Well, I'm back again. Skin Cancer Scare?

[DeannaW 18]

Well, it's been a while! I'm currently in the throes of a skin cancer scare. I've had this mole on the side of my foot for several years now. I never really thought much of it, but over the years, I think maybe the color has gotten a little darker? It's still brown, just a darker brown maybe. It's also not totally symmetrical, but it's smaller than the size of an eraser. Not sure exactly how long I've had it, but long enough that I can't put a number to it. I've been fixating on it recently though, probably because my husband had to get a mole removed about a year ago, so my mind went to this one on my foot and latched on. Then last Christmas, my parents were visiting, and my dad looked at it and asked what it was, and I said it was a mole. So just him asking about it reinforced to me that it's probably a weird one. After having it stare me in the face for years, I finally decided it was bothering me enough to get it looked at. Went to the dermatologist yesterday and got a full body scan by a PA. So she first saw one on my thigh that I'm pretty sure I've had looked at before, but I couldn't be sure, so she biopsied that one. Then she gets to my legs and says, "I see the one you're talking about on your foot." Which automatically makes me nervous, because I was really hoping she'd be like, "Oh, that's nothing to worry about." So she asks to biopsy that one as well, because, to quote her, "We don't really mess with the ones on the feet, because the ones on the foot have the potential to change quickly." 

OH GOOD.

So I said, is it like REALLY weird??! And she said, "Well, it's just a darker color and it's not symmetrical, so we'd just wanna check it out." So she leaves, and another nurse comes in to prep me for the biopsies, and the PA forgot to mark the one on my foot as needing to be biopsied, so she asks where the other one is, and I show it to her. And then I asked HER, hey, does this thing really look bad?? And she said, "No, it doesn't look bad, it's just not symmetrical." And I said, "So should I be worried?!" And she reassured me that I shouldn't be that worried about it. The PA came back and removed the two spots, and I asked again, "So, HOW worried should I be about these??" And the PA was like, "Well, I'm not getting cancer vibes from either one of them, so you shouldn't really worry about it."

So now I get to play the game of waiting two weeks to find out if I have melanoma or not. I think I'm just worried, because it's been there a while, and I'm scared it's too late to do anything about it, if it's cancer. 😕 

[sTeaLth 236]

I've been in the skin scare before.  I have three large moles on the side of my head and one is large and red.  I went in to check them out and it was nothing.  The lead up to it was a little concerning.  The main thing you have to trust, those doctors see this stuff ALL THE TIME and they know what cancer looks like.  Color changes are not uncommon with moles as we age.  Rest easy.  That is a great report from the doctors.

[DeannaW 18]

Thanks for the response! There's always that voice in the back of your head that says, "They're only saying not to worry, because they don't want you to, even if they think you should be worried." 😐 They did say normal moles can change over time too, but the waiting is the WORST. I wish they had just taken the whole thing out yesterday, but they said they don't do that until they know what it is lol 

Regardless, I'll probably ask them to just take the whole thing out, because I know I'll always worry about it anyway now. Ugh. 

[sTeaLth 236]

I hear you.  The great thing too is I know several people with serious skin cancer and for cancers, it tends to be VERY mild and easily dealt with.  You see dermatologists often, but they just deal with things as they come up.  Overall, it's a very annoying cancer but rarely life threatening.  So if it brings comfort, even if it was what you feared, supe easy to take care of most of the time.  My mom and wife's grandfather both had it at one point.  My mom has never had another issue in 30+ years.

[DeannaW 18]

Definitely good to know, thanks for the reassurance. ❤️

[Ironman 190]

They are good at handling this stuff.  I had a wart removed from the side of my nose.  It was on the soft area where they tell you not to put Compound W or home cryo stuff.  

They shave cut it off and told me to use Vaseline on the spot and cover with a Band-Aid for a week or so.  They also test it, but I didn't hear anything.

