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 
I can understand your frustration. But do try not to over thing the what ifs .
waiting for any treatment & results are really hard at any time but they would not have done this unless there was no alternative & also they feel that it would not be detrimental to your health . They will rearrange soon I’m sure.
So hard to do but try to stay calm . Working will not change the outcome & you could have made yourself stressed for no reason . As I said it’s so easy to say . Take 1 step at a time .
sending you big hug & wishing you good news soon xx
Oh, that's not good 
and I'm not surprised that your first reaction is that you're livid and you're thinking of paying to have it removed privately.
I do totally understand how upsetting waiting for surgery can be but the fact that your excision was cancelled at such short notice suggests that an emergency probably happened. I know that's no consolation to you but if you've had this mole for a number of years another week or so probably won't make any difference. Ideally lesions should be removed within 2 weeks of referral but this doesn't always happen.
Six months ago I was down to have another suspicious lesion removed (turned out to be nothing) and I too had my op cancelled at short notice and rearranged for a couple of weeks later. The plastic surgeon who was doing it turned out to be a specialist in burns surgery so I then realised that my surgery had been cancelled because someone was in more need of his expertise than me.
If you don't hear anything from the hospital in a couple of days, you could always give the dermatologist who referred you for surgery's secretary a call and explain that your op was cancelled and ask if another date been arranged yet.
I hope that you get another date quickly.
Sending a supportive ((hug))
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
Hi
I'm glad to hear you're feeling better today. I know it's horrible when you're all geared up and then your op gets cancelled.
It's natural to worry that other things you notice on your skin or under your nails means another melanoma, we all do it. The only way you'll get peace of mind is to show it to your dermatologist. I don't know if you've been assigned a skin cancer nurse specialist (SCNS) yet, as you haven't been diagnosed, but if you have give her a call and she should be able to get you in front of the consultant within a few days. They can usually slot you in as an extra patient at the beginning or end of the clinic.
If you don't have a point of contact, phone the dermatologist's secretary and explain what's happened. It would be best to get it looked at now because they might not have time on the day of your surgery to look at it. Also if it does need biopsying they'll need to allow time for both ops to be done at the same time.
x
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
