Here I go again

[UKmamainUS]

With a swollen lymph node still on my mind, and the memory of a surgeon saying the words skin cancer, I have recently been paying much attention to my moles. Melanoma scares the living daylights out of me. I have a huge but otherwise normal looking mole on my back but do not recall seeing it before. Of course it might have been there all this time but I have so many moles it really is hard to keep track.

I've also got a mole on my upper arm that has a yellow bruise around it, seems weird, but other than that it is totally normal looking.

I visit the dermatologist annually because of having so many moles, and just scheduled a mole check on Tuesday but oh my, I just wish I didn't panic about every mole. Seeing as I have way over 100 with new ones popping up almost daily, I can't help it. I wear UV tops outside throughout the summer, never go out for more than three hours at a time, and wear factor 50 sunscreen on exposed skin, but as a kid I would often run around in the sun with very little protection.

I can't go on panicking like this. It is really getting to me. Dropped my lorazepam yesterday which should help, but I hate to take it during the day when I am alone withheld kids,

[cattia]

Once you start worrying about moles there is really no end to it! I've been down the mole worry route myself in the past and like you, I have a lot of them and have certainly had quite a lot of times in my life when I was younger and did nothing to protect myself from the sun, in fact in my twenties I would love to get a tan. I actually have a friend who doesn't have health anxiety but she does worry about moles as she knew someone who died of skin cancer. When she was always back and forward to her Dr asking for them to be checked, her Dr gave her the advice that the kind of moles to worry about tend to be quite obvious since they look very abnormal and also change very quickly. I found that quite reassuring.

[UKmamainUS]

That is reassuring. None of my bazillion moles look all that abnormal but I've been pretty preoccupied about this for years. Had about five moles removed, all benign. One of my moles had clearly grown at some point in the past 7 years but as I only discovered it's existence two weeks ago and then found it again on my wedding photos to confirm it's prior existence, I have no idea when it grew. I had my moles checked twice last year and annually before that and the mole that changed is still normal in terms of abcde criteria, so I'm probably worrying about nothing. The one with the bruise around it is kind of freaky but the mole itself looks totally normal. Small, round, even sharp edges etc. But with a yellow circles around it. I bruise easily so hubby thinks I probably knocked it. I'd go for this except the mole is small bang in the center of the bruise so that scares me. Guess I'll know a little more on Tuesday.