I'm so glad that the GP specialises in dermatology as that gives you much more confidence in their advice. I'm also pleased that they suggested the ruler and photo tip. Only do this once a month otherwise you will become obsessed with checking and re-checking. I suggest you mark your calender for the 1st of each month.

Now let the stress drop from your shoulders and enjoy life xx

Hi Angie,

I have seen a few of your comments on various discussions and they've really reassured me. I was just wondering if I could ask some questions please?

I had a large flat mole on my breast for many years (2.5cm) probably from early teens. It was one colour, but with a couple of what look lighter circles towards the middle, and has always had a notched border but it's mostly symmetrical.  In the last 5 years I've noticed a bit of growth but not much, and it's not raised or bumpy. I have had two children in that time and my breasts have stretched and shrunk again so I always thought the mole was just bigger because of that. 

Anyway, 3 weeks ago I went to my GP to have two moles on my arm checked so thought I'd get that breast mole checked out whilst I was there. She referred me straight to dermatology as she said it was a bit weird looking. I had my dermatology appointment within 3  days where they removed the mole via excision and said I'd hear back 3-4 weeks. 
 

I am currently a nervous wreck- I suffer from health anxiety anyway since having children but now it's panic attacks daily. 
 

Do you happen to know if cancerous biopsy's take longer to come back? It will be 3 weeks on Friday since the removal. 
 

Where I've had the mole for such a long time, I'm terrified it's spread. The thought of leaving my two little boys is breaking my heart. I have had no other symptoms, I don't think my lymph nodes feel swollen and apart from the anxiety and that fact I'm overweight I feel in decent health. Melanoma also doesn't run in my family, and I've never been one to sit out in the sun all day (let alone sit in the sun with my boobs out). I just wish I'd get this checked out years before.

Hi Lizzie,

I'm sorry you are waiting for your results to come back, waiting is the hardest part of this experience.

In answer to your question - no, cancerous biopsies don't take longer. All biopsy tissues are checked in turn and very rarely prioritised. The 3 to 4 weeks quoted as a waiting time is unfortunately not accurate in some hospital trusts. There is a backlog at most trusts due to a lack of histologists so it's taking some results 6 to 8 weeks to come through. Also, once they come back they get discussed at the weekly MDT (Multi disciplinary meeting) where dermatology, Oncology and Plastic Surgery discuss the results and agree on a plan. This happens to all results, whether good or bad. So all this slows up the process of when the patient is contacted. I suggest if you haven't heard anything by next week that you ring Dermatology and ask the Secretary if they've received them yet.

Please try not to panic about not getting it checked sooner. If it is malignant it doesn't mean it's been so all this time. We've all been guilty of leaving them too long - I left mine a year before getting it checked - I'm still here 26 years later! 

Hopefully you won't be waiting too much longer and the results will be good news. Please let us know how you get on,

Angie

Hi,

I'm just reading this post as I'm waiting to see a dermatologist about a very similar sounding mole. I don't recognise mine as being there for a while, but it's small, dark, in my inner thigh and upon closer inspection is a little more irregular/shaded with brown than it looks to the naked eye. 

I just want to say I relate so much to what you are saying about feeling every little twinge, ache and pain in my body and panicking about cancer having spread! I've never had health anxiety before (or any mental health struggles) but I honestly feel like I've started experiencing it recently as im starting to get older and like yourself I've been imagining saying goodbye to family and friends, and the things I would want to do before I die before even knowing what the deal is or having any other symptoms apart from the mole!

fingers crossed I get positive news as you did, but just wanted to comment as we have a lot in common based on your post and it made me feel a little better seeing the end result for you :) 

An update:

I’m heading back to the doctors at some point this week or next (and I’m going to push for a referral/biopsy), because in the time I posted this to now there have been clear changes to this same mole. It has grown in shape (as in it was kind of blotchy before but has now been filled in, for lack of a better explanation) and is darker than it was (perhaps the “filled in” parts creating the illusion that it’s darker). After the appointment, (about a week or so later) the skin surrounding my mole started to itch every now and then. I put it down to being hot, as I sit with my legs virtually fused together, or irritation from my clothes seams… but it was only ever in the one thigh near that specific point. I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me and making me feel things that weren’t real, but I guess not. 

