I went to see a derm yesterday for a second opinion – to date my treatment has been through a skin cancer clinic run by GPs (three primary mels – stage 0, stage 1, stage 1). The derm was quite impressed – if that's the word – at meeting someone with three mels. He established that I didn't have familial mel (no family history), nor did I have dysplastic nevi syndrome or whatever that's called where you have hundreds of weird moles. He puts my mel down to early, harsh sun damage (I grew up baking under very harsh outback sun in Australia, in the days before sun safety). He had a good old look at my skin, but a bit too quickly for my liking – either he's that great that he can do it quickly, or he's not that great and did a half-ass job. He biopsied two moles on my back – shave biopsy, which I queried as I prefer full excision with 2mm margin. He assured me the shave would get the full lesion and 2mm margin as well, which to be frank I don't believe. Both moles were not regarded as suspicious by the skin cancer clinic GP, or my family GP who did another skin check a few weeks ago. One was a flattish brown mole with a tiny dark spot – biopsied because of the dark spot – the other was a smaller 'whirly' mole with blurred edges. I've had one of those biopsied before and it was moderately dysplastic so worth taking of. It was biopsied because of the smudgy blurred edges. So this is my third full skin check in two months – two GPs (or general practitioners) and one dermatologist.And I am again playing the waiting game, probably until Monday. He recommended six monthly checks for me (assuming the biopsies are not too concerning), which I would very much like. I would LOVE to have to think about mel only every 6 months (or perhaps 1 / month self skin-check) !
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