Hello
I noticed a new mole on my jaw line around 5 years ago! I contacted my doctor and was sent to a specialist! I was advised to keep an eye on it and look for changes! When looking at yourself everyday you just don’t see changes! It wasn’t until I was going through old photographs at the end of August that I realised how big (irregular) the mole had become and the change in colour!
I called my doctor and had an appointment with Dermatology within 7 weeks! 2 weeks after my initial appointment with Dermatology I had an excision lesion (my scar is healing really well) on 4 November 2019. I will receive my results on Wednesday 27 November! I have been feeling very anxious and concerned at how quickly I got my procedure done!
Any advice will be greatly appreciated!
Thank you for your time xx
Hi and welcome to the online community
I agree that it can be very difficult to notice if something that you see everyday has changed. I don't know how 'moley' a person you are but I have lots so was advised to take photos of the different sections of my body, eg front lower left leg, right upper forearm, etc and use these to compare how I was then to how I am now when I check my skin once a month. This might be something you could do too if you need to.
Normally your GP would refer you under the 'two week rule' to dermatology if s/he was suspicious about a mole. So the fact that you were not fast tracked suggests that the GP wasn't concerned. Having now seen a dermatologist they obviously decided that your mole needed removing and so would schedule you in as soon as possible. Getting the results 3 weeks later is pretty fast as they normally take between 4-6 weeks depending on how busy the path labs are in your area of the country.
Waiting for results is horrible but you only have a few more days to go and hopefully it'll turn out to be benign. However, if it isn't, there's plenty of us here who have had a melanoma removed and can share our experiences of the next stage of treatment with you.
Do come back and let us know how you get on
x
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
Wow! That's very unusual to have a telephone appointment with a GP about a mole and for them to refer you without even seeing it.
Can I ask if you are in the UK? It's fine if you're not but it's just that I've not heard of anyone being referred to dermatology in this way before or being told that there's a 2 year wait to see a particular dermatologist.
x
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
Sounds like you have an 'interesting' doctor's surgery
All the best for this week's results. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you.
x
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
Oh, I'm sorry that your mole has turned out to be melanoma 
If you want any information or experiences about what happens next then please just ask. Will you be having a sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) as well as a wide local excision (WLE)?
x
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
If it's just the WLE then they're usually done under a local anaesthetic. I had a general because I had a SLNB as well.
x
"Never regret a day in your life, good days give you happiness, bad days give you experience"
