The Answer to everyones first question...
The mole
I will be brief but I have been getting so many questions about the first signs of my Melanoma. It was a mole. A mole that was different than any I've ever seen. It was raised like a little blood blister, teeny though, smaller than a pencil top. I noticed it sometime in May when I started wearing shorts. It was right in the middle of my leg. I have gone to Hershey Dermatology for years, they are amazing. I had rashes with every pregnancy and they have been nothing less than amazing. With that being said they are also very proactive and cautious, and I'm thanking God that is where he sent me. I called for a skin check since it had been awhile, but was very lax about it, telling them I had a mole I wanted looked at too. So she set me up for the regular 6-8 week wait for a routine skin check appt. I went on with my summer....
At the appointment the last week of July I saw one of the head doctors of the Dermatology center from Penn State Hershey. An amazing man, whom Ive seen before. Again though, looking back there was a reason I saw him because now he will be part of my treatment team. A number a people saw me and checked out my mole that day, with a teaching hospital I bet 5 people examined it with a magnifying glass. They all talked about what kind of skin lesion it appeared to be. He looked at me after they all discussed and said, "the good news is this is nothing I am concerned about or anything you need to be worried about, but anytime something on the skin changes we take it off and biopsy it". I go back to this moment so many times and I am so thankful he took that darn thing off when he did. There are a lot of uncharacteristic things about my melanoma, but everyones case is different. This doctor probably sees melanoma weekly, if not daily. My mole was different but not the normal looking melanoma for sure. He was shocked when he called me a week later with the results no one thought this is what it could possibly be. I am so thankful I was at Hershey, I am so thankful I saw him, and I'm thankful I got into the skin oncologist team at hershey in a couple days time. They were fast, you dont mess around with malignant melanoma.
Im so new at this, but I guess my advice is just call. Call your derm and make that appointment that will probably be 3 months from now and thats ok. Just call. It could save your life to go now, just call and go now. The inconvenience of one appt is much less than the battle of cancer.
Here is a link for how to check yourself for anything you might see as suspicious.
http://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/early-detection
I will be brief but I have been getting so many questions about the first signs of my Melanoma. It was a mole. A mole that was different than any I've ever seen. It was raised like a little blood blister, teeny though, smaller than a pencil top. I noticed it sometime in May when I started wearing shorts. It was right in the middle of my leg. I have gone to Hershey Dermatology for years, they are amazing. I had rashes with every pregnancy and they have been nothing less than amazing. With that being said they are also very proactive and cautious, and I'm thanking God that is where he sent me. I called for a skin check since it had been awhile, but was very lax about it, telling them I had a mole I wanted looked at too. So she set me up for the regular 6-8 week wait for a routine skin check appt. I went on with my summer....
At the appointment the last week of July I saw one of the head doctors of the Dermatology center from Penn State Hershey. An amazing man, whom Ive seen before. Again though, looking back there was a reason I saw him because now he will be part of my treatment team. A number a people saw me and checked out my mole that day, with a teaching hospital I bet 5 people examined it with a magnifying glass. They all talked about what kind of skin lesion it appeared to be. He looked at me after they all discussed and said, "the good news is this is nothing I am concerned about or anything you need to be worried about, but anytime something on the skin changes we take it off and biopsy it". I go back to this moment so many times and I am so thankful he took that darn thing off when he did. There are a lot of uncharacteristic things about my melanoma, but everyones case is different. This doctor probably sees melanoma weekly, if not daily. My mole was different but not the normal looking melanoma for sure. He was shocked when he called me a week later with the results no one thought this is what it could possibly be. I am so thankful I was at Hershey, I am so thankful I saw him, and I'm thankful I got into the skin oncologist team at hershey in a couple days time. They were fast, you dont mess around with malignant melanoma.
Im so new at this, but I guess my advice is just call. Call your derm and make that appointment that will probably be 3 months from now and thats ok. Just call. It could save your life to go now, just call and go now. The inconvenience of one appt is much less than the battle of cancer.
Here is a link for how to check yourself for anything you might see as suspicious.
http://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/early-detection
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