Skin Cancer worry spiraling out of control

[Worrywart528]

I posted a few weeks ago about my current obsession with skin cancer. I have always suffered from some type of health anxiety. Growing up I had a cancer scare when I was 17, lymph nodes all over my body popped up... numerous tests later they never found anything but several doctors from the start thought it was cancer. At that age I became obsessed with the my own health and mortality. Which is where this all began.

I am currently gripped with anxiety about skin cancer. I am hoping for some objective advice since my fiance and family will not even talk with me anymore about it. When I am at work I am fine but when I have time to sit I become depressed and anxious. I have one spot on my nose which freaks me out. It is barely visible but it is a piece of hard skin which I have picked off since august. I cannot get to a dermatologist until Nov. I have myself convinced it is basal cell and that I am going to suffer from recurrences and horrible surgeries for years to come. The spot is slightly larger than a pin head but the more I stare the worse it looks and becomes.

I have dark hair and dark green eyes. I have always been naturally moley and have several dysplastic nevus. Most of my moles are not visible from a distance but I can see them every day when I look in the mirror. Growing up from the time I was born until about the age of 22 my sun exposure was primarily in the summer months in Pennsylvania. I would get a spring sunburn.... never really bad and stay tan into the start of school. I can remember 2 bad sunburns in my life. One trip to key west when I was 18 and another spring day where I played 36 holes of golf after not seeing the sun for 8 months.

Most of my exposure growing up was playing golf. I was a competitive golfer and spent a majority of my summer at the course. I never really burned just got dark.

My current fears stem from the age of 22 until I was 26. I started tanning... From the time I was 22 until I was about 25 years old I kept myself very tan during the spring. I maintained a slight tan over those winters. I found it helped out with my dry winter skin and mood. After the age of 26 I laid off the tanning beds and maybe visted them about 10-20 times during long winters over the next 10 years.

I am now 35 years old and really do not show much " sun damage" I have a few dark spots but nothing severe and I am not wrinkled. I have never had skin cancer in my life. I rarely get sick but I need someone to talk with because this obsession is harming me. I get so stressed my stomach churns.

[Beckybecks]

I understand your anxiety as I have worried myself sick about health issues for many years.

My husband has had skin cancer problems for many years so I'm quite familiar with it. Where he's had a spot that's become cancerous I can tell you that it's taken a long time before he's needed surgery. It's when they become ulcerated and never heal. If he's careful and goes for treatment early he has them frozen off or they give him cream which burns them off gradually and painlessly.

He has this problem because he has worked outdoors all his life in the African sun and has fair skin, fair hair, blue eyes.

I too have spent all my summers getting tanned and have had so many bad burns. You have had only two which is nothing at all. Also you've grown up in the northern hemisphere and have dark hair and skin.

I would say there's very little danger of your developing skin cancer.

To ease your fears I suggest you ask the doctor to check out your little spot on your nose. But we all know that if we have HA and a fear of something we will always find another symptom to worry about.

That's why we come on this forum to get advice and support.

[Worrywart528]

Thank you Becky! My dad is 70 and has had basal cell since he was in his late 50's. He has never had anything disfiguring from the handful he has.

My mom loved to stay tan. She would bake herself in the summer by our pool and loved the beach. She never had a single skin cancer.

I was talking to him last night about it and he reminded me that when he was growing up he never used sun screen. It was unheard of... He said he had so many blistering sun burns since he was a toddler he cannot remember them all. He also worked outside laying railroad tracks for about 10 years. He said they would be out in the summer sun with no shirts on from 7 in the morning until 7 at night.

This is my first year of taking care of my skin and when this little bump showed up on my nose. I said of course !!! I waited to long and my mind went haywire. The irony is all summer I wore SPF 15 and 30.... and am just as tan as I was when I used to bake myself ??? God was I stupid.

[molrol]

You have my complete sympathies, i too am utterly convinced i will develop skin cancer one day (if i haven't already!) I am really moley, (one arm has over 30 moles on it) eveytime i look at my skin i seem to find more. I have been to the doctor many times about it and just paid to have a skin check at a dermatologist, same outcome every time - all your moles are healthy, do a monthly check and call back if any of them change. I am just taking it one day at a time at the moment, and i am doing it by telling myself that as long as i am confident about how my moles look, and i check them every single month then even if something changes then i will see it very early on.

Still, doesn't stop the constant checking, analysing and worrying! *sigh*
It amazes me that people get diagnosed with this disease all the time yet continue to live a normal life, i'd go to pieces if it were me!!