Melanoma

[MyopicBunny]

I'm very concerned about my little girls dad because he has had a strange mole on his neck for a long time. He got referred to the hospital dermatologist mid December and the doctor at that clinic told him he thought it looks like melanoma and offered to take it off there and then. But he said no! I think he is regretting this now.

Would the doctor usually be right about it being melanoma? A specialist would surely know better than most people?

Now, he has had difficulty getting another appointment. He is one of those people also more likely to get skin cancer as he is fair with blue eyes, a lot of moles and he sunbathes too much and uses sun beds.

I hope it is not dangerous but I'm very concerned.

He needs to go back to his doctor and be referred back. There is a wait for dermatology at the moment but he should be seen within 6 weeks.

He's had it removed now but it's concerning to me that the doctor had been telling him it needs removing over a year ago.

Do dermatologists know by looking if it's a melanoma? I can't think they would say it for no reason. He thinks the doctor just said it to scare him

Yes they have a very good idea. They can be wrong of course but they have a lot of experience. Mine looked at two areas on me and told me exactly what both of them were and they were confirmed at biopsy.

He needs not to just have it taken off but also an urgent biopsy. If it is a melanoma they will need to take out surrounding tissue. If there's any way he can go privately please urge him to.

What was he told in the hospital? It should be sent for examination and if it is a melanoma he will be called back for further investigation.

So basically, the timeline went like this. He had two things on his neck that needed removing. One side he had a cyst and the other side he had a mole that changed. It was one year ago. He allowed them to remove the cyst which was nothing but not the mole. He apparently did not want a scar.

Then over the summer, people were pointing at the mole and saying 'what's that?'

By early December, he had an appointment at our local hospital to see the dermatologist who told him that the mole looked like melanoma and that there was a space in clinic that afternoon for him to have immediate surgery of it for removal and biopsy. He said no!! And went home saying he needed to think about it(!)

When he relaid this story to me I said to him, words to the effect of 'are you mad? If a dermatologist said the word melanoma to me, I'd want that removed immediately' apparently, he didn't know that melanoma is a dangerous form of skin cancer.

I did urge him to go private but he wasn't keen to and he got an appointment which I took him to on Monday which was at one of our other local hospitals who had space to do the surgery. The mole was removed and sent to pathology for testing and now he'll have to wait for the results.

What worries me is that he's the kind of person who is prone to skin cancer. Fair, with blue eyes, that condition where you have loads of moles and he's a sun worshipper.

at this stage the only thing you can do is wait and see what the biopsy says.