Hi all, I'm new to this community but have been reading you all for a while. I haven't had a diagnosis but I'm a little worried and hope that writing about it might bring some peace. I've had a mole in the sole of my foot for a while (few years though I can't tell for sure when it first appeared). I completely ignored it thinking it was just a mole. It is fairly big, flat with asymmetric edges. I have dark skin, never got exposed in the sun and so have always believed I was immune to skin cancer. I wish someone had told me that this was a misconception and that there is another type of melanoma not related to sun exposure and that it typically affect dark skinned people. Anyway, a cousin of mine had a mole appear on her leg last month and she quickly had it checked but was told it was fine. That prompted me to have mine checked and obviously my GP didn't like the look of it and referred me to a dermatologist. I saw her yesterday and as soon as she saw it she said she wanted it removed. I tried gauging her reaction but she remained very neutral and said she absolutely couldn't give me an opinion because it could be cancer but it could also be normal. Only after they removed it and looked at it can they tell me more. She was lovely but was neither alarming nor reassuring (don't know how they do it really). I know that the chances of surgery and treatment are quite good when detected early but I'm quite worried about mine going undiagnosed for years. I asked her if it was cancer what are the chances of it having spread and again she said she couldn't say anything but that the likelihood of it being advanced were slim because I haven't had other symptoms such as lumps in other parts of my body. She did say the surgery would be painful and healing would be slow due to the skin in that area being very delicate and I made the mistake of looking at photos online and now that's all I can think about. I'm not even sure what I'm asking about here, I know how hard it is to provide any sort of information in this case but if anyone had or is going through a similar experience I would love to hear from them. Thank you so much for reading.
Hi and welcome to the online community
You are quite right that although most melanomas are caused by exposure to the sun or to the use of sunbeds, there is a type of melanoma called acral lentiginous melanoma that is not thought to be related to sun exposure and usually appears on the sole of the foot or the palm of the hand.
It's good that you've been to see your GP who in turn has referred you to see a dermatologist. Do you have the date yet to have your mole removed? Mine was on my arm so didn't cause me any major discomfort but I would imagine that having one removed from the sole of the foot would be a lot more uncomfortable.
I'm tagging and into my reply to you as they have both had moles removed from the soles of their feet in the last 6 months and might be able to share their experiences with you.
The dermatologist is quite right that until you get the results of your excision back she won't know if you have melanoma or not. Some moles look like melanoma and turn out not to be and others, like mine, don't look like melanoma and turn out to be.
When you go for your excision ask how long results are currently taking in your area and how you'll be told. It differs from area to area but you'll probably feel a little less stressed if you know how long you have to wait and whether you'll automatically have an appointment for your results or not.
As you've discovered it's best to stay off google because there's so much out of date information out there. Also you'll only find the horror stories not the ones where a mole was removed and it was benign.
If you want to ask any more questions, or have a bit of a rant, come back here anytime as there are lots of us with lots of 'real' experiences to share.
x
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
That's the trouble with google , I think if you typed in the symptoms of an ingrowing toenail it would come back as cancer, lol.
Anyway, with excision just two weeks away you don't have too long to wait. If you want to do more research then I'd recommend this site or Cancer Research UK and the UK Melanoma Patient Conference has lots of useful videos.
Do come back and let us know how you get on when you have your surgery.
x
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
Hi
I'm really sorry to hear that it has turned out to be melanoma. There are many of us here who have had this diagnosis and hopefully will be able to share our experiences with you and give you support.
I'm puzzled as to why you're having a second biopsy and wondered if you meant that you were having a wide local excision (WLE) as this is the normal procedure after a melanoma diagnosis? Depending on the depth of your melanoma a further 1-2cm is removed all around and under the site where the melanoma was. This is then sent off to the path labs to check that there are no stray melanoma cells in it. You may also be offered a sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) at the same time depending on what stage your melanoma is.
I've had both of these ops and so can tell you more about what's involved if you want to know.
I hope everything went well with telling your husband and children this evening.
x
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
