Hi all,
3 days ago was diagnosed with a BCC on my forehead. It completely caught me off guard because I naively didn't even consider that it could be anything cancerous (my doctor and the dermatologist he referred me to both said it was an unpigmented mole). I am booked in for a full body check up and Mohs surgery in the next couple of months. I also need to see an oncologist because I was told that it's a little unusual at my age (I've just turned 21) to rule out if anything else is going wrong, and have various existing auto immune and skin conditions (namely psoriasis and coeliac disease).
I'm writing because I'm really struggling with telling people, and people's reactions to it (apart from my family and a couple of friends who have been great). I've had the "Thank god its not something more serious! That's great news!", "Oh I really need to get my moles checked too now", "It's not really cancer though" and "This is actually really useful for me because now I won't sunbathe as much". I don't know if its just that maybe the people around me aren't used to reacting to this kind of thing because we're all young, but am feeling pretty gutted. I know how much worse it could be and of course I'm over the moon that this growth wasn't any more serious, but feel really sad about it nevertheless, and of course worried because I haven't yet had the rest of my body looked at.
While it's the best case scenario out of a series of bad scenarios, I'd obviously rather there be no scenario at all and find it really diminishing when people bat it away and trivialise it. Really hit a wall with it today when I went to see a tutor at university to explain I may have to miss some classes for further testing and treatment, and half way through he said 'oh I thought you meant melanoma- well at least you don't need chemo etc, if its just a BCC its no problem'. Was pretty gutted with this reaction.
I have felt like many people in their reactions have immediately made my experience their experience, just because everyone has moles. Everyone has moles, but not everyone encounters difficulty with them.
I was wondering if anyone else has had difficult reactions from people, and how they've dealt with it. It makes me really disinclined to open up to people, and sort of need to talk about it as its such a recent diagnosis. Even within 2 days I've found myself even convincing myself that they're right, it's not really cancer, and therefore thinking I have no right to be worried or upset about it.
Hi Rebecca, thanks for the kind words , my eye seems to getting worse as the day goes on , but it’s still not as bad as I feared .
The consulatant did warn me that the scar will be red and swollen when I have my dressing off , but it will fade in time . It’s a small price to pay I guess
I’m taking my sister with me for the unveiling lol 
Lynne x
My tape has come off and here I am minus my bcc
im struggling today , suppose it doesn’t help with being at hone all day , my stitches are out on Wednesday and hopefully by then I will have got over the shock of the scar .
I feel quite pathetic as I’m sure it’s not too bad , it’s just the shock at the moment .
L
