About 3 weeks ago , a long-standing mole began to itch , again. It’s been bothering me for 3 years but is only small, not pigmented, slightly raised and on my back. Usually I ignore the itch and after a few days it would stop.
this time my anxiety peaked, what If it’s cancer? I’ve ignored it too long. Next I grabbed my phone and asked my daughter to photograph my back. Then I notice a larger pigmented mole that had grown since the last photo. I m now convinced I have 2 melanomas , the ‘evolving’ pigmented mole and the itchy mole. Cue massive anxiety, Dr Google taking advantage of me at my weakest. I phoned the GP for an appointment but had to wait a week. By the time I got to see him I was totally fixated by the growing pigmented mole, he took photos and sent them off to the telederm team for ID. He thought solar keratosis- assured me all well…..and relax!
until I got a text message the next morning referring me to dermatology, panic starts again, wasn’t expecting that and they must have got the date wrong, the appointment is for November and it’s only March , I need to phone them to check what has happened , what did they see? All good , just a routine follow up …..and relax.

For a few minutes , until the itchy mole starts again, back to square one. Why did I not point it out to the GP?
well I couldn’t spend another week in the anxiety rabbit hole waiting a GP appointment. I have private health insurance through work , so got a private consultation with a GP the next day. Lovely Dr , only she referred me to dermatology with suspicion of malignancy ( told me not to read too much into that) As if. This was on the Thursday before Easter and my appointment was made the next working day ( Tuesday after Easter) oh my.

The dermatologist was lovely and understood my anxiety , and apparently so had the private GP , which was why I was seen so soon. The dermatologist said
There is no problem with either of my moles , everything OK. The pigmented mole is sebborhaeic Keratosis and the itchy mole is just that, an itchy mole.

I'm writing this because , when my anxiety is triggered , I often browse no more panic looking for other people’s experience and wanted to add mine for others to read and understand that, as we all know on here, it’s the anxiety that makes things a whole lot worse than they actually are.