Scared I have skin cancer

[joeyr]

I've struggled with health anxiety for around 5 years - but to be honest it's making me miserable and grumpy and always pre-occupied with something that is going to happen to me instead of relaxing and having fun with my family.

I was sunburnt badly (had blisters) on my face when I was about 15 - I'm now 33 and ever since that one occasion I have stayed out of the sun. (It scared me lol!) I have quite light coloured skin and a few pale freckles across my nose but that is it.

About 2 months ago I noticed a pale pink circular patch - quite small - on my cheek underneath my eye. There is no central "spot", nothing is raised or shiny or crusty, just a tiny slightly more pink patch of skin there. It doesn't hurt, itch or burn - nothing. I've been to the Dr and have been prescribed various courses of different antibiotic creams and steroid creams. I suffer from psoriasis but she said that it is not psoriasis as it's less scaly. But nothing has taken it away.

Anyway, I keep going back and even went to another Dr for another opinion and he said that there was nothing to worry about yet and that it did not look like anything serious but just to wait and watch it and let it "develop" if it was cancer.

If anything, over the last few weeks the patch has got paler but is still there. (I stopped all the creams weeks ago). It seems to get redder when I am stressed and then goes back down the next day. Can anyone please help me here - I always think of the worst - if it was a very early sign of cancer surely it would just be getting worse - or hurt - rather than fading and then having red days!

Over the last 3 years or so I've not had any problems with being anxious over my health but because of this all the feelings have come back. Can anyone help?

[blueangel]

Hi there

If you've had this looked at by doctors and they're not worried, that's a pretty good indication for you. You could ask to have it removed, but obviously you would end up with a small scar. Even at the very, very worst though, if it was a skin cancer, most of them are what they call basal cell carcinomas (if I remember rightly) and aren't an invasive form of cancer, like melanoma.

[Adelle]

A friend of mine had skin cancer of his cheek. His symptoms were it was scaly, dry, would flake off and weep and then heal over again. It was quite obvious. This doesnt sound like you at all. Go and get one more opinion from a different doc and then try to relax. Im sure you are fine and what your experiencing is probably from the joys of aging. :)

[Neen]

Hi there,

I had EXACTLY the same symptom as you're describing! Except I had about 15 of these patches all over my body! Face, forarms, legs, boob - some larger and some smaller! They never itches, never were sore - just there! It's stress! Honestly! The only reason I didn't freak over this one was because I had had an outburst like this in my late teens, early 20's when I split from my BF and was doing my Dental Nursing exams......

I just had hydrocortisone cream and it went away. I had it again about 2 months ago and knew it was because of stress. Wish I was that relaxed about the other bloody symptoms! Always best to get things checked though - peace of mind ( if only slight) you can get hydrocortisone OTC give it ago now that you've been to the docs and if it wasn't one of the ones he prescribed? In the mean team - bath or shower with sensitive soap etc, avoid perfumed stuff and keep it moisterised! All the best sweet.

God bless and peace to you all

Neen xx

[joeyr]

Thank you so much to everyone that took the time to reply. To be honest I can always see it because I look for it whenever I am near a mirror (!) but my husband reckons its really faded.

Neen, I do have other patches all over my body like this but a bit more scaly which Doc has said IS psoriasis. Mind you, what with all the different creams I have had for my cheek over the last couple of months it's no wonder it's not as scaly as the rest of it!

We've been through a stressful time - the house we were buying almost fell through at the last minute and we were nearly made homeless so yeah it's been a bit stressful lately!

Thank you again for everyone's replies, because of you all I feel much more relaxed about it and at least I'm aware that if there are any other changes like you've all mentioned I will hop back on down to the Drs - but for a good reason!

Thanks again
Jo
xx