Hello and thank you for giving me the space to talk about this.
I have a patch of red skin on my face which has been there about three years. Recently it started to get bigger, then a hard lump and lumpy edge appeared. I decided to go to The Mole Clinic thinking it was eczema or something. They took some derma scope images and sent them off and the diagnosis was Bowen's disease.
They gave me a referral to give to my GP and it took them 3 weeks to even log the letter on my file, four weeks to refer, I still haven't heard about this. In the meantime, the lump on the patch started to bleed and ulcerated. I called my GP and they didn't seem concerned at all. I went back to The Mole Clinic but the person I spoke to was unsure if they had a consultant who dealt with Bowen's disease on the face and did not fill me with confidence.
So I have an appointment with a private dermatologist on Thursday. It's very expensive but hopefully I can get it sorted. I hadn't realised until the other day that Bowen's disease is pre-malignant skin cancer, no one at the clinic or my GP explained that. I am very worried they got it wrong now as the patch has changed a lot in the past weeks. No one in my family seems concerned either, and my brother who lives in Australia minimised it by saying 'oh, everyone has it here.'
It's scary, I'm 63 and in pretty good health otherwise, but it's still worrying, especially on my face. I don't really know what to expect, I think that is the worst part.
Thanks for reading and good to virtually meet you.
