How big was your melanoma?

There are some who have melanomas show up as small as 1mm across.  In general, larger is more suspicious as statistically, most melanomas tend to be larger.  I personally rely on change being my #1 factor.  I've had 3 primaries and know all changed.  My 3rd (and deepest) was on my back and while I didn't actually see it changing, when I finally considered it (not long after #2, but 8 years after #1), I knew I didn't have this darker mole all my life.  It was different (darker) than all my other moles but nothing else about the mole was suspicious except my "gut feeling" and knowing that this hadn't always been there.  Nowadays, I would call it an "ugly duckling".  It stood out somehow.  I insisted it be removed and proved to my derm that this mole was a problem.  My derm always asks about my gut feeling now.  (In between #2 and #3, I changed derms so my current derm had not seen my previous melanomas).

Basically half of melanomas arise on new moles, so removing your exising moles isn't all that beneficial when it comes to preventing melanoma.  Realistically, only about 8% have more than one melanoma primary, but having DNS might make your odds higher.  At my institution, they rely heavily on Mole Mapping.  Photographing each mole with high resolution photographs and doing very detailed comparisons against previous photographs.  (Their mole mapping system uses software to help with change detection as well as just normal visual inspection).  This method might have shown you really had some change even if it wasn't the most obvious.  They do this for all their DNS patients and for people with multiple primaries like me.  After analyzing over 5000 moles, 98% of them were stable and less than 2% required biopsying.  So I definitely suggest finding someone to do at least photographs to help you monitor your body.  Having a baseline set of high def photographs is definitely a good place to start.  Sometimes change is hard to spot unless you are looking at a detailed photo of just that mole. 

Anyway, all of this does get a little easier to cope with over time.  If you really have a bad gut feeling about something, have it biopsied.  Over time, you'll probably get to a point where you'll feel more comfortable.  I recently had a mole removed that looked fine, but had changed over time.  I knew it wasn't melanoma NOW, but it reminded me so much of primary #2 that I decided it needed to be removed before it could become melanoma.  Change doesn't always mean melanoma, it just makes something more suspicious.  In general, I'm not a hyper person.  But I've found all my three primaries and I know what's best for me.  I don't tend to do unnecessary biopsies, so when I insist, my derm is very cooperative.  It's all about making yourself feel comfortable with your care.  Time helps.

Best wishes,

Janner

There are some who have melanomas show up as small as 1mm across.  In general, larger is more suspicious as statistically, most melanomas tend to be larger.  I personally rely on change being my #1 factor.  I've had 3 primaries and know all changed.  My 3rd (and deepest) was on my back and while I didn't actually see it changing, when I finally considered it (not long after #2, but 8 years after #1), I knew I didn't have this darker mole all my life.  It was different (darker) than all my other moles but nothing else about the mole was suspicious except my "gut feeling" and knowing that this hadn't always been there.  Nowadays, I would call it an "ugly duckling".  It stood out somehow.  I insisted it be removed and proved to my derm that this mole was a problem.  My derm always asks about my gut feeling now.  (In between #2 and #3, I changed derms so my current derm had not seen my previous melanomas).

Basically half of melanomas arise on new moles, so removing your exising moles isn't all that beneficial when it comes to preventing melanoma.  Realistically, only about 8% have more than one melanoma primary, but having DNS might make your odds higher.  At my institution, they rely heavily on Mole Mapping.  Photographing each mole with high resolution photographs and doing very detailed comparisons against previous photographs.  (Their mole mapping system uses software to help with change detection as well as just normal visual inspection).  This method might have shown you really had some change even if it wasn't the most obvious.  They do this for all their DNS patients and for people with multiple primaries like me.  After analyzing over 5000 moles, 98% of them were stable and less than 2% required biopsying.  So I definitely suggest finding someone to do at least photographs to help you monitor your body.  Having a baseline set of high def photographs is definitely a good place to start.  Sometimes change is hard to spot unless you are looking at a detailed photo of just that mole. 

Anyway, all of this does get a little easier to cope with over time.  If you really have a bad gut feeling about something, have it biopsied.  Over time, you'll probably get to a point where you'll feel more comfortable.  I recently had a mole removed that looked fine, but had changed over time.  I knew it wasn't melanoma NOW, but it reminded me so much of primary #2 that I decided it needed to be removed before it could become melanoma.  Change doesn't always mean melanoma, it just makes something more suspicious.  In general, I'm not a hyper person.  But I've found all my three primaries and I know what's best for me.  I don't tend to do unnecessary biopsies, so when I insist, my derm is very cooperative.  It's all about making yourself feel comfortable with your care.  Time helps.

Best wishes,

Janner

There are some who have melanomas show up as small as 1mm across.  In general, larger is more suspicious as statistically, most melanomas tend to be larger.  I personally rely on change being my #1 factor.  I've had 3 primaries and know all changed.  My 3rd (and deepest) was on my back and while I didn't actually see it changing, when I finally considered it (not long after #2, but 8 years after #1), I knew I didn't have this darker mole all my life.  It was different (darker) than all my other moles but nothing else about the mole was suspicious except my "gut feeling" and knowing that this hadn't always been there.  Nowadays, I would call it an "ugly duckling".  It stood out somehow.  I insisted it be removed and proved to my derm that this mole was a problem.  My derm always asks about my gut feeling now.  (In between #2 and #3, I changed derms so my current derm had not seen my previous melanomas).

Basically half of melanomas arise on new moles, so removing your exising moles isn't all that beneficial when it comes to preventing melanoma.  Realistically, only about 8% have more than one melanoma primary, but having DNS might make your odds higher.  At my institution, they rely heavily on Mole Mapping.  Photographing each mole with high resolution photographs and doing very detailed comparisons against previous photographs.  (Their mole mapping system uses software to help with change detection as well as just normal visual inspection).  This method might have shown you really had some change even if it wasn't the most obvious.  They do this for all their DNS patients and for people with multiple primaries like me.  After analyzing over 5000 moles, 98% of them were stable and less than 2% required biopsying.  So I definitely suggest finding someone to do at least photographs to help you monitor your body.  Having a baseline set of high def photographs is definitely a good place to start.  Sometimes change is hard to spot unless you are looking at a detailed photo of just that mole. 

Anyway, all of this does get a little easier to cope with over time.  If you really have a bad gut feeling about something, have it biopsied.  Over time, you'll probably get to a point where you'll feel more comfortable.  I recently had a mole removed that looked fine, but had changed over time.  I knew it wasn't melanoma NOW, but it reminded me so much of primary #2 that I decided it needed to be removed before it could become melanoma.  Change doesn't always mean melanoma, it just makes something more suspicious.  In general, I'm not a hyper person.  But I've found all my three primaries and I know what's best for me.  I don't tend to do unnecessary biopsies, so when I insist, my derm is very cooperative.  It's all about making yourself feel comfortable with your care.  Time helps.

Best wishes,

Janner