I‘m furious, and utterly disappointed in myself. A part of me thought, no, you need to have someone else look at it because I couldn’t trust the doctors word… but then another part of me so badly wanted relief and peace that I didn’t even question the doctor or get a second opinion. But I knew it was too good to be true. I knew it. Because life seems to love dealing me and my family the shittiest cards in the deck, as much as we’ve tried to play a good hand.

What also infuriates me too, is that I have tried my hardest to protect myself. I don’t use tanning beds. I rarely sunbathe, and if I do, I lather on the suncream. I try and sit in the shade rather than direct sun during its most potent hours, and I always make sure that patch of skin is covered (it’s quite high up on my thigh, so I wouldn’t want it on show anyway!!) It infuriated me that I do everything right and take all the precautions but then other people my age use sunbeds religiously and have walked away with nothing but a perfect tan. How is that fair???!!!! (I know life isn’t fair, but I’m still going to be salty  about it.) 

My anxiety is now sky high once again.  I know I was perhaps overthinking in my original post as I tend to catastrophize everything, but this time I am almost certain that it’s melanoma — and probably an aggressive one at that, considering how much change has happened to it in the space of 3 months. I don’t see how it can possibly be anything else other than this. There is no way to explain the changes happening to the mole in a good or benign way. I will also mention that it hasn’t changed a lot in size as it’s still sitting at 3mm by a ruler measurement though, which then makes me think that it’s now growing downwards instead of sideways, so I guess I’m screwed. I’m also thinking it might be cause of the elevation of it that it might be nodular rather than SSM in which case I might be doubly screwed! 

I know I need to go back to the doctor (and I will) but I am terrified of finding out the diagnosis, even though I already know in the back of my mind s to what it’s going to be. Actually, it’s not so much the diagnosis that scares me, because pre-cancerous are typically non fatal if and can be dealt with, but perhaps I’m paralysed with fear to know how far it has progressed. My best estimate because of how rapidly it is changing is that it’s no longer pre-cancerous and has progressed to invasive — probably at stage 1 now, perhaps stage 2. By the time I get referred and treated, I’m going to guess it will have progressed even more — perhaps even to stage 3. 

I’m trying my best not to cry, because nothing has been confirmed, but the reality of what I’m probably about to face is really hitting me. 

Of course, my anxiety is also telling me to start preparing my obituary, bucket list, and funeral plans again, because I’m petrified that I might only have a couple of months if not years, to live. I’m petrified that this is going to kill me, and I’m holding so much blame over myself at not getting it seen several years ago — before it started growing in to something. I’ve been robbed of my future and I have nobody to blame but myself. 

The future looks so bleak. I have lost all my positivity and hope :-(

I also apologise for this very very long message, but I think sometimes it is easier to vent your feelings to a group of strangers than it is to people you know. 

Whilst it's always good to have changes checked out, i think these changes are because you've sat and overanalysed this mole for weeks on end. Lighting, camera positioning etc etc can all make things appear differently that aren't different. Also, mind over matter comes into play. You can literally think yourself into itching. Again, you've been so focused on this mole, of course you're gonna feel sensations. Seriously, overthink about an itch on your face, after a few minutes, bang, you now have an itch.

You see it so many times on these forums, people coming on in utter states, see their doctor, get told all is fine and after a day or 2, the person is back to square one. Some even having had a battery of tests. They won't settle until they get an MRI, then they get an MRI, they go home appeased for a day, then go trawling through Google searching if MRI's can miss stuff. MRI's miss stuff, so they're convinced they have it all over again.

Do get it checked out, and even request the tests you want (no guarantee you will get them without going private), and if all that comes back, you really need to stay away from google and these types of forums. Here, cancer is everywhere, you will not and can not move on with your life convinced you are dying. You've gone from thinking you've got melanoma, to having stage 4 melanoma within the same sentence.

You will never be appeased by any tests as you'll seek out flaws for each and every single one. Google is not and never was intended to be a diagnostic tool. You type stuff in, and you get the answers you are seeking, cancer. Google can't tell you it's benign, so it's pointless looking.

You need to deal with that health anxiety because you're so frightened and forced on your life being destroyed by cancer that you're ignoring it's already being destroyed by health anxiety. What's the difference?  There are none because either way, you're not enjoying the life you have.

I completely understand all this, and even I would be inclined to believe that it was all in my head — but I have been taking photos of it three months to compare, and there is absolutely no denying the changes that have happened to it. First photo: Jan. Second photo: March. Third photo: June. I have lined up all of the photos, and there is a definitely progression with each one, which is the thing that makes me think it’s extremely sinister.