Suspicious Mole

[Erin22595]

Hello there, I am new to this forum and have never posted before but need some form of reassurance before I lose my mind.

My Mother first had Melanoma when she was just 20 years old. She always had very pale skin, like me, and was never very cautious when it came to the sun. I didn't know her but people always tell me how she'd lie in the sun for hours. They got rid of the melanoma the first time, but it came back when she was 27 and pregnant with me. She died when she was 28 & I had tests when I was born to make sure nothing was passed onto me through the placenta - it hadn't. I was, luckily, a healthy baby.

I am now 18 and suffer from mild anxiety which I have previously been to a few counselling sessions for (which helped me with my social anxiety); however, I've recently become obsessed with moles. I only have three at this time in my life & went to the doctor last week to get them looked at. The one I thought I had under my arm turned out to be a skin tag which she told me is absolutely fine. Next, I had one on the right hand side of my body, which is a normal shape and very light - she told me it was fine/normal. But, the last one she looked at is one my left side and is a lot darker (not black, just a medium brown), it's not too large (smaller than a pencil eraser) but the borders are blurred. So, she told me she thinks it's probably nothing (I'm paranoid she only said that because she knows of my anxiety) but she will refer me to a dermatologist. I now have to wait two weeks before my appointment and I am absolutely out of my mind with worry. Unlike my Mom was, I am extremely careful in the sun. That is the difference between me and her. I use a lot of sun cream and don't lie out in it anyway & I certainly don't use sunbeds. I have only had sunburn once that I can recall of, about 5 years ago. I also have a brown mole on my leg (it does not have blurred borders and is completely round) I forgot to show the doctor that one but I will show the dermatologist when the time comes. However, this one on my left hand side is what is worrying me right now.

Naturally, panic bells are ringing in my head and I'm expecting the absolute worst. I can't stop thinking that what happened to my Mom is going to now happen to me. I live with my Nan and she is worrying herself to death about it. I haven't told my Dad yet as losing my Mom absolutely killed him, so I don't want to scare him until I know whether or not there's something to be scared about.

Has anybody ever had a scare like this? If they remove my mole, what can I expect? I am terrified and would just like a bit of reassurance.

Thank you if you have read all of this!

[PhoenixGrey]

I was referred to a dermatologist about several suspicious moles when I was 14 (ish?) they looked all over and said there was nothing to worry about, I'm still fairly paranoid as I have at least 45 moles in all different shapes and sizes - in fact very few of them are perfectly round, small and even-coloured, most of them are big, irregularly shaped, raised and multicoloured - and I've so far not been told that any of them are to worry about.

It's only two weeks and you can get the dermatologist to look at all of them and assess them properly, I haven't had any removed but from friend's that have I have been told that it's not a particularly big deal getting rid of them.

The only thing I can say (which isn't helpful as I'm a worrier myself) is to try and not worry about it, you've done what you can to protect yourself, and at least your doctor has listened to your concerns and had you referred.

Try to keep your head up and then you can unleash yourself on the dermatologist and ensure everything gets looked at while you're there, I'm sure you'll have nothing to have been worried about

[Erin22595]

I was referred to a dermatologist about several suspicious moles when I was 14 (ish?) they looked all over and said there was nothing to worry about, I'm still fairly paranoid as I have at least 45 moles in all different shapes and sizes - in fact very few of them are perfectly round, small and even-coloured, most of them are big, irregularly shaped, raised and multicoloured - and I've so far not been told that any of them are to worry about.

It's only two weeks and you can get the dermatologist to look at all of them and assess them properly, I haven't had any removed but from friend's that have I have been told that it's not a particularly big deal getting rid of them.

The only thing I can say (which isn't helpful as I'm a worrier myself) is to try and not worry about it, you've done what you can to protect yourself, and at least your doctor has listened to your concerns and had you referred.

Try to keep your head up and then you can unleash yourself on the dermatologist and ensure everything gets looked at while you're there, I'm sure you'll have nothing to have been worried about

Thank you so much for your reply, I definitely am feeling slightly better. You see all this stuff online saying if it's not perfectly round or something then it's the worst case scenario (I guess I need to stay off google) I'm a natural worrier but I guess there's nothing much I can do about it now & it helps to know people like yourself have had suspicious moles looked at that turned out to be nothing. So, now I wait! Thank you for the reassurance