Pathology Results - Cancer: Skin Message Board

peipaws · 06-02-2006, 08:40 AM

It's been approx 4-5 weeks and I'm still waiting for results.

I went to a derm for a spot on my arm and while I was there I had him check 2 small bumps on my legs also. The first had been there for years but went flat and recently one appeared on the other leg.

The spot on my arm that I went for he just said to watch. The flat bump he did a biopsy on because what he believed it to be.... I dont remember the exact words used.....he had never seen go flat.

From what a nurse finally told me.....the slides came back and he sent them off to Denver to a pathologist for a "2nd opinion." When I asked if it was a opinion of "nothing" to worry about or "something" to worry about, of course she couldn't tell me. The slides were back and sent off within a week of the biopsy. I called this morning to see if the pathology was in and haven't received a call yet. The fact that the nurse's aren't calling leads me to believe the Dr will be.

This is my first biopsy so I'm wondering if this time frame normal for results? Why would the derm send the slides all the way to Denver rather a local facility? Any Suggestions?

Vicky

~Kaelie · 06-08-2006, 06:22 AM

Couple things (questions)

1) how far is Denver in relation to the original facility? It's kinda hard to answer this without this information.

2) how small is your town? if you live in a very tiny town, sometimes they just don't have the personnel that know their stuff well enough to identify the more complex anomalies (sp?).

You can relax a bit because sometime those anomalies are just that... weird things.

As for getting results quickly, I live in a fairly large town and results still take a week or more and have to be sent away. I didn't find this out until the bills started coming and the return address was in Little Rock. Now, you are probably a bit more persistant than I am, but then again, I'm just a displaced Canadian who is used to their medical system and waiting 2-3 weeks for test results was the norm.

A "second opinion" on a slide may just be their way of saying "we dun have anyone here who knows jack about that" Relax and be patient hon.

Also, call that nurse back and ask one very very important thing; Ask her if it is that office's policy to not call if all results are good. OMG my biggest pet peeve. This goes on.. trust me. Some offices will say "expect results on Tuesday, but if we don't call the results are good". The office I dealt with "FORGOT" to tell me this policy and I waited 3 weeks (canadian waiting period) for results of a dopplar.

I hope this helps, and that you relax for a few more days.

~Kaelie

Ga Lady · 06-10-2006, 02:52 PM

My question would be...Are they going to a dermatopathologists? Not just a pathologists. Always make sure your biopsies of the skin are going to the qualified pathologists of dermatology. Dermatapathologists~

Let us know what you hear. Good luck~ God Bless~!

Jenner06 · 06-11-2006, 06:43 AM

Ga Lady is right....you definitely want a dermapathologist to review your biopsy. The first lab they sent mine too (just a regular pathologist) said that they were pretty sure that it wasn't malignant, but that they weren't positive. So they sent it off to the dermapathologist for him to confirm that it was benign. Thank god they did because he immediately confirmed that it was in fact malignant. Evidently, it's very easy to misdiagnose if you don't specifically know what you're looking for.

My results took a little over two weeks to finally come in and it's hard to not worry about it....but I just had to finally tell myself that there was just no point in getting sick about it until I actually had something to be sick about. However, I will say that my gut feeling was that it was gonna be malignant, so I wasn't surprised at all when I got the results.

I'm not saying I'm psychic or anything....it was just one of those things you just know. Ya know?