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Very worried about possible melanoma

SunshineH
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Hello, 

As the title says, I am concerned that I have a melanoma and it has been there for years.

Almost 3 years ago, I saw the GP for a new dark mole, which was tiny, but has suddenly appeared. He looked at it with a dermatoscope and said it wasn't anything to worry about, as it looked ok and didn't meet any of the ABCD criteria. He advised monitoring it monthly, which I did and there was very little change. Around a year later, I realised that it had become raise, hard and crust and that it was very loose on the surface of my skin. My clothes were catching it. Days later, I noticed it had fallen off completely and left no trace of it on my skin whatsoever. I thought it must have been seborrheic keratosis.

Fast forward to the beginning of this year and I suddenly noticed that a small mole had returned in the same spot. I've had a lot go on personally so far this year with family members and my attention has been focused on that. This week, I noticed that the small mole had grown from around 1mm to just under 3mm. It is dark and is showing some concerns re. ABCD (and obviously E).

I did an e-consult yesterday and my Dr called and wants to see me first thing Monday morning. I'm absolutely terrified that it is a melanoma and that it may have been malignant all this time but had regressed for quite a while and then returned and is now actively growing. I've stupidly been on Google and it's telling me that this can happen with melanomas that growing back after regression is even worse. So now I'm absolutely convinced that I'm riddled with cancer and that it has to have spread to lymph nodes and organs in the time since it first appeared. 

I'm so anxious that I can't sleep or eat. I'm withdrawing from all areas of my life and I am solely focused on this. 

I feel guilty posting on here because I know that there are people on this forum who have been diagnosed and that makes me feel bad for seeking advice and solace.

Thank you for reading.

Helen x

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    HI Helen,

    Take a long deep breath and calm down. DON'T Google as it's not up to date & usually only focuses on worse case scenarios. 

    You don't mention your age. Young adults will often get moles disappearing & news ones appearing, it doesn't necessarily mean it's regression or melanoma. Even if it has regressed, it doesn't necessarily mean it's melanoma & it's spread. Many people's moles regress without it being melanoma. In fact, regression is mainly caused because your strong immune system thinks the mole is an 'alien' & it's done it's job, getting rid of it.

    There are lots of different questions & answers to this & the only people that can truly help are the GP and dermatologist. To be fair, if it was melanoma & you'd had it for 3 years, you would have known if it had spread because you would either experience a lump in the nearest node to the mole or you would have pain or other symptoms if it had spread further to an organ.

    Explain the history of the mole to the doctor on Monday. I think they will refer you to dermatology, especially due to your anxiety, but push for a referral if they appear reluctant to do so. Hopefully you will be in the 75% of referrals that get a clean bill of health. If they want to remove it, at least you will know 100% what it is from the results.

    Meanwhile, try to distract yourself over the weekend. You can't change anything by worrying and stress can sometimes be more debilitating than the original problem that caused it!

    Good luck on Monday & please let us know how you get on,

    Angie (Stage 3 melanoma patient since 2009) 

  • Offline in reply to AngieT

    Hi Angie,

    Thank you for your reply. It has helped a lot. It also has helped seeing your sign off as a stage 3 melanoma patient since 2009. Goodness, what a warrior you are. You are very kind giving your time and energy to respond to people like me.
    It gives me hope that if it is melanoma then it doesn’t mean that it’ll all be over for me in weeks/months. 

    I’m not young - I’m 46. The immune system/regression part really resonated with me, as I know that I have high numbers of T cells/and a heightened immune system due to a family and personal history of autoimmune disorders so much so that I needed to reduce t-levels in an immune protocol during fertility treatment in order to get pregnant (which worked and I now have teenage twins). 

    I also think they will refer me to dermatology and will push if needed. I will consider going private depending on the wait time. 

    I hope what you’ve said about the 3 year time scale and lymph nodes/spread to organs is true. I’m going to resist feeling for lymph nodes, as my anxiety is already through the roof.

    Thanks again.

    Helen x

  • Offline

    Hey I’ve had a similar experience I had a mole on my groin region so not the most typical location for melanoma.

    just because a it falls off and grows back doesn’t mean it’s sinister sometimes moles effect the deeper layers of skin which means what fell off wasn’t the entire mole and it grows  back

    what’s important is how it’s growing back  if it has the ABCDEs of melanoma and how fast it’s growing back has it changed etc 

    in my case I picked it off it grew back and eventually became more elevated and eventually turned crusty and started bleeding and breaking apart however when I went to my gp they told me it was seborrheic keratosia and eventually it fell off completely 

    if your worried go back to your doctor never feel guilty about worrying about your health 

  • Offline in reply to Andy91x

    Thank you for your reply Andy. It was helpful reading your experience. I am glad that yours turned out to be seborrheic keratosis. 

    I have seen my GP this morning and she looked at it under the dermatoscope and showed me a photo of it through the 'scope. She has said that she is sure that it is a cherry angioma. I have another one close by but it is lighter than the one I was concerned about. When this one was magnified the blood vessels in their globule form were very apparent. She also showed me some photographs of other examples of them close up and mine looked identical to them.

    I talked about an onward referral to dermatology but she said that she is positive that it is a cherry angioma and has done a post grad qualification in dermatology and worked in the derm department of the hospital 2 days a week - I feel that she was reassuring me as she could see my anxiety.

    I feel my mind has been put at ease but I don't think anyone can be 100% sure (unless a biopsy is done) and mistakes can and will happen so I have made the decision, anyway, to book an appointment with a private dermatologist to skin map all of my moles, including this, as this has been a big wake up call for me with regards to them. 

    Thank you for your support and help. I have appreciated it. 

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