Two coloured mole (removal)

[pinksplutterweasel]

I feel like a bit of a fraud being here because I may be worrying about nothing but I can’t help the anxiety I’m feeling right now. I’ve just had an appointment with a dermatologist about a mole on my arm. It’s been there a long time - if it’s changed, the change has been so gradual I’ve not really noticed it. It is coloured and slightly raised and measures 6mm. It looks pretty circular but with a line drawn down one third of the way. The smaller third is brown and the rest is pink. I went to the dr a year ago because it was dry and itchy and I ended up scratching the top off. The dr looked through a microscope and said it was fine and gave me cream. I went back last week to appease a friend who had just been to see a dr about her moles. I was expecting g the same response but instead he referred me to the derm with a letter which I picked up this morning which was all incorrect. The only thing correct is that it’s not grown in size. Otherwise he said that when he saw it it was flat, round and one coloured (it absolutely wasn’t). He also said I went to see him last week because I thought it had changed (also wrong). Lovely dermatologist checked all my moles and told me they looked fine but that, because this one was two colours she would remove it next week. However she did say the fCt it’s always been two tone is reassuring. I’m still scared stiff and suffer with awful anxiety after my good friend was misdiagnosed with IBS (she has terminal bowel cancer) and my grandmother was told she had reflux when in fact it was oesophageal cancer which killed her 5 months after diagnosis. I think This has really affected me. I guess I’m looking for reassurance that moles that have always been two coloured (at least for a decade) are unlikely to be sinister.

To me it looks like a flesh coloured mole with a freckle on the side 🤷‍♀️

Im not expert tho..

If it's been like that for the last decade and hasn't changed i doubt very much it's sinister

Thank you!!!! Yes that's exactly what it looks like. To me - and I'm no expert - though having now exhausted google, I probably should be - it does look like two separate things - not a single mole with two colours but two separate ones. But...I guess I have to wait to see what the result of the removal is. I find it weird I've not found anything online that looks exactly like mine. And before anyone says anything i know googling is the worst thing I can do, but such is the nature of the beast, with anxiety you're constantly looking to reassure yourself while at the same time resigning yourself to worst case scenario which is obviously the easier thing to find online. Healthy people don't post their stories.

I definitely have moles that, like yours, are two coloured and always have been. To me (not an expert at all) yours looks fine, especially as you say there's no change. I have had two moles removed in the past and both turned out to be fine.

I've had several multi tonal coloured moles removed as a precaution, as I have a history of melanoma. None of these type have ever shown up as being anything nasty.

Hope you feel reassured soon.

Thanks Lovabug - it's reassuring - but weird I've not been able to find any pictures resembling mine. I'm hoping that's because it's not that weird and doesn't come up in the cancer pictures. I think if I'd not been dealt such a blow with the health anxiety (I don't think I was ever an anxious person until I had kids), then I'd be quite calm about all of this. Looking at it now it looks a bit red but then I keep checking it every five minutes. The pictures I posted - the first one is from 18 months ago, the middle one (black and white jumper sleeve in view) is current and the final picture is from 2007 pre-pregnancy. I think it may have grown a tiny bit in 12 years. But also I think some of it is as a result of me peeling the whole top layer off and scarring. I am going to try and focus on my work and drink copious amounts of wine while eating delicious food and watching TV dramas to make this week pass.

your replies all mean so much to me. Not sure how we get through the first thirty years of our lives relatively scott free. In the last 6/7 years I've had internal scans for irregular bleeding, breast scans for nipple discharge, several fine needle biopsies on my thyroid and now this. There is only so much prodding and poking a person can take. All the other things have ended well with positive results but you get to the point of feeling it's only a matter of time until your luck runs out. Thanks for listening to a silly worrier.

I also have a couple of two-toned moles and have annual dermatologist appointments for a full body check - these two-toned moles have always been fine. I have had three moles removed (precautionary measures, they weren't cancerous but had changed shape a bit since the previous year) and it's not a big deal. My dermatologist told me that there are a few signs they look for (I can't remember all of them, but colour and change in size are two of them).

If a mole is showing three of the signs, they remove it as a precaution.

Do you think actual serious skin cancer is quite rare? If there are 13-14 thousand cases a year, most of which affect 'older' people. It's not actually that common is it? I'm not really a sunbather. I love being in the sunshine but never been one to just like and bake in it. I don't really burn despite being fair. I guess if you do everything sensibly - ie be cautious in the sun and get your moles checked if you're concerned, then there's not a lot else you can do is there.

I have a few two-coloured moles.
that's normal for me.
if that mole has changed recently get it checked.

By coincidence, I've had a more removed this afternoon in dermatology. I went to my GP after using the Skin Vision app to monitor moles. He sent me to dermatology due to changes in appearance of one of them. I was seen within 2 weeks (this is now the norm). The consultant told me that I had a rodent ulcer, which is a benign melanoma. It took about 20 minutes to remove it, the anaesthetic was the worst but I didn't feel anything else at all. I've got 6 sutures that will need to be removed in 10 days, and they will write back to me once the mole has been tested to confirm the diagnosis.
Initially I did get a bit panicky, but then thought there's no point worrying unnecessarily.

soontobe60 - very true. My husband is great at living by the motto only panic when there's something to panic about. Wish that would rub off on me. my removal is next monday 10.30. I've got to be able to function normally for the next week - too much work to do to fall to pieces over something that may be nothing.

So...I had the removal of the mole on Monday and of course whatever the result I’m glad it’s gone. But now I’m in an odd limbo. I want to relax but the truth is that I’m actually waiting to find out if I have cancer or not. And I know it’s ‘only skin cancer’ but still it’s something that could mean there’s lots to deal with in the months ahead. Or not. It’s such a weird feeling. I’m reluctant to book my summer holiday or make any plans until I know what I’m dealing with. I don’t know if the fact the consultant said nothing or gave any indication of when or how I might get the results is good or bad. I’m over analysing everything. I’m also panicking in case I get a call telling me to come for the results and then the time between that call and the appointment. It’s really terrifying and I’m not great at dealing with things like this.