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Waiting for Biopsy Results
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Waiting for Biopsy Results

› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Waiting for Biopsy Results

  • Post
    • November 23, 2017 at 2:02 am
    1Cbras
    Participant
      Hi,

      On November 13, I had an excisional biopsy of a suspect lesion on the sole of my foot. The pathology report is still outstanding. ( It’s going to be an anxious Thanksgiving). Is this a normal wait time for results. Thanks in advance for input. Extremely Anxious.

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    • Replies
        • November 23, 2017 at 3:09 am
        Janner
        Participant

          Every lab is different.  Remember that there may be others taking holiday time off.  Between 3 days and 2 weeks is realistic – just depends on the volume at the lab.  You can always call because sometimes it's the derm who takes time reading the results before he passes on the news.

          • November 23, 2017 at 4:32 pm
          mroulston
          Participant

            I had to wait about two and a half weeks to get the results of my biopsy.

              • November 23, 2017 at 10:09 pm
              1Cbras
              Participant
                I dont know how much longer I can live with the unknown. I feel like I am having a nervous breakdown. I’m going to call the doctors office tomorrow s d ask them if they can call the laboratory.

                I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m functioning poorly.

                • November 23, 2017 at 11:06 pm
                1Cbras
                Participant
                  I apologize for venting the way I did.
                  • November 24, 2017 at 12:34 am
                  mroulston
                  Participant

                    Oh, believe me, I completely understand. Waiting for my biopsy results was the worst experience of my life. I spent just about every waking second worrying about it because I was certain it was melanoma, I was just waiting to find out how bad it was. It turned out to be stage 1 melanoma, so it wasn't as bad as I had been worrying about (for two and a half weeks I had convinced myself it would be stage 4).

                    Nothing I say to you will make you stop worrying, but I figured it wouldn't hurt if I at least pointed out that all the worrying and anxiety you're going through right now is perfectly normal. You'll get through it. Stay positive!

                    • November 24, 2017 at 4:23 am
                    1Cbras
                    Participant
                      If it is melanoma, is my understanding correct that the excisional biopsy removed the cancerous lesion. This means, the next step would be to determine whether it has spread?
                      • November 24, 2017 at 8:33 pm
                      mroulston
                      Participant

                        The staging of the cancer would dictate what the next step is. Regardless of the stage, you would have to have a wide local excision to remove wider margins around the lesion to be absolutely sure that they removed all of the cancerous cells (they may or may not have removed it all during the initial excision). For early stage melanoma, the wide local excision is usually the final step. If the lesion is thicker, or has high ulcertation or mitotic rates (factors that could make it more likely to spread), then the next step would be a lymph node biopsy to try to determine whether the cancer has spread.

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