› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Saw my GP today
- This topic has 15 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 9 months ago by
DianaD.
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- July 31, 2015 at 4:59 am
It's a long story and complicated, so I'm only going to provide a high-level summary here. I received a diagnosis of liver disease today, of unkown cause. I'm being referred to the hepatic clinic at the University of Michigan, where they have a world-renowned hepatic specialist. It probably takes a long time for an appointment with her, so the goal right now is to get me into the system and seen by any of the doctors there.
Separately, I have two ugly, non-normal looking moles on my back, with all of the ABCDE characteristics. My GP 's office is making an appointment for me at U of M for that, too–they are going to try to get me into the melanoma clinic, but if that's not possible, they will make the appointment with dermatology. U of M dermatology biopsied my moles and performed a second excision of a dysplastic mole on me ten years ago, and it took a long time to get an appointment, so today I referred myself to the University of Chicago's dermatolgy deparment, using their on-line appointment request. I received a message saying that someone would call me within 24 hours.
Whichever medical center gives me the first appointment will do the biopsy, and I'll use the second medical center for a second opinion, regarding the pathology report and any recommended treatment.
I'm hoping that I don't have melanoma with metastases to the liver or liver cancer. Another possibility is that my immune system is attacking my liver (and kidneys–my kidney function is barely in the normal range). I have Sjögren's Syndrome, which in the most serious and severe form, the immune system attacks the body's vital organs or systems. There is no cure. They use a chemo drug in the hope that it will slow the process down and in the hope that the patient can tolerate the treatment.
The best case scenario is that the meds that I've been on for six years for my autoimmune disorders (I have four disorders) caused the liver damage, and now that I'm off all meds, my liver will heal. That could take a long time–years, and my liver function may never go back to the level of functioning that I had.
The worse case scenario is that the liver disease continues to progress, ending in liver failure and death, unless I receive a liver transplant.
Melanoma and/or any other cancer are also worse case scenarios.
Thank you for "listening."
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- July 31, 2015 at 5:07 pm
The university of Chicago has an excellent melanoma group. Dr Gajewski and dr Luke are the main 2 docs. My first appointment took 2 weeks to the day. But hopefully you don't have melanoma. Also mayo is very good at diagnosing complicated things like you have but be careful if they say it is melanoma and what treatment they offer. Good luck.
Artie
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- July 31, 2015 at 8:19 pm
Hi – Diana, with melanoma, having two suspicious moles means nothing. Only a biopsy means anything at all. If the potential mels are seen as separate from liver disease, and in fact even if they are not seen as separate, the quicker a doctor excises them the better. It doesn't even have to be a melanoma specialist – no dr or specialist will be any the wiser about what those moles are until they do a standard 2mm excision. You may well find, as many do, that they are not mels. My mels, for example, did not look like mels at all (as in, if you google mels and find huge lumpy black things). My mels were small, flat, brown and pretty unobtrusive. My point is, having scary looking moles is not really any indicator that these will be mels. No dr can look at a lesion and say 'that's a mel!'. None of them. Only biopsy and path can tell. Mr dr is constantly telling me this – diagnosing mels by naked eye is near impossible, it is an excision and biopsy that will reveal all. In all of this the waiting is the hard part, so the sooner you can get them excised with a 2mm margin – by an dr, specialist or otherwise – the better it is. My hope is that these moles turn out to be nothing at all, and you can focus on your liver issues. I guess I think that any idea of linking the two conditions is premature, and in my situation my GP would have excised those moles same day without any fuss or inference that they were linked to a separate medical issue.
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- July 31, 2015 at 8:46 pm
Thank you, Stars. My GP does not perform any procedures. And former GP who excised moles did not get clean margins. Hopefully, like Artie, I'll only have to wait a couple of weeks to have the moles excised. And, yes, I understand that a biopsy is the only way to diagnose. Thanks again
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- July 31, 2015 at 8:46 pm
Thank you, Stars. My GP does not perform any procedures. And former GP who excised moles did not get clean margins. Hopefully, like Artie, I'll only have to wait a couple of weeks to have the moles excised. And, yes, I understand that a biopsy is the only way to diagnose. Thanks again
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- July 31, 2015 at 8:46 pm
Thank you, Stars. My GP does not perform any procedures. And former GP who excised moles did not get clean margins. Hopefully, like Artie, I'll only have to wait a couple of weeks to have the moles excised. And, yes, I understand that a biopsy is the only way to diagnose. Thanks again
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- July 31, 2015 at 8:19 pm
Hi – Diana, with melanoma, having two suspicious moles means nothing. Only a biopsy means anything at all. If the potential mels are seen as separate from liver disease, and in fact even if they are not seen as separate, the quicker a doctor excises them the better. It doesn't even have to be a melanoma specialist – no dr or specialist will be any the wiser about what those moles are until they do a standard 2mm excision. You may well find, as many do, that they are not mels. My mels, for example, did not look like mels at all (as in, if you google mels and find huge lumpy black things). My mels were small, flat, brown and pretty unobtrusive. My point is, having scary looking moles is not really any indicator that these will be mels. No dr can look at a lesion and say 'that's a mel!'. None of them. Only biopsy and path can tell. Mr dr is constantly telling me this – diagnosing mels by naked eye is near impossible, it is an excision and biopsy that will reveal all. In all of this the waiting is the hard part, so the sooner you can get them excised with a 2mm margin – by an dr, specialist or otherwise – the better it is. My hope is that these moles turn out to be nothing at all, and you can focus on your liver issues. I guess I think that any idea of linking the two conditions is premature, and in my situation my GP would have excised those moles same day without any fuss or inference that they were linked to a separate medical issue.
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- July 31, 2015 at 8:19 pm
Hi – Diana, with melanoma, having two suspicious moles means nothing. Only a biopsy means anything at all. If the potential mels are seen as separate from liver disease, and in fact even if they are not seen as separate, the quicker a doctor excises them the better. It doesn't even have to be a melanoma specialist – no dr or specialist will be any the wiser about what those moles are until they do a standard 2mm excision. You may well find, as many do, that they are not mels. My mels, for example, did not look like mels at all (as in, if you google mels and find huge lumpy black things). My mels were small, flat, brown and pretty unobtrusive. My point is, having scary looking moles is not really any indicator that these will be mels. No dr can look at a lesion and say 'that's a mel!'. None of them. Only biopsy and path can tell. Mr dr is constantly telling me this – diagnosing mels by naked eye is near impossible, it is an excision and biopsy that will reveal all. In all of this the waiting is the hard part, so the sooner you can get them excised with a 2mm margin – by an dr, specialist or otherwise – the better it is. My hope is that these moles turn out to be nothing at all, and you can focus on your liver issues. I guess I think that any idea of linking the two conditions is premature, and in my situation my GP would have excised those moles same day without any fuss or inference that they were linked to a separate medical issue.
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- July 31, 2015 at 5:07 pm
The university of Chicago has an excellent melanoma group. Dr Gajewski and dr Luke are the main 2 docs. My first appointment took 2 weeks to the day. But hopefully you don't have melanoma. Also mayo is very good at diagnosing complicated things like you have but be careful if they say it is melanoma and what treatment they offer. Good luck.
Artie
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- July 31, 2015 at 5:07 pm
The university of Chicago has an excellent melanoma group. Dr Gajewski and dr Luke are the main 2 docs. My first appointment took 2 weeks to the day. But hopefully you don't have melanoma. Also mayo is very good at diagnosing complicated things like you have but be careful if they say it is melanoma and what treatment they offer. Good luck.
Artie
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Tagged: cutaneous melanoma
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