19 December 2013. I am already packed for my Christmas break in Italy, with family as usual, spent in Naples like I have done since I was born. Presents bought, Christmas cards sent (I have picked up some wonderful British traditions since I moved to London in 1999), suitcases ready, cat sitting arranged. The last tick on the list is a visit to my dermatologist.
I have many moles on my body and I am aware that I need to keep an eye on them. I had seen the dermatologist before, I had moles excised before, and thankfully they always resulted to be benign nevi, so I am not overly worried by this visit. However this particular mole at the top of my back looked quite suspicious (see 'take away 1' below). It had been pointed out to me by my partner who urged me to go and have it checked. As things stand now, he may have saved my life.
I hear a lot of frightening horror stories of mm patients who went to their GPs (Note: for non British readers, the General Practitioner or GP is your primary or 'family' doctor) pointing out a suspicious mole on their skin, only to be told that (what afterwards resulted to be mm) it was 'nothing to worry about' and were just sent home. Sometimes also dermatologists are equally superficial. Some patients had to really fight hard to convince the medical practitioner that they were concerned and they wanted the mole removed. Sometimes weeks or months elapse before the doctor accepts to remove the suspicious mole. And sometimes the 'nothing to worry about' mole turns out to be malignant melanoma. Scary. Very scary that medical partitioners should be so incompetent. If you are concerned about a mole, have it checked and if it has more than one if the suspicious characteristics (described below) it should be removed. Don't take no for an answer. It's you life which is at stake, and whilst minimising unnecessary surgery should also be an objective, this is definitely a case of better safe than sorry.
Fortunately for me I didn't go through any of this painful and stressful process. (the more painful after the diagnosis when you realise all the time which has been lost and how this could affect your future chances). In my case my GP referred me straightaway to the same dermatologist I had seen before. In my personal experience GPs are extremely competent (and lovely people too). So within a week I saw the dermatologist, I was lucky to get my appointment before the Christmas holidays. When he sees my mole he tells me straightaway that he suspects malignant melanoma, that he hopes he is wrong but that I will not leave the hospital that day until he cuts it off me to be sent for biopsy. So he does, it's a small cut, I can fly the day after, and off I go to Italy for my Christmas holidays, biopsy results in January.
Take away 1: know what to look for when examining your moles. Suspicious characteristics include mole that:
- Are getting bigger
- Are changing shape, particularly getting an irregular edge
- Are changing colour: getting darker, becoming multi shaded
- look asymmetrical (the two halves of your mole do not look the same)
- are itching or painful
- Bleed or become crusty
- Look inflamed
The best tip on how to spot anything dodgy was given to me by my oncologist. I expressed the view that for me it's hard to tell by self-examination whether I have any dodgy looking moles as I have so many of them, some brown, some black, some pale, some dark, many flat, some slightly raised, some slightly rugged... So the key is that even if you have so many different looking moles, all of them most likely fall under a 'group' or 'category' of moles you have, i.e. each of them will have others, elsewhere on the body, which look similar to it. However, if you have a mark, mole or blemish which does not look like anything else you have anywhere on your body, that is the one you should immediately show to your doctor or dermatologist!
Take away 2: sometimes it's you who must tell the doctors what you want from them and what they should do, not the other way around. If you are worried about a mole (based on the criteria above), don't take 'it's nothing to worry about' for an answer. Get it excised.
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| I have countless moles on my skin - September 2014 |
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