Mole with black spot

llmercll
llmercll Member Posts: 3
edited March 2014 in Skin Cancer #1
I've had a fairly large mole on my back for as long as I could remember, I've never really given it a good look until recently however. Over the past year I've spent a great deal of time in bed on the computer, lying on my back, and one day I noticed my mole was "stinging". I checked it out in the mirror and noticed there was a black spot on the mole, taking up maybe 20% of it. I figured I'd watch it and see how it does before going to a doctor. I've got 0 risk factors for melanoma, as well.

It's been 3 months and I don't think it's grown much, if any, at least not in width. It has a very "mole" like feel to it, and I can move it around a lot with my finger, I don't find it particularly odd except for that black spot. It doesn't sting anymore. If it grew at all over the past 3 months it might have gotten a bit "puffier". Unfortunately melanoma is often multicolored, and thats exactly what the problem is. And nodular melanoma grows in depth, not width, so that scares me too =(

I tried making a dermatologist appointment but my medicaid requires me to get a referral, and I don't have a primary care doctor. I probably won't get to a dermatologist for another week or two because of this. I know it's critical to get early treatment of melanoma, so this is upsetting me greatly. I'm getting really anxious thinking about cancer, and would like someone to just take a look at at a picture of the mole and let me know what they think.

http://yfrog.com/5tdscn2452jj
http://yfrog.com/dydscn2469j

Also if anyone knows a way for me to get a referral I'd really appreciate that too.

thanks so much to whoever helps out, I'm hoping for someone knowledgeable to come along and ease my nerves, haha

Comments

  • llmercll
    llmercll Member Posts: 3
    #2
    After doing more research,
    After doing more research, and telling by the picture, am I correct in thinking it's either a Dysplastic/Compund nevus or cancer?

    Theres no way a normal healthy mole can just get discolored, right?

    I had blood work done early September and all my results were perfect. Would my white blood cell count or anything in the cbc be off if say I did have cancer, and it spread to lymph nodes or was at a more serious stage?

    I'm also a bit of a hypochondriac, but look at that mole, anyone would be worried! (i think)
  • beacon
    beacon Member Posts: 77
    #3
    there is no watch and wait
    there is no watch and wait with melanoma!
    do not hang around and wonder what it might be...just go and either get it excised and biopsied or at least looked at by a medical professional!i see you said you may have problems getting into a doctor...i'm not sure of the medical system where you live and its difficulties, so i can suggest a solution for that, but i hope you work that out soon.
    you said you don't have any of the risk factors for melanoma, but you are fair skinned and that is a big one...so is having more than 20 moles...
    i thought i was not at a risk, despite having freckly pale skin, and 2 basal cell carinomas already, at 36, and no family history of melanoma, but the skin doctor told me i was wrong.
    ofcourse i could develop a melanoma! arrgghhhh....i had no idea, i just thought i'd keep getting BCC'S.i will keep a careful eye.
    scientists believe that melanoma may sometime result from only ONE burn as a child...!thats scary, i have had many, and i'm sure most people have had at least one burn in their childhood.
    you most likely don't have melanoma, its probably nothing to be worried about, but you should always be watchful and swift to get anything suspicious checked out to be safe.
    i have one flat brown mole that has developed a small raised patch, that sometimes itches and i was worried about it, but numerous doctors have assured me over the last few skin checks that it is fine, nothing to worry about, even though it has changed, so not everything is dodgy that changes...please don't get stressed..just get it looked at.

    my friend had melanoma, and it didn't look like all the scary pics on the internet at all...often they put pics of big multicoloured knarly looking things, which i think can be a bit misleading without a counter photo also showing an innocent looking melanoma!
    hers, was just a freckle that she noticed on her wrist, that she didn't remember being there...just looked like a brown freckle, and she thought maybe it had just always been there and she never noticed it...
    then, 2 weeks later, she noticed a haze around it in a circle with a bit of a tail, like a comet, so she knew it had changed, and she went and got it biopsied and it was melanoma.
    maybe you go and get it looked at or taken off and its nothing! well good then, but if you just sit around pontificating about it for a while and it turns out to be bad, then that could make the difference btwn a positive outcome or a sad one...
    please just go and get it looked at, even if its expensive to do..you only get one life, and you can always earn more money.
    i hope it turns out fine!best of luck....
  • washoegal
    washoegal Member Posts: 45
    #4
    llmercll said:

    After doing more research,
    After doing more research, and telling by the picture, am I correct in thinking it's either a Dysplastic/Compund nevus or cancer?

    Theres no way a normal healthy mole can just get discolored, right?

    I had blood work done early September and all my results were perfect. Would my white blood cell count or anything in the cbc be off if say I did have cancer, and it spread to lymph nodes or was at a more serious stage?

    I'm also a bit of a hypochondriac, but look at that mole, anyone would be worried! (i think)

    The internet can sometimes be more harm than good. My Mel, the doctor thought looked fine, but because it was bothering me he agreed to remove it. Good thing since it was Stage 3! My blood work was great but I did have minor lymph node involvement. So don't wait, many G.P.'s will remove smaller moles, just request they remove the whole thing not just a portion for biopsy (Referred to as a "punch biopsy"). If they do a punch or shave biopsy that if it is melanoma and have to take more later they have a hard time determining the accurate depth.

