I had three moles biopsied today with more scheduled to be removed in the coming weeks. I’m going to a dermatologist and given the family history (my paternal grandmother and my father dying from melanoma), we’re being aggressive.
It was my first visit to this doctor and I didn’t realize they would be slicing and dicing today, so it took me off guard. Just being there made me think of Dad and how many times he went through this, and what it eventually led to. One mole was removed from the top of my foot and the other two from my back. Those have stitches! Thankfully they numbed the area but that hurt like the dickens itself. I’ve got more of that in store so I better buck up!
I was shaking and emotional when I left, so I cried in the car for a while then went shopping for a hat and sunglasses (and then got ice cream from Chick-fil-a). Although I wear sunscreen every day, the doctor said I should also be wearing a wide-brimmed hat and UV protective sunglasses in the sun.
He said 50% of melanoma cases are genetic, the other 50 are just bad luck. But I’m going to take the necessary precautions and be as smart about this as I can be. I can’t erase the last 30 years of sun exposure, but I do think I’ve had less exposure than the normal person. And thankfully we can be careful as we should be with Madilyn and the sun from the get-go, although her skin breaks out with every sunscreen we’ve tried so far. The doctor gave us some Aveeno Baby samples to try. I hope it works.
So my PSA for the day is have an annual mole check by a dermatologist. I’m upset that I’ve just had my family physician check and he didn’t recognize several moles that are suspicious. Go straight to the specialist.
UPDATE: Two weeks after this post I went back to the doctor and had three additional moles removed. The results of the first three biopsies showed that two of the spots on my back were pre-cancerous. I have to go back in two weeks to have a larger area of skin removed to make sure they got the roots so I won’t have future problems. Hopefully after that I’ll be done with my dermatological woes.
April 23, 2009 at 8:46 pm
[...] … with the family history we don’t want to take any changes. (I wrote more about it on my blog.) If you have moles (and who doesn’t) please visit a dermatologist to have them regularly [...]
May 7, 2009 at 1:03 pm
I went in to have one checked out a couple years ago (skin cancer also runs in my family) and was also taken off guard when they removed it that day. I thought for sure they would drag it out to another visit. I almost passed out and when I left I went out and bought a new pair of shoes ; )
Thankfully mine was nothing. I hope yours also came back negative!
June 19, 2009 at 11:26 am
Thanks, Jen. sounds like we had a similar experience! Just heard back from my neck biopsy that all’s clear! now i’ll just have 6 mo checkups until i’m cleared for annuals.