Hello Armstrong1992, 

I just wanted to welcome you to our forum. I can imagine it must be such a stressful time for you while waiting for these important results and as you say this is a time of year when you would have wanted to relax and have a good time rather than be worrying about this.

I know it is really hard but try not to anticipate what it might be. The best thing to do to avoid thinking too much about this is to keep busy and distracted if you can and avoid looking things up online. I can imagine it is hard for you to do this at the moment but it will help you feel a little less anxious. It won't be long now until you see the dermatologist about this and get some definite answers.

I hope you will also hear from others here who have been through all this before and that they will be along soon to share their story with you. 

Keeping everything crossed for you that everything turns out fine. 

Best wishes, 

Lucie, Cancer Chat Moderator

Hi,

I know how worried you must be, especially at this time of the year. Can I try & calm your fears a little so that you manage to get through the next few days of waiting for your appointment. 75% of patients referred to dermatology get a clean bill of health. Add to that the fact that subungal melanoma is one of the rarer types of melanoma, which means that amongst the 25% diagnosed with melanoma, only 5% have subungal melanoma, so the odds of your nail being OK are high. 

With regards to the appointment, the dermatologist will examine your nail to determine whether it's of concern or if needs a biopsy because they aren't sure if it's of concern. Depending on where they think the mark is under the nail will depend on what type of biopsy would be carried out. If they think it's just in one part of the nail bed they may do a punch biopsy (a small amount of tissue is punched out) - if the whole nail bed is involved they may do a full removal of the nail to access the mark & remove it all by excision. A punch biopsy can sometimes be done at the appointment but most times, for both types of biopsy, they bring you back on another day for the procedure. There are a few posts in the forum from others who have had/are having investigations of suspicious nails - just search subungal and you will get more information. One member, Rickyb, has posted his experience which is really helpful.

Try to have a good Christmas & good luck at your appointment. Please let us know how you get on,

Angie (melanoma patient)