The makings of a plan

Dr. B (dermatologist) just called this evening.  Lots of information.  The biopsy on the spot on my face reported as a melanoma-in-situ.  He did receive a copy of the biopsy results from 2 years ago confirming that it was previously non-cancerous.  His hope was that he could prove the spot on my face was the primary source of the cancer, but it’s very rare for an in-situ to cause the type of melanoma found in my head.  They will be removing the spot on my face entirely (I forgot to ask when this will be done but my assumption is they will do it at the same time they do the tumor removal).  They’ll do some further testing on it after it’s removed. 

 

He also somewhat laid out the timeline for the next couple of weeks.  The next new doctor I will see will be the oncologist (Dr. Z) on the 25th.  The head and neck surgeon/ ENT (Dr. R) is out of town next week and I will meet with him when he returns.  Until then I will be sent to get the other tests: liver, lungs, brain, and bone. If ALL of these come back negative then they will send me for the sentinel lymph node biopsy (Yes, Mom, he was thoroughly impressed you knew what this was).  The goal right now is to determine the source. 

 

I have to try to make contact with the first doctor who performed the first biopsy years ago in San Diego.  For some reason, the records that were sent didn’t include the 1st biopsy. 

 

I did ask about travelling next month and he said not to cancel anything just yet.  I’ll pop in to get the stitches out on Wednesday.