MOLES

[coastgirl]

I went to the dermo and got a full skin exam. I had been to the same dermo 6 months ago for the same thing, and she biopsied a mole on my back. It was completely fine.

This time she biopsied TWO moles, on on each leg. They had been there last time and I keep an eye on them and they haven't changed lately.

The only thing that worries me is that one was irregular and I thought about asking the derm but I figured hey I'm just gonna trust her to do her skin exam. And the other one may have gotten bigger over time but very slowly.

I guess I'm just worried if they are anything they've been there a while. I'm trying not to let myself fall down the black hole of anxiety. I have already had a basal cell carcinoma so my "everything will be fine" mantra doesn't work so well anymore.

They were both flat and not raised or itchy or anything.

[RadioGaGa]

Dermatologists look at skin and moles all day. If they don't concern your derma, they shouldn't concern you

[coastgirl]

Dermatologists look at skin and moles all day. If they don't concern your derma, they shouldn't concern you


Well they concerned her enough to biopsy them. She was pretty poker face about the whole thing, and I didn't explicitly ask if they were "worrisome" because I know she would give me a non-answer like "well we can never be sure that's why we biopsy" or something.

Bahh :(

[RadioGaGa]

I completely missed that line "she biopsied TWO moles..."

This is why I need to stop using NMP on my mobile phone - I'm bad for missing information on the phone for some reason

Considering your history of BCC, they will be a tad "biopsy happy", which is a good thing. But the vast majority of biopsies come back "all clear"

[coastgirl]

Just posting back that they called and said both biopsies were clear. So relieved I started crying.

I got a voicemail from them yesterday but had a major film shoot I had to work on and couldn't handle bad news, so I decided to wait until the next day to check the voicemail.

That was wayyyy too much stress for one day. Dang.

[RadioGaGa]

That's GREAT news! Glad to hear it, having been through the "molexiety" as well.

I "follow" a great mole-related blog, written by Dr Stephen Hayes in the south of England. He has case reports and studies on his website, which explain rather well the principles you should apply to your moles when examining them.

For convenience, I'll post them here: (He has tweaked the ABCDE rule slightly) (this is for the benefit of anyone reading who wants to know how to check their moles)

​A: Asymmetry - No mole will be completely symmetrical, but is it very unsymmetrical?
B: Border - the border should be clear, not indistinct
C: Colour - Brown or two shades of brown is alright (e.g. darker brown in the centre, with lighter brown round the sides). What is not okay is brown and black, brown and red or variations thereof. Three colours is NOT acceptable.
D: Diameter - Although many benign moles can be several centimetres, and many melanomas under 5mm, if the size is changing or spreading, pay attention
E: Erythema: Dr Hayes says that "the more melanomas I see, the more I have become concerned about red in moles". Red/pink is never an acceptable colour in a mole. He has said moles with red must get urgent attention.

And don't forget the "ugly duckling" rule. The mole which looks significantly different from the rest of your moles deserves your doctor or dermatologist's attention.

If your mole passes that simple examination above, you can rest assured.

Good luck