› Forums › Cutaneous Melanoma Community › Suspecting early nodular melanoma; needing advice/suggestion; having a few questions
- This topic has 11 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 1 month ago by
Henry 1990.
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- April 16, 2017 at 8:37 am
Photos of the current situation are below, as well as what has happened, and most importantly, a few questions. And I have scheduled a digital dermoscopy for 24 April. (As I am writing this, it is April 16.)
In December, 2016, I somewhat scratched my upper stomach and there was something and when took a closer look I found an oval mole that, as it seemed, I had cut in with my finger nails at the lower side as a result of the scratch.
I didn’t think if the mole was there before or not, but later I started to realize that, hey, this mole definitely wasn’t there a few years ago, and maybe even a few months ago. All-in-all, I didn’t suspect anything dangerous at that point.
Then, at the end of February in 2017 or maybe somewhere in March, I somewhat found a dark-brown stripe at the lower side of that oval mole. It kind of was like broken and I was able to remove most of the dark pigment with toothstick and the toothstick tip got covered with dark-brown color too (so it was not entirely solid). It was at that point when I suspected that it might be something bad but not necessarily and I removed the dark stuff and left it to heal.
As I remember, after a week, I didn’t notice the dark stripe and it was evenly colored but it was little more reddish perhaps. But now, in this month, somewhere in the first week of April, I noticed a new dark spot in that mole at that side.
By looking closer to that new darker spot inside the mole, I notice that it is not oval. At a closer look it appears as irregular shape, almost as scaled shape of x or +. The diameter of the mole itself is 3mm at the longer axis and 2mm at the shorter axis. Based on touch and light reflections it is not entirely flat (as checked today). It is slightly elevated, particularly at the darker side and not necessarily at the lighter area.
The two pictures below show how it looked the first time I took a picture of the mole on April 10, 2017:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/UdzbSSi.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/boVMvWe.jpg[/img]
And here another three pictures show how it looks a week later, today, on April 16 (it has gotten little darker, and I’m worried that it has gotten slightly elevated as well):
[img]http://i.imgur.com/oKRXiZv.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/mglwpNo.jpg[/img]
[img]http://i.imgur.com/eHUMLS8.jpg[/img]
I have tried to find similar cases by searching in Google, and I found one case study that seems to be sharing similarities with this one (Case 11, or case K – thickness 0.60 mm):
http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/fullarticle/209659
Now, based on what I have said, and in case that it might be fastly growing nodular melanoma, should I wait the 7 days ‘til I get checked by dermatologist who is specialized checking moles with digital dermoscope, etc., or try to get it removed faster by general board certificated local surgeon? (I’m afraid that local surgeon might not see the seriousness of that and not cut it out properly (I live in Tallinn in Estonia and I’m not sure how “punch biopsy” is in translation to Estonian language either), and maybe they’re not going to send it to proper or specialized biopsy or not sending it fast enough – and when it has been cut out that it then cannot be evaluated with digital dermotoscopy as it has been cut out, etc.)
My second question is that, should I go to the hospital where digital dermoscopy is performed and try to get an earlier appintment than on April 24 – which is 7 days from now? (When I went there on past Friday they first offered me appointment in July, and then I expressed that I suspect melanoma and I got appointment for April 24, which is 7 days from now as I am writing this.) Assuming it could be vertically growing melanoma, should I go there and try to get examined faster – and if so, what specifically I should tell?
And my final question, how quickly a fast-growing melanoma, starting from 0.5 mm thickness and about 3 mm in diamater could possibly grow internally in 7 days in a relatively healthy person?
Could I slow it down by eating more C-vitamin, like a lot of red pepper in addition to war borccoli? I just started to take vitamin D3 as well as in Estonian winter is without sunshine and I haven’t gotten much Vitamin D since the last summer I guess.
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- April 16, 2017 at 2:00 pm
Henry, This is not so much an answer to your question as it is an anecdote about the very real dangers of self-diagnosis and self "treatment". Several years ago, I found an odd-looking mole on my arm and froze it using the contents from an inverted can of compressed "air"; the cryogenic version of your own toothstick. The mole's return, in the same place, but with a very different, angrier, blistered appearance had me seeking the opinion of a dermatologist, who immediately referred me to a surgical oncologist. The pathology indicated the need for a substantial WLE and concurrent SLNB, the latter due to mitosis and regression (which may have been the scarring from my own, ill-advised freeze experiment), making it difficult to determine the original depth of the lesion with accuracy. Do NOT experiment on / treat yourself and see a qualified professional as soon as possible.
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- April 16, 2017 at 5:24 pm
First of all, your photos do not look like nodular melanomas that I have seen before. Second of all, 1 week is not that long. You've done what we all do when we have a mole we are suspicious of. Make and appointment with a dermatologist. At the appointment, have them biopsy it. Only after biopsy will you know IF it is melanoma. It does not automatically jump out at me as melanoma.. I have moles that look similar and are not melanoma. I've had moles look way worse than that, had them biopsied, and they were not melanoma. Do not jump to conclusions, do NOT Google anything, you will find no good information. You cannot self diagnose. Even a doctor cannot see an image and say whether something is cancerous or not. My best advice, stick with the appointment you have, get it biopsied, then wait until the pathology report to make anymore decisions about it.
