I wanted to offer some possible help to anyone who - like me - is in/has been in the position of going out of their mind with worry over a potential cancer diagnosis.
I had a mark on my temple which appeared a couple of years ago. Monitored it and just thought it was one of those things. In early January, my wife said she thought I should see the GP about it because it had changed colour slightly. Cue lots of Googling, macro photos of the mark and general panic. GP agreed that it was abnormal and put me on a two-week referral. Anxiety really kicked in at this stage and I saw the consultant within about 8 days. This was arguably the hardest week or so of my life - all of my Googling left me utterly convinced that my mark ticked every box for melanoma. Consultant had a good look, dermascope, etc and told me to stop worrying. He actually said something which helped considerably when I repeated that it ticked every box on the 'melanoma checklist'. His answer? 'So does your rucksack'. He went on to explain that the checklist covers a massive amount of possibilities and that just because it ticks the box doesn't mean it's melanoma. He said that he would remove the mole for testing because 'if I don't you'll spend the rest of your life staring at it and be back here every time it changes slightly'. It might not sound great, but this frankness was a big help. Three weeks later, I had surgery to remove it and 5 weeks after that the result came in that it was entirely benign.
I've never documented anything like this for complete strangers before, but I wanted to try to offer some reassurance to anyone who - like me - assumes the worst, especially when the evidence points you there. Remember what my wife told me: 'You're not a doctor, you're an untrained layman with a keyboard'.
Avoiding assuming the worst is very difficult, especially with health anxieties, but I hope my story helps someone to see that there can be other explanations to the seemingly obvious outcome.
