Mama Mary,
I just read you message and my heart is with you. In April of 05 I had a Melanoma in situ on my right cheek under my eye . I had plastic surgeon, on the advice of my local dermatologist, remove it. Then in August of 2006 at a check-up with my derm. she said that the incision site had made a change and she biopsied it. It came back with severe atypia and she was going to send me back to the plastic surgeon. She said that sometimes plastic surgeons don't take enough tissue because of the cosmetic outcome. Well, at that point I began a search of another route. I found the Georgia Dermatologic Surgery Center in Atlanta www.georgiadermsurgery.com and I went for a consult. DR. David Pharis is the doctor I saw. He does slow Mohs surgery. Instead of the patient waiting in the office in between each step of excision, they do one step and cover it and send you home and you come back the next day and they do the next step until they get a clear path. I elected to do it. The cure rate is supposed to be 99%. It took three days and on day four they closed it up. The reason they say that this method is better than the traditional Mohs is that the tissue is sent to pathology over night.In traditional Mohs they freeze the tissue and evaluate it in one day each step of the surgery. Now, the reports on the second surgery came back atypical mole each step of the three days of surgery. Now I go to a different dermatologist in Athens Georgia who was recommended by Dr. Pharis as being thorough. I go to this dr. every three months for full body checks. I have gotten good reports so far since Sept. of '07. However, in January, at my gynecologcal check up I complained of an unusual soreness in my neck and chest. My gynecologist ordered a CT scan of the soft tissue of the neck and chest. It revealed two borederline lymph nodes and recommended that I have it checked out. The CT report suggested a follow up scan (PET) in three months and my gynecologist recommended Duke University. I have an appointment with a medical oncologist for a consultation on the 28th of this month. Hopefully, it won't turn up anything related to the melanoma but after just reviewing my records, this office suggested three month check ups with an oncologist. Since I have been told that Duke is cutting edge, I felt like I could be secure in what they may tell me. So, I hope that you can find the course that you will feel good about. I am not familiar with the vaccine treatments. Best of luck with your report. I pray that it will be a good report. scottp