Just thought I'd share my latest HA story, hopefully help some people who might have similar.

In around February, I hurt my ankle whilst gardening, then re-hurt it twice more. I had a huge bruise which took ages to go away.

About early March, I felt a hard round lump (about 1cm) to the side of my ankle bone, in the same place as the injury. I didn't stress too much at first (due to having just gotten over an episode of HA because of a bumpy mole...which I insisted on being removed and which turned out to be fine, and the bump was from an old scratch).

Over the next few weeks, I played with it sort of without thinking. Then I decided to look at it more closely, and saw it was slightly protruding, whitish/skin colour and had a vein running over the top of it. I instantly started to panic and diagnosed myself with some sort of cancer. I also started my usual obsessive checking (poking, prodding, squeezing etc).

The lump started to change, becoming (I thought) softer, but still not mobile, and seemed almost as if it was moving up through the skin. It also started getting reddish purple, as if there was blood under the skin. I panicked and went to a doctor, who said it was scar tissue and blood clotting from the injury, and not to poke and prod it or it would get worse. So I put a bandaid on it for 2 weeks.

Then I took it off and it was no better, so I started prodding it again, and then (horrors) Googled. On about page 999 (exaggeration) of a site showing images of skin diseases, I found a horribly aggressive (and extremely rare) type of skin cancer which looked just like the lump. I instantly diagnosed myself with this, and went to another doctor, who looked at the lump, said the same as the first doctor, and told me to leave it alone and that it could take SIX MONTHS to clear up.

So, a month later, there is this horrible reddy purple protruding thing on my ankle (smaller, I admit than the original lump) which I have had a bandaid on so as not to obsessively check, and it is no better AND it is painful. So now I decided that it is not under the skin anymore and that it is nodular melanoma (because the other skin cancer is fast growing and my lump hadn't grown but it had changed colour).

Fast forward to yesterday, and it is sticking up more, and feels soft and squishy, so I think, stuff it, sterilise a needle and stick it in it (I don't recommend this to other people by the way). Out comes a heap of blood and pus AND A SPLINTER!

So three months of anxiety over a changing horrible looking lump, and all it was was a splinter of wood! Not that I remember how on earth I got the splinter in me, because there was no evidence of an entry wound.

Just to say, I am terribly bad at jumping to the worst possible conclusion, and most things are NOT even remotely related, and the worst and rarest outcome is the least likely...and DON'T GOOGLE (which everyone knows of course...) Go well all.