Scary mole on fiancés back. Please look

[pav1984]

Hello everyone, it's been awhile since my last post. In the last year and a half my HA has been almost non-existent. This morning, I felt that horrible helpless heart sinking panic that I used to get so often.

This morning I noticed a freckle/mole on my fiancés back. We are 23 years old. We both get sun in the summers (just regular exposure) and we both have freckles and sun spots. Today I was looking closely and this spot looks a little scary. It has 2 different colors and doesn't look "normal". There is definitely a dark dot inside of it and I don't really there there are borders. It is smaller than a pencil eraser but the colors freak me out. Being the hypochondriac I am, I started looking though old photos to see if I could track it back to an earlier time. I was able to find a photo from about 4 years ago that shows the spot - so it has been there awhile, I just never realized how sinister it looks. Part of me thinks that's a good thing right? The fact that it has been there for awhile without growing?

Please click and look at the picture. I am SO afraid of melanoma. I am making him a DR apt first thing in the morning. I feel sick to my stomach. Does anyone have anything that looks like this? I will post a regular picture and a close up. Please help

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Best get checked by a doctor to be safe. In the mean time to help with your worry you say it has been there 4 years. I would have thought it would have changed in that time if it was something nasty.

With regard to the app... in the hands of a person without HA probably a good thing. In the hands of someone with HA it is a tool to fuel the obsessive checking habits.

[Shadowhawk]

I will completely disagree with the suggestion of the app, but from the perspective of a technical person (a photographer and computer engineer). While we all marvel at what our cell phones can do (and they are amazing), they are NOT bastions of color accuracy and macro (close up) detail. Now, this is fine for every day shots, but this poses a problem for a diagnosis like this. Why? Because CORRECT examination of the mole requires detail (structure of the skin, clarity of margins, so on), as well as correct color (cool natural lighting WILL make something look different compared to warm lighting) - just imagine your phone taking a poor quality shot of a mole, making it look dark and splotchy.. trigger alert! A dermascope has good calibrated lighting, which casts no shadows (the light forms a ring, giving even illumination), and allows the doctor to see the skin clearly.

Sure, the app may catch the painfully obvious ones (like, a huge mole that should have been checked year ago anyway...), but i wouldn't ever consider something like it knowing what i know. And frankly, i am sure i have seen people here mention it giving false positives.. simply another reason to not use it.