    Good luck.
  • llmercll
    llmercll Member Posts: 3
    #5
    beacon said:

    there is no watch and wait
    there is no watch and wait with melanoma!
    do not hang around and wonder what it might be...just go and either get it excised and biopsied or at least looked at by a medical professional!i see you said you may have problems getting into a doctor...i'm not sure of the medical system where you live and its difficulties, so i can suggest a solution for that, but i hope you work that out soon.
    you said you don't have any of the risk factors for melanoma, but you are fair skinned and that is a big one...so is having more than 20 moles...
    i thought i was not at a risk, despite having freckly pale skin, and 2 basal cell carinomas already, at 36, and no family history of melanoma, but the skin doctor told me i was wrong.
    ofcourse i could develop a melanoma! arrgghhhh....i had no idea, i just thought i'd keep getting BCC'S.i will keep a careful eye.
    scientists believe that melanoma may sometime result from only ONE burn as a child...!thats scary, i have had many, and i'm sure most people have had at least one burn in their childhood.
    you most likely don't have melanoma, its probably nothing to be worried about, but you should always be watchful and swift to get anything suspicious checked out to be safe.
    i have one flat brown mole that has developed a small raised patch, that sometimes itches and i was worried about it, but numerous doctors have assured me over the last few skin checks that it is fine, nothing to worry about, even though it has changed, so not everything is dodgy that changes...please don't get stressed..just get it looked at.

    my friend had melanoma, and it didn't look like all the scary pics on the internet at all...often they put pics of big multicoloured knarly looking things, which i think can be a bit misleading without a counter photo also showing an innocent looking melanoma!
    hers, was just a freckle that she noticed on her wrist, that she didn't remember being there...just looked like a brown freckle, and she thought maybe it had just always been there and she never noticed it...
    then, 2 weeks later, she noticed a haze around it in a circle with a bit of a tail, like a comet, so she knew it had changed, and she went and got it biopsied and it was melanoma.
    maybe you go and get it looked at or taken off and its nothing! well good then, but if you just sit around pontificating about it for a while and it turns out to be bad, then that could make the difference btwn a positive outcome or a sad one...
    please just go and get it looked at, even if its expensive to do..you only get one life, and you can always earn more money.
    i hope it turns out fine!best of luck....

    omg, now im scared. the
    omg, now im scared. the doctor was going to let you walk out the door with stage 3 melanoma! He would have killed you!!! that's just insane. I would have gotten a different doctor ASAP.

    everyone on the forums recommends the excisional biopsy. can they do the Excisional biopsy in the dermatologists office, like the shave biopsy? or does it involve an OR and general anesthesia?

    From what I'm hearing, not even a trained dermatologist can diagnose melanoma by looking at it, so I guess I'm %100 getting a biopsy.
  • MaryMary73
    MaryMary73 Member Posts: 1
    #6
    llmercll said:

    omg, now im scared. the
    omg, now im scared. the doctor was going to let you walk out the door with stage 3 melanoma! He would have killed you!!! that's just insane. I would have gotten a different doctor ASAP.

    everyone on the forums recommends the excisional biopsy. can they do the Excisional biopsy in the dermatologists office, like the shave biopsy? or does it involve an OR and general anesthesia?

    From what I'm hearing, not even a trained dermatologist can diagnose melanoma by looking at it, so I guess I'm %100 getting a biopsy.

    Better to be safe than sorry
    I also had a mole..a small weird shaped mole with different shades of brown right in the middle of my back and about 6mm in diameter. No itching. No bleeding. My dermatopathologist took one look at it and said "that looks like melanoma" and did an excisional biopsy with local anesthetic right there in his office. Today, I was diagnosed with melanoma in situ. Depth of the tumour was 0.39mm on the Breslow scale. I am going for a re-excision with a plastic surgeon on Nov 4th to make sure no cancer cells are left behind. Cure rate is 99.5% - 100%. I am lucky. Very very VERY lucky.

    Just like you, I am also a bit of a hypochondriac and everyone told me that I was overreacting by going to a doctor about a silly small insignificant mole. But it was something. My hypervigilance has saved my life.
  • washoegal
    washoegal Member Posts: 45
    #7
    llmercll said:

    omg, now im scared. the
    omg, now im scared. the doctor was going to let you walk out the door with stage 3 melanoma! He would have killed you!!! that's just insane. I would have gotten a different doctor ASAP.

    everyone on the forums recommends the excisional biopsy. can they do the Excisional biopsy in the dermatologists office, like the shave biopsy? or does it involve an OR and general anesthesia?

    From what I'm hearing, not even a trained dermatologist can diagnose melanoma by looking at it, so I guess I'm %100 getting a biopsy.

    excisional biopsy
    excisional biopsy is done with a local anesthesia, no big deal.

    I must be crazy, I still love my GP, I just won't go back to him for skin problems. The strange thing is every time the dermatologist I go to now wants to remove something (all of which have been OK or dysplastic)I have to fight with him not to do a punch biopsy first. I'm not sure what that is all about since he knows I have a history of Mel.

    Mary

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