UK Skin Cancer and Melanoma Patients

[Belinda]

I had a 2cm mole removed from front waist area August 07. I'd been told for several years prior that it was a sclerotising ketatosis and had an offer to scrape it off if it was bothering me!! Eventually I couldn't ignore my sense of unease and asked for another opinion, which was again that it could be scraped off. There were two areas to it, brown and an overgrowth of pink, both of which were being taken as keratosis. I said no, the mole had been there decades, it was the pink excressence that was new, and would you scrape a mole off? No, they said. Third opinion 'I think we'll have another look at that, dermatologist: 'I don't like the look of that, 2 stage biopsy both 5mm margin. MM confirmed, borderline stage I/II So go with your gut, I say! And not all melanomas are black. Mine was a lovely shade of pinkjavascript:emoticon(':oops:')
I have been to my checkups and sometimes my nodes are prodded - groin and armpit, but not always so. But the lymph nodes for the waist area are buried deep in the abdomen, so there's no palpating them I suppose javascript:emoticon(':?')I just get asked how I am and it's up to me to say.
And today I had a change in another mole to report, so that's being biopsied in 5 weeks time. Not urgent then! I'm offered an incision biopsy this time and I thought it had to be a wide margin. Dermatologist said it's because she wouldn't have said it was suspicious ( despite changes) without my MM diagnosis. And also that there isn't a significant worsening of outcome if a melanoma is cut into or cut around when biopsied. Not entirely happy with that, is my gut speaking again. It's shaken me a bit, noticing the mole, I thought I could put it all behind me.

Should we be aware of changes to the colour of the iris? I've noticed a small brown fleck appear. My eyes are dark blue and the inner edges have been going hazel over the years, but this fleck hangs off an otherwise neat gradation in colour. I forgot to tell the specialist in all the excitement. Should I go back, or am I seeing melanocytes everywhere!?

Here's another thing. My singing teacher had a colleague who has just died from skin cancer secondaries (not sure if melanoma). Guess where the primary was? Her hair dresser spotted something in her scalp, already stage IV! So we need to be aware of checking there. Thought that was worth sharing, since our partings are nearest the sun.

Right, got that off my chest. Hi everybody!

Belinda

[Alison..]

Hi Belinda,

Welcome to the forum - not one that we really want to be part of, but some great people here. Most people post/look at the "general information" section, so sometimes messages in chat get lost, so you might like to repost!

I've heard of quite a few people with Melanoma on scalp, so I guess we should all be vigilant there. Don't know anything about eyes but I guess you could see if it looks ANYTHING like any pictures of ocular melanoma, and if so give your consultants secretary a buzz for an earlier checkup.

Alison

[Belinda]

Thanks Alison, all round!
Belinda