[DeannaW 18]

My husband went to the same dermatologist last year for his biopsy, and they didn't even call him back lol

He finally just called them because he wanted to know, but it was after like 3 weeks, and he was fine. I really hope I just never hear back from them. 😐

[Ironman 190]

3 hours ago, DeannaW said:

My husband went to the same dermatologist last year for his biopsy, and they didn't even call him back lol

He finally just called them because he wanted to know, but it was after like 3 weeks, and he was fine. I really hope I just never hear back from them. 😐

With doctors, no news is good news.  I was lucky to get a print out from a CAT scan.  I had a sinus infection so bad, I burst a blood vessel and had a hemorrhage in my eye,  It was from an electric air purifier that wasn't working right.....but it scared the heck out of two eye doctors.  One said I would be blind in that eye for the rest of my life, and then sent me across town to a specialst in 90F July sunshine with dilated pupils!!!!  I didn't have any sunglasses - and didn't know that I would need them!

The CAT scan was because one doc thought I had a stroke.  No sign of one, and they really never told me!!

[DeannaW 18]

@Ironman Wow, how scary! I’m glad it ended up being just a really bad sinus infection. I wish I had friends who worked in medical labs to give me some insight on how long these things actually take. I’m sure it varies. I’ve been called with good news from a biopsy in 4 days, and I’ve been left hanging for two weeks with what ended up being not so good news, so who knows lol 

[Ironman 190]

55 minutes ago, DeannaW said:

@Ironman Wow, how scary! I’m glad it ended up being just a really bad sinus infection. I wish I had friends who worked in medical labs to give me some insight on how long these things actually take. I’m sure it varies. I’ve been called with good news from a biopsy in 4 days, and I’ve been left hanging for two weeks with what ended up being not so good news, so who knows lol 

I was in the ER three times in the first week of that sinus infection.  People even commented that one side of my face was "not right".  That would likely have put me in a higher priority.

The first ER visit - I was losing vision in the lower half of my left eye it would turn to TV snow and then blackout.  It would then come back.  It did that twice and I went to the ER.  It happened a third time in the ER and I ended up with the blood floater in my eye.

The second ER visit - I was already at the hospital and had to get blood drawn.  Well, I had no idea that (1) you are supposed to BREATHE.....and I passed out in a cold sweat.  I made it to the ER and they ruled it "dehydration" and sent me home lol.

What scared the doc about a possible hemorrhagic stroke and the CT scan (third ER visit) was that I was supposed to have had an angiogram at the eye doctor to find out blood flow issues....to my mistake, I took two decongestants (it should have been antihistamines!) and my BP shot up to 148/108 - normal for me was 120/90.  That was enough to freak out the doctor.  I am still on a low-dose blood pressure medication, but now I can black out if I get up too fast lol.  July 2016 was interesting!!!

If it is longer, it sounds like they try to retest, which isn't a bad thing.  False positives can happen.  That diagnosis of "permanent blindness" came up after I did a peripheral vision test.  I would look at a screen and click a mouse button if I saw a squiggly line somewhere on the screen.  Well, with the red space invader in the middle of my eye vision, I missed a few lol.  They showed me this chart and said I had severe macular degeneration and would be blind.  I knew it was suspect when they were using a Windows2000 operating system on the computer that tested me.

If you have to, call them and ask for an update.

[DeannaW 18]

Just got off the phone with my dermatologist, and the two moles that were biopsied came back as non-cancerous! Took a week to get the results. They still said the cells were "abnormal," so they're still removing them fully in October, but they aren't cancerous or pre-cancerous at least, so it's basically just a precaution. Thanks everyone for the moral support. 🙂 

On to the next thing now lol

It's always one thing after the other with HA. 🙄

[Ironman 190]

18 hours ago, DeannaW said:

Just got off the phone with my dermatologist, and the two moles that were biopsied came back as non-cancerous! Took a week to get the results. They still said the cells were "abnormal," so they're still removing them fully in October, but they aren't cancerous or pre-cancerous at least, so it's basically just a precaution. Thanks everyone for the moral support. 🙂 

On to the next thing now lol

It's always one thing after the other with HA. 🙄

You need to remember what you went through here, so that you know how you reacted.  

Part of overcoming this is to learn from each situation. ☺️