Hi Amy,

I know it's a shock when you expect to hear everything is fine but that's not what the consultant says. However, it's good that you got it checked out & that it's being removed because there is still a chance it's actually fine but if not, it's better you know now than later. Just because it's itched periodically over the years doesn't necessarily mean it's possibly been cancerous all that time. If it had, you would have had other, more worrying, symptoms long before now. 

There is still a 75% chance that it's nothing to worry about (that's how many people referred to dermatology get a clean bill of health). Try not to read into the consultant's tone & expression because they have been known to be wrong. I've had 7 moles/lesions removed over the years but only the first one turned out to be malignant! My consultant was sure one was a basal cell carcinoma - it came back as a dermatofibroma (calcified insect bite)! So try not to jump to the worst case scenario yet & take it a step at a time. 

Good luck and please let us know how you get on,

Angie (Stage 3 melanoma patient since 2009)

Thanks for your reply, Angie. I really appreciate it. I'm trying to be pragmatic about it and not make myself and my family miserable until I get some answers, but this was the last thing I expected. My wife has severe health anxiety, and she just went through months long health scare that took a lot out of both of us. During that time, I tried to be the calming and supportive and help her get through the agony of waiting. I don't want to burden her with my fears after what she's been through. 

What's bothering me the most is that she is 15 years younger than I am, and we've only been married two and a half years. I've been determined to stay fit and healthy so our age difference matters less and I can stay with her for several more decades, so this situation has really shaken me. I'd feel so guilty if I got seriously ill so early in our marriage. 

But I'll try to push those thoughts aside and think positively. Everything could be fine and panicking prematurely helps no one, especially me. Thanks again for your kind words. 

Amy

Update: Well, I woke up feeling a bit better after having a mini meltdown about the situation after my dermatology appointment yesterday. I figured I've had this mole my whole life, it's been itching on and off for years, but it's not doing anything new. I just finally followed through on having it checked out on a whim, not because anything changed. Hopefully, if it is anything, it's still early and all will be fine. 

And then I saw that I missed a follow-up call from the dermatology department asking to move up my appointment one week to 29 June. I'm happy to get this thing off me sooner, but the guy said the doctor had found out the original surgery date and made him move it up. 

Now that has me scared again because she thinks it needs to come off quickly. 

The waiting is awful. I mean, it could be benign and nothing in my life changes. It could be early stage cancer and I'll be fine with treatment. Or, it could be a later stage and I'm in real trouble. Sigh. It's hard to find coping strategies when you have no idea what you're dealing with. 

Deep breaths. 

Hi Amy,

I'm in the same boat, currently 5 weeks into my wait for mole biopsy results. Waiting is truly horrible!! I have my appointment this week so not long to go now. Feels so strange to think my life could completely change in a few days. I have had some terrible days where I feel awful and then the next day I might wake up and feel Ok. On those bad days I just tell myself not all days will be like this and tomorrow will be a better day.

It may not mean anything sinister that they moved your appointment up. I think suspected melanoma are always treated as urgent for removal and take priority over other non-melanoma skin cancers? Maybe they just moved it up because 3+ weeks is quite a long wait for possible MM?? I waited 2 weeks for my surgery which felt like ages (Maybe someone else knows more about this than me though).

I really wish you the best of luck, remember that you just don't know what it will be so it doesnt do any good to worry about the unknown. Easier said than done of course, but just try to think positively and focus on the fact there is a good chance it is benign or at least early stage, as you said. x

Thanks for your reply, blobby. I'm sorry you're going through the same thing, and I'm really hoping you get good news on your results. 

I'm stressing so much about how long I've ignored the itching on my mole. I can't even remember for sure how long ago it started occasionally itching. Two years? Three? Four? The skin on my legs often gets irritated from shaving and dryness, and I sometimes wasn't sure if the mole was itching or my whole leg was itching. But on a few occasions I thought it seemed like the mole itself was itchy. And I never looked at the mole up close because it was on my upper calf and hard to see, so while it mostly looks the same to me from a distance, I have no idea how much, or if, it's changed over the last few years. 

So I'm scared I've left this thing too long and it may have spread. It's bizarre to think that I'd still be blissfully going through life, feeling fine, assuming I'm completely healthy if I hadn't finally taken a picture of my mole a few days ago and sent it to my GP. 

It's hard to reconcile feeling great, jogging, and playing with my dogs as normal with the fear that I could have a serious-*** cancer brewing inside me. It doesn't seem possible. And it might not be. But it might. 

I have to stop doing this to myself. LOL

Thanks again for your comments and good luck!

I wanted to update my thread as a courtesy to future forum members who are looking for information. 

I had my mole excised exactly one week ago and I was told the biopsy results could take between two and six weeks. However, my dermatologist called me at 8 a.m. today, just one week later, to tell me she had good news and my mole was NOT melanoma. (Yay! And, wow, those were fast results!)

It came back as a dysplastic mole with no cancer cells. She also said "we got it all," and there would be no need for further surgery. She was about to write the full report and send it to me, but she knew I was nervous during my excision, so she gave me a call to put my mind at ease as soon as possible. (I really appreciate her kindness.)