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- April 17, 2017 at 9:18 am
It doesn’t look like nodular melanoma at all. Also I’ll be surprised if it’s turned out to be malignant, but defentliley get it checked with a dermatologist for your ease of mind.-
- April 17, 2017 at 2:29 pm
A photo that I took just now, with a little different lighting, showing that it is slightly rised. I don't remember that it was so much rised before… it does look alarming to me:
[img]http://i.imgur.com/rA3Mmxj.jpg[/img]
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- April 17, 2017 at 2:48 pm
Quit looking at it, quit taking pictures of it. Show this picture to the doctor when you go next week and he will be able to see if it has changed. Get it biopsied. That's the *only* way to know if it is anything to be concerned about. My guess would be that it is nothing, and if it *is* something it is more than likely *not* nodular melanoma. But no one here can tell you; the only thing that will definitively provide information is the biopsy. Stay off the internet. I know it is hard, but you are feeding your own anxiety and that isn't good for your overall health! Keep us posted after your appointment.
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- April 17, 2017 at 4:35 pm
I was thinking that digital dermotoscopy is enough to have this case judged?
I have not been telling or suggesting that it is "definitely" and "without doubt" a nodular melanoma. I'm just speculating that it could be because I haven't gotten some more specific counter-evidence.
No matter what, before any of us will go to this very person who has been studying the thing, we need to have a reason for going. The way we get the reasons to go or not to go is by self-diagnosing wheter or not we think there might be a problem or not.
If we don't think that there is a problem, why should we go? We simply don't go if we don't see a problem. Because if there is no reward for going – or no punishment for not going – it must mean that we simply don't have a reason to go.
So we need to self-diagnose if we may have a need to go to a more knowledgeable person specialized at a specific life realm or activity.
Right now, I clearly see that there might be a serious problem. And this "might", is what I don't want to take chances with. (I reffered to one of the cases that had quite similar-looking mole – nodular one -, although, a litte more evolved.)
And that's why I'm seeking awareness on how to get it solved faster, which is either some good counter-evidence that the possible-worst-case-scenario is definitely not the case, from a specialist, and through a procedure – like biopsy, digital dermoscopy, etc.
With that said, I agree and support entirely that it is unquestionably almost always far better to get it evaluated by a specialist who also has a proper technology or tools rather than trying to do it on own individual efforts, such as spending a lot of time researching to try to have some less accurate evaluation than that of a specialist who has been doing this researching already a lot more and can have this thing evaluated quickly and more accurately.
But no matter what, if it has to do with our own body and our own life, we shouldn't be ignorant about the thing. We must seek to be more aware, not ignore it and do nothing. Right now, although I hope there is nothing serious and I'm aware of the possible other cases that it might be as well, non-the-less I have made some research and the result of this research is that there might be something early there, and I need to get it checked by a specialist fast.
I think that we all have to be able to either self-diagnose early nodular melanoma probability to a some degree in order to get into deciding how quickly we need to get help from a specialist; or simply have a lot of regular skin checks which I am preferring from now on personally.
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- April 17, 2017 at 4:40 pm
I wish I could edit the thing because I found some wordage that is not accurate to what I wanted to say. The bottom line: I want to find counter-evidence and counter evidence from a dermatologist is preferred, and biopsy is most preffered counter-evidence.
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- April 17, 2017 at 4:41 pm
And digital dermotoscopy, as I was thinking?
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- April 17, 2017 at 5:36 pm
Anytime you suspect a mole is worrisome, get it biopsied. That's it. Waiting one week for the appt is not long, many people have waited much longer. A biopsy is the ONLY way to know if something is cancerous. Looking at a mole through a dermatoscope just lets the dermatologist know whether something looks suspicious at a closer level, but they would never be able to look in the scope and say "yes, this is melanoma". They would say, "this has such and such going on so we should biopsy it to be safe". Best of luck.
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- April 17, 2017 at 4:41 pm
Some poeple have said, "it does not look like melanoma". Do NOT let that lull you into a false sense of security. Even a melanoma specialist with many years experience can not diagnose melanoma simply by looking at it.
My dermatologist only removed my lesion because, in his words, it was a bit ugly. It came back as stage 2 which was then revised to stage 3 after the WLE and SLNB.
My advice is to keep the appointment you've made and let them know you're available if anything earlier opens up. Call each day if it makes you feel better, and ask if they have any cancellations. Having said that, seven days won't really make a lot of difference.
Good luck,
Ann
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- April 18, 2017 at 12:50 pm
I followed your advice, Ann. I went there and expressed my worry and the person there made calls and as it happened to be at that moment the person who had appointment just at that time that I was there that person was called over and said that he cannot come and I got that person's appointment. Thank you Ann!
The mole got checked with dermatoscopy and there was no problem whatsoever with the mole. I asked that maybe it should be biopsied just in case, and she said that we don't biopsy healthy moles. She explained that the thing that causes the darker spot is just fading out and sometimes it does not fade out evenely, – or something like that.
I think that anyone who suspects something suspicious in any mole, should act fast (like I did) instead of waiting. If it seems elevated and changing in any way, the quicker it is checked the better.
I'm going to get a full body check on Monday, and I still would like to have that mole removed, – because it wasn't there before and it bothers me when I look myself from the mirror – it's rather dark from that one side, but I'm going to wait at least a couple of months and if there is no change then I'm going to let it stay there I guess.
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Tagged: cutaneous melanoma
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