› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Had mole/lesion removed from scalp
- This topic has 12 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 4 months ago by
JustMeInCA.
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- October 20, 2014 at 8:57 pm
Hey there.I’m a 24 year old male with blonde hair, blue eyes and fair skin. About 6 weeks or so ago, I noticed a small mole type thing on my crown/vertex of my scalp, that I’m pretty sure wasn’t there before. I went to my GP who said it didn’t look like anything dodgy, although it looked like there were two colours in it (it looked brown to me, though I was using mirrors and a camera to see it) so referred me to a dermatologist. The mole was smaller than a pencil eraser, you know, the ones that sit on the end of pencils. So less than about 5mm – though a form from the hospital today says something about 2mm, but I’m not sure if that’s referring to the mole. So it may be smaller. My GP said the referral would be about 6 weeks.
I wasn’t happy about the length of time so I later spoke to my GP, who then made it an urgent appointment.
A couple of days after my appointment, checking the mole again, it had turned black, almost like a scab.
Two weeks later I went to see a dermatologist who looked at it, said it looked like a blood blister, though she said blood blisters don’t normally appear on the scalp, so then referred me to plastics to have it removed.
A few days later the mole which had gone to look like a scab, well, fell off. Underneath it was a paler version of the previous brown mole.
Couple of weeks later I go to plastics consultant who looks at the mole on my scalp, says he’d be very surprised if it was anything, check’s my lymph nodes in my neck/below my jaw and says they seem fine, says he’ll refer me to another hospital to have the mole removed, then sends me on my way.
I keep monitoring it and the size stays the same, still flat against my scalp.
I go today to get it removed, went smoothly, I think. I asked the surgeon whether it looked like anything and she said although there looked like there were two colours in the mole/lesion, its uniform. She cuts it out, tells me I’ll receive a follow up letter in the post in the next 4-6 weeks. If the biopsy did show anything they’d call me up sooner.So, now I’m home, I’m worrying. I keep reading stuff online how people get the results back, which are ‘fine’, then down the line something serious shows up. How common is that? Does it sound hopeful what the doctors etc. have said? And is that a normal wait time for the results, if it was anything serious?
Thanks.
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- October 21, 2014 at 6:57 am
I don't think most people get normal pathology reports from excised lesions which later become cancerous. If they tell you alll is well, I'd say to relax and run with it. In my own experience with my dad's pathology reports, they were back within a week, likewise my own when I had three moles removed and tested. That's in the U.S., though. It sounds to me like you might be British, and my understanding is that things move a bit more slowly there. But still, I'd expect that if it were to result in being anything more serious, you'd hear back within a couple weeks.
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- October 21, 2014 at 4:10 pm
Hi, thanks for the reply.Yeah I just figured I’d ask since I’d read stories like that on another forum and it concerned me a bit.
Yep, I’m in England. Yeah that’s what I’m thinking too.
That reminds me, if a mole was “suspicious” and had been scratched, and then scabbed over, would it then heal and be like it was before?
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- October 22, 2014 at 6:18 am
Take this for what it's worth because I'm an English professor, not a medical professional, but I think it would heal for a couple of reasons. First, I've had a large mole on my shin since childhood, and when I once accidentally shaved it while shaving my legs, it bled copiously but then healed and returned to its normal appearance. Second, my father has inoperable melanoma tumors on his leg, but when chunks of them were removed for biopsy, they also healed (in terms of the skin closing back up over the wounds.) I rather thought that they wouldn't heal well because of the cancer, but the skin apparently continues to do its thing, independent of the cancer.
On the other hand, you shouldn't read anything into that. Any lesion on the skin would heal, so if your doctors have told you that they don't believe it's cancerous, take assurance from that. I'm a worrier as well and always focus on the worst case scenario, but what you have to think is that it's unlikely to be cancerous and even if it were, then they will have removed it early, which would mean low odds of it recurring.
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- October 22, 2014 at 6:18 am
Take this for what it's worth because I'm an English professor, not a medical professional, but I think it would heal for a couple of reasons. First, I've had a large mole on my shin since childhood, and when I once accidentally shaved it while shaving my legs, it bled copiously but then healed and returned to its normal appearance. Second, my father has inoperable melanoma tumors on his leg, but when chunks of them were removed for biopsy, they also healed (in terms of the skin closing back up over the wounds.) I rather thought that they wouldn't heal well because of the cancer, but the skin apparently continues to do its thing, independent of the cancer.
On the other hand, you shouldn't read anything into that. Any lesion on the skin would heal, so if your doctors have told you that they don't believe it's cancerous, take assurance from that. I'm a worrier as well and always focus on the worst case scenario, but what you have to think is that it's unlikely to be cancerous and even if it were, then they will have removed it early, which would mean low odds of it recurring.
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- October 22, 2014 at 6:18 am
Take this for what it's worth because I'm an English professor, not a medical professional, but I think it would heal for a couple of reasons. First, I've had a large mole on my shin since childhood, and when I once accidentally shaved it while shaving my legs, it bled copiously but then healed and returned to its normal appearance. Second, my father has inoperable melanoma tumors on his leg, but when chunks of them were removed for biopsy, they also healed (in terms of the skin closing back up over the wounds.) I rather thought that they wouldn't heal well because of the cancer, but the skin apparently continues to do its thing, independent of the cancer.
On the other hand, you shouldn't read anything into that. Any lesion on the skin would heal, so if your doctors have told you that they don't believe it's cancerous, take assurance from that. I'm a worrier as well and always focus on the worst case scenario, but what you have to think is that it's unlikely to be cancerous and even if it were, then they will have removed it early, which would mean low odds of it recurring.
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- October 21, 2014 at 4:10 pm
Hi, thanks for the reply.Yeah I just figured I’d ask since I’d read stories like that on another forum and it concerned me a bit.
Yep, I’m in England. Yeah that’s what I’m thinking too.
That reminds me, if a mole was “suspicious” and had been scratched, and then scabbed over, would it then heal and be like it was before?
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- October 21, 2014 at 4:10 pm
Hi, thanks for the reply.Yeah I just figured I’d ask since I’d read stories like that on another forum and it concerned me a bit.
Yep, I’m in England. Yeah that’s what I’m thinking too.
That reminds me, if a mole was “suspicious” and had been scratched, and then scabbed over, would it then heal and be like it was before?
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- October 21, 2014 at 6:57 am
I don't think most people get normal pathology reports from excised lesions which later become cancerous. If they tell you alll is well, I'd say to relax and run with it. In my own experience with my dad's pathology reports, they were back within a week, likewise my own when I had three moles removed and tested. That's in the U.S., though. It sounds to me like you might be British, and my understanding is that things move a bit more slowly there. But still, I'd expect that if it were to result in being anything more serious, you'd hear back within a couple weeks.
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- October 21, 2014 at 6:57 am
I don't think most people get normal pathology reports from excised lesions which later become cancerous. If they tell you alll is well, I'd say to relax and run with it. In my own experience with my dad's pathology reports, they were back within a week, likewise my own when I had three moles removed and tested. That's in the U.S., though. It sounds to me like you might be British, and my understanding is that things move a bit more slowly there. But still, I'd expect that if it were to result in being anything more serious, you'd hear back within a couple weeks.
Tagged: cutaneous melanoma
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