Skin bump and return of HA

[sarahsarah]

Had a small crusty bump on my scalp for a few weeks and it wasn’t going away so went to see my GP who briefly examined it and said it was nothing to worry about and that it was probably an infected hair folicle in a deep layer of scalp skin and prescribed me some antibiotics to help it along. I asked him clearly if it was anything sinister and he said no, he didn’t think it was at all.

All good? Well yes, up til the next bit when he added “if it doesn’t go away, go to a dermatologist next time in case they need to biopsy it or something” OH GREAT. Even though he added “I don’t think they will need to do that at all”, it of course set my anxiety off and over a day later I’m still panicking.

Can someone PLEASE talk me down? My intelligent self is telling me that he only said that because if it doesn’t go away, there is little point in going back to him as he will only refer me to a dermatologist anyway AND I’ve asked a highly trained medical professional, twice, if he thought it was anything concerning and he said NO. Clever, normal me is also aware that a ‘biopsy’ doesn’t only mean testing for you-know-what. BUT then the anxiety side of myself is “Oh he didn’t really examine it/he’s a generalist-what does he know/ why aren’t the antibiotics kicking in yet etc etc etc

I haven’t been like this for ages, I’m disappointed my HA is back, I had hoped it had gone for good. I’ve been through a fair bit of medical stuff this year, some of it a lot more serious than this, and I had the HA under control then. Gaaaaaah!!!!

[AMomentofClarity]

Had a small crusty bump on my scalp for a few weeks and it wasn’t going away so went to see my GP who briefly examined it and said it was nothing to worry about and that it was probably an infected hair folicle in a deep layer of scalp skin and prescribed me some antibiotics to help it along. I asked him clearly if it was anything sinister and he said no, he didn’t think it was at all.

All good? Well yes, up til the next bit when he added “if it doesn’t go away, go to a dermatologist next time in case they need to biopsy it or something” OH GREAT. Even though he added “I don’t think they will need to do that at all”, it of course set my anxiety off and over a day later I’m still panicking.

Can someone PLEASE talk me down? My intelligent self is telling me that he only said that because if it doesn’t go away, there is little point in going back to him as he will only refer me to a dermatologist anyway AND I’ve asked a highly trained medical professional, twice, if he thought it was anything concerning and he said NO. Clever, normal me is also aware that a ‘biopsy’ doesn’t only mean testing for you-know-what. BUT then the anxiety side of myself is “Oh he didn’t really examine it/he’s a generalist-what does he know/ why aren’t the antibiotics kicking in yet etc etc etc

I haven’t been like this for ages, I’m disappointed my HA is back, I had hoped it had gone for good. I’ve been through a fair bit of medical stuff this year, some of it a lot more serious than this, and I had the HA under control then. Gaaaaaah!!!!

You’re EXACTLY right about him saying that because there’s nothing more he can do, so he’ll refer you there anyway. GPs absolutely know what skin cancer looks like and he would’ve referred you if he thought anything of it.

[TheGroundhog]

I have had a crust weird bump on the top of my scalp for, ooooh, at least 10 years, maybe more. Sometimes I pick it off, sometimes it bleeds, has never occurred to me once to get it checked :roflmao:

It's probably nothing, skin is weird.

[sarahsarah]

Thank you both for your replies. I know I’m being irrational, that’s HA, isn’t it? *sighs*. Groundhog, I got it checked because it’s right in my parting and about the only bit of my scalp that ever gets exposed to sun. I god sunburned there earlier in the year. Been 48 hours on the antibiotics now and still no discernible change, maybe it’s a bit less red, I dunno.

It really doesn’t help that at the moment there’s a hashtag trending on Twitter #doctorsaredickheads with all sorts of horror stories about mistreatment and misdiagnosis.

[AMomentofClarity]

It really doesn’t help that at the moment there’s a hashtag trending on Twitter #doctorsaredickheads with all sorts of horror stories about mistreatment and misdiagnosis.

You have to take this stuff with a grain of salt. Nobody reports on the doctors who get it right and the patient is fine. I’ve read the analogy to a plane crash......the thousands and thousands of flights that arrive safely each day are never mentioned in the news....but the one a month or whatever that does crash is a front page story.
It doesn’t mean it’s common, it’s just covered. Same for medical horror stories.