Just an edit as I didn't really offer any detail: The mole is crusty/scabby and slightly raised from the surface. The doctor at the hospital said it looked irritated and inflamed. 

Hello, firstly try not to worry too much, I have had a similar thing on my shin for a couple of years. I eventually got it checked out and it's a BCC and after a biopsy, the doctor gave me some cream to apply which should clear it up. It's about 12mm diameter, but he said it's very common.  

Try not to worry too much.   Take care. Colin. 

Hi,

Please try and not overthink this as you will make yourself ill. Hopefully the dermatologist will be right and it will be a seborrheic keratosis which is a non cancerous growth. 75% of patients that get referred to dermatology are given a clean bill of health so the odds of it being a benign growth are in your favour. If it turns out to be melanoma it's not the end of the world (as my consultant told me many years ago). New treatments are showing great promise - I know many melanoma patients, including myself, that are still here years later to see our children grow up and have families of their own.

Spend the time between appointments doing things that will distract you from worrying. Keep busy and do happy things with your family. Good luck and please let us know how you get on.

Angie (Stage 3 melanoma patient)

Thanks so much for your detailed reply, Angie. It helps to know there are people who understand. So glad to hear you're doing well following troubling times.

I'll try and get on the best I can; this isn't something I can control, unfortunately. I just hate the what-ifs and the waiting! 

I'll let you know how I get on. Thanks so much for taking the time to reply :)

Thanks Colin. Glad to hear you're okay. I really appreciate your response - it helps a lot to talk.

I didn't mention in my first message, but while waiting for the results of my shin, I had a routine dental check and my dentist spotted a small discolouration under my tongue.  Long story cut short, referred to hospital, biopsy, recieved the ultimate bad news, cancer.   That was the first week in Dec,  surgery  on the 8th Jan.   Out  on the 9th.  They took out a bit under the tongue and some lymph nodes in my neck as a precaution to check for any spread. Got the all clear just over a week later.  This week is my first back at work and I feel absolutely great.    I really can't praise the NHS enough. 

PS.  I  received a bowel screening pack yesterday,  talk about things coming in threes!!!

I'm sure you'll be fine,  keep in touch. Col. 

Hiya,

Just to say I know how you feel - I think I'm a bit like you! I had a scan on a lump in my leg last October, which had been there for years and my GP had never really shown an interest in, but she referred me just in case because it had started to hurt.

Anyway I was really anxious at the scan and the poor sonographer was trying his best but I kept asking questions, and he refused to make eye contact or tell me anything, except that it was suspicious and needed to be investigated further, which as you can imagine was utterly terrifying. So I went home and began to look things up, and I got really scared.

I saw another GP a few days later and he said it seemed like nothing to worry about and of course I thought the same as you, that he was just trying to deal with my anxiety rather than being straight with me. But he gave me an appointment with a consultant in 8 weeks instead of referring it under the two-week system, which I think was supposed to reassure me, but didn't much.

At that point I decided to stop arguing and just wait, but I read a lot in the meantime and tried to get my head round it. The consultant said it felt benign but I'd have to have an MRI, which I had quite quickly, and then that was inconclusive too, which by then I expected - there's a lot of overlap between benign and malignant - so I was referred to London on a two-week wait to have it biopsied or excised, but then they looked at the MRI images and decided it looked really dull and they didn't have the capacity to do it as they had people with proper cancer and mine was very unlikely to be.

So I'm now waiting for yet another referral to take it out here. I have to say I've calmed down a lot. I spent weeks imagining I was going to die, and to be fair it might still be cancer but having had it looked at by a specialist centre who see these all the time, and having been told that they think it's a waste of their time, I do feel like I can think normally again, at last.

What I did in the weeks when I was anxious was to keep reading. I know everyone says don't Google, and for some people that might help, but whenever I woke in the morning with that awful scared feeling I just picked up my phone and started looking things up - and the more information I got, the calmer I felt. I think it helped me to feel prepared, and more in control - because the worst thing about the whole process is surprises, and being face to face with a doctor who is telling you something you weren't expecting. So I felt like the more info I had,  the better prepared I would be for anything they told me.

It worked quite well because by the time I had my MRI, I basically had a shortlist of what my lump might be, and there was a list of malignant things and a list of benign ones, and I knew they wouldn't be able to give a definitive diagnosis because of the overlap between how they appear. And when the report came back, it suggested one of the main contenders I'd got on my own list which was quite gratifying.

So I think just removing the element of surprise can help enormously, if you are anything like me. Reading about the different things it might be and having an idea what the next steps will be should it be something malignant can be quite helpful and mean that if someone does tell you that, at least you will have a plan in your mind of what will happen next.

Please ignore this advice if you don't think it will help - I only know what helped me, and I am probably a bit weird, so I apologise if it's not remotely useful!

The fact you already have a possible diagnosis sounds good to me. No one would tell me what on earth I even might have until the MRI, so I thought I'd better look it up myself! But if someone has already said they think it is probably such-and-such, that is a good thing, as it means it looks like one of those, and that reduces the chance that it's something else considerably, I think, as unless it seems really pretty obvious, no one ever wants to commit by saying something like that!

Hope you are doing OK. x x

Hi Colin,

The NHS really is a brilliant thing, even though waiting can be hard!

Happy to hear you got the all clear and are back at work. It's reassuring to know you have been through all of this and have still come out smiling.

Good luck with the screening. Hopefully it's all clear! Here if you want to chat. 

Angie, thank you. It sounds like you have been through so much - all the waiting and uncertainty... I really admire your strength of character!

Google can be a blessing and a curse for me. Some days I do find reassurance but on others it makes me feel worse. When my anxiety spikes, I drive myself crazy seeking evidence to support what is going off in my head. But it can also help me to process and prepare.

I'm doing OK. Taking it one day at a time. Phoned the hospital today to see if they had any cancellations (my appt for the excision is in a couple of weeks time) but they didn't have anything sooner. They said I was more than welcome to keep calling to check but I don't want to become a nuisance!

Thanks for sharing. Here if you want to talk. 

Oh bless you, I've just read that post back and realised how much I rambled on (sorry).  But I am here too if you need an ear.

I think you are being super brave. It must be very hard with a small child especially.

Well I'll be thinking of you.