lise864
05-07-09, 20:57
A few weeks ago I noticed three small moles on my stomach, which weren’t there before. Immediate panic set in, so I dashed off to our NHS walk-in centre straightaway. The doc said that she thought they were fine and to just to keep an eye on them for any changes. So I felt a bit better for a while, but over the following few days I started noticing a whole load of other small moles on my body that I was absolutely convinced weren’t there before. So I started to freak out again, and went to see my GP at my normal surgery a few days ago. He didn’t seem at all concerned, and said it was normal to develop new moles at my age. He had a look at a few of them and said they were fine.
However, I’m still not fully convinced. It seems that every time I inspect my body (several times a day at the moment) I find another mole that wasn’t there before. My mum thinks that most of them have probably been there for ages, and that it was only when I became so preoccupied with them I started noticing them. My family thinks I’m nuts, especially since I’ve always actively avoided the sun and rarely tan let alone burn (I don’t like heat!). I made the fatal error of Googling last night (I tried so hard not to but stupidly lost my resolve :doh:), and found a forum post by some lady which scared the life out of me. She said that she had 30 moles on her body that she thought were just normal but actually turned out to be pre-cancerous, so she had to have them all removed. She was saying things like “Moles don’t have to be symptomatic to be dangerous” etc.
Then I came across the Mole Clinic website, which also terrified the living daylights out of me. The customer testimonials say things like “I noticed a tiny mole appear on my knee and it turned out to be a melanoma” and “The Mole Clinic detected a mole I didn’t even know was there and was actually cancerous”. I tried to rationalise with myself that the Mole Clinic is privately-run and is bound to try and strike fear into people to gain custom, but even so...
Anyway, thanks for listening and sorry this is so long. I’m tempted to go and see another doctor (for a third opinion) or maybe even visit the Mole Clinic (at a hefty cost). But then I'd feel like I'm just giving in to my anxiety. Oh, I don’t know. :sad: Any thoughts?
However, I’m still not fully convinced. It seems that every time I inspect my body (several times a day at the moment) I find another mole that wasn’t there before. My mum thinks that most of them have probably been there for ages, and that it was only when I became so preoccupied with them I started noticing them. My family thinks I’m nuts, especially since I’ve always actively avoided the sun and rarely tan let alone burn (I don’t like heat!). I made the fatal error of Googling last night (I tried so hard not to but stupidly lost my resolve :doh:), and found a forum post by some lady which scared the life out of me. She said that she had 30 moles on her body that she thought were just normal but actually turned out to be pre-cancerous, so she had to have them all removed. She was saying things like “Moles don’t have to be symptomatic to be dangerous” etc.
Then I came across the Mole Clinic website, which also terrified the living daylights out of me. The customer testimonials say things like “I noticed a tiny mole appear on my knee and it turned out to be a melanoma” and “The Mole Clinic detected a mole I didn’t even know was there and was actually cancerous”. I tried to rationalise with myself that the Mole Clinic is privately-run and is bound to try and strike fear into people to gain custom, but even so...
Anyway, thanks for listening and sorry this is so long. I’m tempted to go and see another doctor (for a third opinion) or maybe even visit the Mole Clinic (at a hefty cost). But then I'd feel like I'm just giving in to my anxiety. Oh, I don’t know. :sad: Any thoughts?