Timeline of diagnosis & treatment

Visiting my ob/gyn on 8/28/07, the nurse pointed out the mole I had on my right shin to the doctor. She advised me to get it checked out right away. "Right away" happened on October 29th with a visit to a plastic surgeon who agreed that the mole needed to be removed. He removed the mole on December 5th and sent it to pathology. I was back in the plastic surgeon's office on December 17th for the unexpected pathology report of malignant melanoma. The report said that they could not rule out metastatic melanoma and recommended a clinical work-up to rule out other primary sites as well as staging. The largest nodule was 0.8 cm. thick. I thought I had been handed a death sentence.

The round of doctor visits and tests began immediately with a visit to a dermatologist on December 19th. She didn't see anything else suspicious and, with the Christmas holiday right around the corner, was very kind to make herself accessible for questions during the next few days. My first visit to the oncologist was January 3rd (Happy New Year!). Then I had a CAT scan on January 7th, and a bone scan on January 8th. I was back at the oncologist on January 9th who sent me for a PET on January 14th. Then I was back with the oncologist on January 16th to learn that all tests had basically been clear.

At my appointment with the plastic surgeon on January 21st we scheduled the day surgery for removal of the tissue margin around the mole site and a sentinel lymph node mapping and biopsy for February 6th. I missed four days of work after the surgery with an incision in my right groin, and a skin graft from my right hip stapled to cover the new gaping hole in my shin.

I had a post-op visit to the plastic surgeon on February 12th, and on February 21st learned that a few cancer cells were found in one lymph node (the PET scan did NOT pick this up so I'm grateful my surgeon performed the sentinel lymph node biopsy). A right groin lymph node dissection was scheduled for February 27th. This involved an overnight hospital stay, and I went home the next day with a new, much longer incision and a Jackson Pratt drain. Walking was very difficult because I couldn't pick up my right foot, and I stayed on my pain meds pretty regularly those first few days. My entire leg, from the tip of my toes to the top of my leg was wrapped in ace bandages to control swelling. After a few days I was allowed to remove the dressings, shower, and begin wearing a closed-toe compression stocking. I couldn't lie down to sleep because I couldn't get in and out of bed by myself, needed help getting dressed, and could not get the compression stocking on by myself. The trickiest part was getting the stocking up and over my "mole hole" on my shin with the least amount of contact. I was home from work for eleven days and my husband was an absolute saint! I couldn't have been home without his help.

My post-op appointment with the plastic surgeon was on March 5th, where I heard that the preliminary pathology report was negative for malignancy. On the 18th, the drain was removed (thankfully no worse than having a bandaid yanked off) and learned that the pathology report was negative. Follow-up visits followed in close succession: oncologist on March 26th, plastic surgeon on April 15th, oncologist on April 21st, and plastic surgeon on May 6th. I don't have to go back to the plastic surgeon for 3 months!

My next appointment with the oncologist is May 19th to begin the intensive interferon treatment. My oncologist doesn't believe that following the intensive treatment with the long-term interferon treatment would offer any additional benefit for me, so I'll be done within one (miserable) month instead of twelve.