to want to know if it's cancer?!

[Ropeonasoap]

I had a biopsy on a growth on my face five weeks ago and have heard nothing. The dermatology clinic doesn't answer emails or calls. I went to the GP in June so it's been over six months. Six months with two completely pointless appointments between where they just looked at it and said, 'yeah we need to biopsy that.'

Granted they can't be that worried but the man who scraped a bit of my face off said, 'Yeah it does look like a BCC to me (skin cancer)' before he sliced it off. I'm fed up!

I'm due to go on holiday in a couple of months and I need to know. Travel insurance is an absolute nightmare.

(If anyone else has had similar how long did your results take?!)

That's terrible! I think I'd just show up at the dermatology clinic. They'd have to talk to me then.

They would have contacted you by now if it was. I was on the 2 week pathway for ovarian cancer 2 years ago. I didn't hear back for 5 weeks so called them and they said oh you are off the pathway now as it definitely isn't cancer - you are getting a letter sent in 3 weeks time.

BCC is not life threatening and can’t spread elsewhere, so they can be very slow at removing it on the NHS. I had mine tested by being scraped and having it biopsied -only 6 weeks wait, so I agree you definitely would expect to have had a result by now. But the wait time to actually have it removed was (from memory) 56 weeks. I had it removed privately in the end.

DH had a similar experience last year. We had to defer all travel plans as you can't get insurance whike awaiting diagnosis. We were confident it wasn't cancer as they would have been in touch. It took 3 months.

I had two on my leg, biopsy took just over 5 weeks to come back, so hopefully yours should be soon now, I got quite a detailed letter explaining what sort of BCC they both were. One of mine was cut out without a biopsy and the one that had the biopsy I got Efodex cream to put on it.

That's shocking. I had a 2 week pathway for a mole on my face in October.

Melanoma insitu diagnosis was back in 2 weeks. I’ve had 3 others off which, results in 3-5 weeks, all those not concerning.

So frustrating. After much shopping around I found some expensive insurance who will cover me for everything except this thing I've had removed as long as I tell them as soon as I have a diagnosis. If it's cancer presumably they stick my premium up. Other insurance would cover me for everything excluding pre existing which includes very minor asthma but obviously couldn't take the risk...

I'm not sure people realise they aren't insured if they are waiting on the NHS for pretty much anything.

Would certainly make me think twice going to the GP about anything at all before a holiday now.