From what I've read, there are apparently ranges of dysplastic moles, from mild to severe. I won't know what my mole was until I get the report, but from her comments, it sounded like she might have wanted to do a wide excision if the margin hadn't been clean to ensure none of it remained to turn cancerous later? Do they do that with dysplastic moles? I'm not sure, that was just the impression she gave me, but I was still half asleep when she called. 

In any case, I'm glad I had it removed even though the whole process scared me to death. 

My advice to others who are waiting for biopsy results is to listen to what AngieT and others say and stay off the internet. I took the things that the dermatologist noted from viewing my mole under a dermascope and tried to find out what they meant. I found tonnes of studies suggesting that some of the features of my mole were not just majorly indicative of melonoma but of invasive melanoma. In an effort to make myself feel better, I then went down a rabbit hole trying to find out how often these features occur in congenital moles (like mine) that turn out to be benign and dysplastic moles, etc. All I found was a series of confusing and seemingly contradictory statistics that terrified me. 

After a couple weeks of torturing myself, I finally got off the internet and started meditating and doing things to keep my mind off the situation. While I was still stressed and scared, I was much calmer than I was when I was trying to decipher medical journals. 

As AngieT has told many people, the only thing that will tell you whether or not your mole is cancerous is the histological report. I thought I likely had melanoma based on the criteria my dermatologist used to recommend excising my mole. But that criteria just meant that it was safest to excise my mole, not that it was definitely cancer. 

No one knows, not even your dermatologist, until the report comes back. Believe me, I know it's hard, but stay off of Google. Your mental health will thank you. 

I want to thank everyone here who commented on my post and gave me great advice. I also want to commend my NHS doctors for acting quickly and compassionately throughout this process. I'm an American who moved to the U.K. about 18 months ago and this is my first major encounter with nationalised healthcare. I'm impressed with, and very grateful for, the care I've received. 

All my best to everyone here. 

Hi Amy!

That's fantastic news and I'm so glad you came back to post your result. It's definitely good to see people who have worrying signs come back and say their mole was not melanoma. It really does go to show that no one can really tell until you get those biopsy results so no point worrying yourself to death!!

That is very good advice and I definitely agree. I did the exact same as you and googled incessantly for a while which only caused me terrible anxiety. When I stopped myself googling it helped so much (though I now I feel like I know everything about melanoma haha). Mine was melanoma in situ in the end, which while it's not the best result it was great that I caught it before it became invasive! I had a 5mm margin taken in the biopsy and that was enough. Do you know what margin they took? I expect AngieT can tell you more about dysplastic moles and margins :)

That's really nice to hear you had such a positive experience with the NHS and your dermatologist called you so soon with results. I wish I got mine so quickly!!

Thanks again for your update and I hope you take care and celebrate the good news! x

Morning Amy 

That is great news! I too am worryingly waiting for my Biospy results,and I'm fearing the worst! Googled so much about it and read up on all my symptoms,ended up giving myself severe anxiety and having Anxiety attacks!

Only a few more days for me.

Hi Amy,

I'm so pleased it turned out to be dysplastic and thank you for your kind words and for coming back to give a detailed post to help others going through the same worries. 

You are right that there are degrees of dysplasia - mild, medium and severe. It sounds like they took a wider margin of tissue than usual and are happy that no further excision was required. The guidelines are, when they make the first incision they take note of the depth of the mole & this then decides the diameter of tissue to remove. So a mole that is 1mm deep would have 1cm excised, 1 to 2mm depth would have 1 to 2cm tissue removed and so on....If the mole was malignant, a Wide Local Excision would then be done to remove an extra margin of tissue, usually 5cm. So if a mole was 1mm depth and they removed far more than the recommended 1cm margin, then the results were dysplastic, there would be no need to remove any further margin. 

Everything you advise is spot on & it's great to hear that, putting faith in the consultant and the biopsy results is far better for one's mental health than combing the Internet. I was lucky (if you can say that) that the Internet was in it's infancy when I was first diagnosed so I went into it all blind - the hospital didn't even have any literature about skin cancer in the 1990s! So when I now look at all the different websites & images I cringe - I would be a quivering wreck if I was trying to understand what my mole was! So the only websites I now suggest are this one (CRUK), Macmillan and the British Association of Dermatologists. The equivalent organisations in Australia, New Zealand and the US are also good sources of information, however, one must always remember that their health systems are different and this can affect the type of examination and treatment available in these countries. 

I'm so glad you have received good & speedy attention on the NHS. They do a brilliant job and, even though Covid is causing long time delays, the standard of treatment is still top notch. 

Good luck in the future,

Angie x

Hi, blobby!

I've been wondering about your diagnosis ever since you posted about it. I'm sorry it turned out to be melanoma, but I'm so happy it's at the very earliest stage. That's wonderful news! 

I also feel like I'm a walking melanomma Wikipedia page now. LOL I'm now going to be that annoying person who always passes around the sunscreen to everyone and tells people to get their moles regularly checked. 

Thanks for your encouraging comments when I was waiting for my surgery and diagnosis. I wish you all the best and a lifetime of great health!