  I told her I was impressed, and then I grabbed the shovel to dig the other plants.  Well, she glared at me and told me to DROP THE SHOVEL.  She wanted to do it herself.  It's one of her pleasures.  So I grudgingly walked away and let her enjoy the day doing her gardening.

It's worth mentioning that 80% of ET's pain, what little of it there was from the WAE, not the SNLB.

This was her second excision, BTW.  The first was slightly less than 2" long, 1" wide, and 3/4" deep.  She had ibuprofen and no narcotics.  She was kayaking is less than a week, against doctor's orders, against my strong urging.  I was at least able to waterproof her wound (for the most part) with tegaderm.

Regarding the doctor's advice:  At age 25, I would consider a 5% chance of lymph node involvement substantive enough that I would want the SNLB.  I'm a numbers person, so lets say you had a whole lot of lives to live from this juncture.  Your life expectancy would ordinarily be maybe 50 years or more.  Five percent of that would be 2.5 years.  If not catching a positive SNL would be a fatal mistake, that would be 2.5 years off of your life, on average.  Would you undergo a couple of weeks of pain to tack 2.5 years onto your life, on average?  I would.  But that's just me.

I guess different people have different experiences.  I had told you before that ET breezed through with less than 2 days on Percocet, which she felt she barely needed.  Her incision is about 5" long.  The swath of tissue removed was probably about 5 cm (2") wide.  The surgeon removed tissue all the way to the muscle — approx 2 cm deep from the surface of the skin.  Then her SNLB incision is about 2.5" long.  The surgeon removed just the one lymph node, which actually turned out to be 5 nodes. 

That was less that 2 weeks ago.  I have orders from the surgeon to keep ET tied down (or at least not let her work her right arm too much)  until her second followup appointment in a couple of weeks.  However, it was more than ET could bear.  Day before yesterday she dragged me out to the garden, demonstrated that she could dig up a basil plant with only her left arm and transplant it to a pot for overwintering.  I told her I was impressed, and then I grabbed the shovel to dig the other plants.  Well, she glared at me and told me to DROP THE SHOVEL.  She wanted to do it herself.  It's one of her pleasures.  So I grudgingly walked away and let her enjoy the day doing her gardening.

It's worth mentioning that 80% of ET's pain, what little of it there was from the WAE, not the SNLB.

This was her second excision, BTW.  The first was slightly less than 2" long, 1" wide, and 3/4" deep.  She had ibuprofen and no narcotics.  She was kayaking is less than a week, against doctor's orders, against my strong urging.  I was at least able to waterproof her wound (for the most part) with tegaderm.

Regarding the doctor's advice:  At age 25, I would consider a 5% chance of lymph node involvement substantive enough that I would want the SNLB.  I'm a numbers person, so lets say you had a whole lot of lives to live from this juncture.  Your life expectancy would ordinarily be maybe 50 years or more.  Five percent of that would be 2.5 years.  If not catching a positive SNL would be a fatal mistake, that would be 2.5 years off of your life, on average.  Would you undergo a couple of weeks of pain to tack 2.5 years onto your life, on average?  I would.  But that's just me.

I guess different people have different experiences.  I had told you before that ET breezed through with less than 2 days on Percocet, which she felt she barely needed.  Her incision is about 5" long.  The swath of tissue removed was probably about 5 cm (2") wide.  The surgeon removed tissue all the way to the muscle — approx 2 cm deep from the surface of the skin.  Then her SNLB incision is about 2.5" long.  The surgeon removed just the one lymph node, which actually turned out to be 5 nodes. 

That was less that 2 weeks ago.  I have orders from the surgeon to keep ET tied down (or at least not let her work her right arm too much)  until her second followup appointment in a couple of weeks.  However, it was more than ET could bear.  Day before yesterday she dragged me out to the garden, demonstrated that she could dig up a basil plant with only her left arm and transplant it to a pot for overwintering.  I told her I was impressed, and then I grabbed the shovel to dig the other plants.  Well, she glared at me and told me to DROP THE SHOVEL.  She wanted to do it herself.  It's one of her pleasures.  So I grudgingly walked away and let her enjoy the day doing her gardening.

It's worth mentioning that 80% of ET's pain, what little of it there was from the WAE, not the SNLB.

This was her second excision, BTW.  The first was slightly less than 2" long, 1" wide, and 3/4" deep.  She had ibuprofen and no narcotics.  She was kayaking is less than a week, against doctor's orders, against my strong urging.  I was at least able to waterproof her wound (for the most part) with tegaderm.

Regarding the doctor's advice:  At age 25, I would consider a 5% chance of lymph node involvement substantive enough that I would want the SNLB.  I'm a numbers person, so lets say you had a whole lot of lives to live from this juncture.  Your life expectancy would ordinarily be maybe 50 years or more.  Five percent of that would be 2.5 years.  If not catching a positive SNL would be a fatal mistake, that would be 2.5 years off of your life, on average.  Would you undergo a couple of weeks of pain to tack 2.5 years onto your life, on average?  I would.  But that's just me.