Why do some people like to scare you??

[Munchlet]

One of my friends has shared a page on facebook from a skincare company warning of the dangers of skin cancer.

Now I expect like most people with HA I'm only too well aware of the dangers of skin cancer and check my moles regularly.

The thing is she's posted the link and they have the gruesome pictures on it which I expect most of us have seen at some point or another but alongside it loads of people have commented saying they have had skin cancer.

Fair enough as it is very common and usually very treatable but then a couple of people have posted comments along the lines of "I had malignant melanoma and mine looked nothing like the pictures, it was only a freckle"

So now I'm in a panic as I am covered in freckles have been all my life and I'm suddenly thinking how the hell am I meant to keep an eye on every freckle on my body!!!!

I didn't think freckles were a problem I was always under the impression it was changing moles or new skin lesions.

Anyone else heard of freckles being malignant melanomas? I'm assuming that it would work on the same basis that it would have to be a freckle that suddenly started growing, bleeding etc!

Why do people have to post these things, I know it's good to be aware but facebook is a bit of light relief for me to get away from HA not to give me new worries!

[AllIhaveisme]

One time I had a quick bout with HA over melanoma. I had this lump appear on my arm. I was in college at the time taking anatomy and physiology and frantically pulled out my text book.... BINGO! Omg, its bigger than a pencil eraser. I HAVE MELANOMA!!! Insert 2am hysterical cry to my insomniac mother in law. Anyways, so I went to the dr ASAP and it ended up being a deep infected follicle that scarred and I still have it to this day, totally unchanged. SO I understand that fear all too well.

I am also dealing with lymph node swelling. Some of the dr's I have seen believe it's related to the tattoo I had done the day before the first lump. I keep being told that my blood or the xray would have shown something, much less the red cell morphology I had done and I have NO symptoms of cancer except swollen nodes. But then I keep reading (DAMN YOU GOOGLE!) about these people who had no symptoms, normal blood work and still have Lymphoma and I cannot shake the what ifs. They are paralyzing me.:weep:

Also want to add, that when I was 13 I had a mole. A big, hairy one. I went to the dr because it was ugly and I wanted it gone. Dr sent me to a specialist. I ended up having it removed 3 times, and biopsied. I was told then it was cancerous. The dr was assuming and ended up being dead wrong. Can you imagine my fear? All I have now of that is remnants of a scar.

At this point, EVERYTHING triggers my HA. It's awful, I need to keep my laptop closed. I keep doing this to myself, its everywhere. Ugh!

[klausrothschild]

Over the last few months I've thought I had several different types of cancer, brain, lung, lukemia, lymphoma, stomach and even melanoma. I've had lots of small moles and some new ones which may be new or it may just be that I've only discovered them recently, always lived in a really sunny place. It's very rare that melanoma comes up as many freckles all over, if you start getting lots of new freckles around the same area, see a dermatologist just in case. Otherwise I wouldn't worry unless you get a large, asymmetrical funny coloured mole :) I'm battling health anxiety at the moment, I often see posts and pictures which scare the hell out of me even if they are good things, you're more likely to notice things related to the subject if you're worried about it before hand. Footballers who have recovered from cancer, interesting fact posts stating your immune system kills at least one cell a day which would be cancer had it lived etc. I always find tons of small lumps in my body and feel odd pains and sensations, funny thing is the pain intensifies when I worry about it and the lumps become more obvious. I've had doctors check me and not notice lumps until I point them out. I went to the doctor about a couple of lumps, he said it was nothing to worry about at all, went again after a week when it didn't go down, again he said it was just a shotty node, went when I found another lump and had the embarrassing task of having to search myself a while to find it when he asked me to show him, went a fourth time this time to a different doctor in case the first one missed anything, said all my glands are fine, they may be slightly enlarged but it isn't a worrying extent and some people can just feel their glands under their skin even when they aren't enlarged, showed him a couple of small lumps on my torso "they're lipomas, nothing to worry about" now I've found more on my chest and I'm having pain and found one on my elbow crease and I want to go in again but have to resist and I don't want to demand loads of unnecessary tests and enable myself but I still worry, anyway sorry for going off topic there, getting back to the point: last time I was at the doctor I showed him the new moles and asked if I should see a dermatologist and it felt as though he had to restrain himself from laughing (which at the time upset me, but I get it now) and said it's nothing to worry about