View Full Version : Moles? Go see a skin doc!
Belmont31R
02-24-10, 17:18
Had 3 moles taken for biopsy today. A few numbing shots, and she sliced them right off.
If you spend time in the sun, fair skin, light hair and eyes....its worth a trip just to make sure everything is on the up and up. One on my stomach has been bothering me (sore and itchy)....it was one of the ones sliced off.
Skin cancer is no joke....
I'm a blue eyed devil, I live in a cave :p
Fingers crossed for ya.
Maybe we should starta Health Public Service Announcement type thread.
I have a couple of stories too.
Alpha Sierra
02-24-10, 20:15
I am not melatonin-challenged. :)
I am of Spanish and Corsican heritage, born and raised in sunny Puerto Rico. The overwhelming majority of my days were spent out on the blazing tropical sun and almost all of my HS weekends were spent wearing nothing but a pair of surf shorts and Top Siders while messing around with boats.
Not a single cancerous cell anywhere due to all that UV radiation.
Belmont31R
02-26-10, 18:52
Well looks like I need surgery on one of the areas on my left calf.
Of the 3 they took 2 were mildly atypical, and one moderately atypical. No idea what that means.
Im only 26 too...:(
It's true they're not a joke. Esp when you notice them growing or of an irreguler shape. About 6 years back my friends girlfriend noticed one on his back starting to grow bigger, he put it off for months. Turns out it was cancer and he was gone within a couple years. Sad really, he was only about 32.
No idea what that means.
It doesn't mean anything :P Chances are in your favor that they're nothing. It's just preventive care. Doctor probably just prefers to play it safe instead of waiting 20 years and having the chance of your atypical moles become melanoma.
Don't worry about it, when you're 56 you'll get dick cancer and you'll forget all about this :D
Spent the first 45 years of my life in the sun, now I am paying for it. I have so many cut and freeze scars on my body I look like Frankenstien.
Yes, get them checked out. For those of you that don't know it yet, sun damage is accumulative. And you get no slack for laying off for a year or 2, or 10. Your next exposure might be the one that births a real bad ass problem.
Well looks like I need surgery on one of the areas on my left calf.
Of the 3 they took 2 were mildly atypical, and one moderately atypical. No idea what that means.
Im only 26 too...:(
I probably have a 1000 moles on my body. I paid to have the mole mapping done to help my doc figure out if any are changing. I have one or two removed a year as they appear to change and he takes no chances.
I have also had a couple come back as moderately atypical. This means that the cell pathology is starting to be abnormal and if left alone could become cancerous. Not too much to worry about but usually when one comes back moderate they want to go back and excise a bit more tissue from the same spot to make sure they got it all. hope that helps.
decodeddiesel
02-27-10, 10:38
Well looks like I need surgery on one of the areas on my left calf.
Of the 3 they took 2 were mildly atypical, and one moderately atypical. No idea what that means.
Im only 26 too...:(
True, but I know you've spent a good deal of time in the sandbox.
When I was there I never ever wore sunscreen. Not once. I thought it was pussy. Yeah, I had 2 moles that I didn't remember having when I jioned the Army removed via biopsy when I got back by the VA. Both were "mildly abnormal". :eek: They watched the areas for some time to see if anything else popped up and luckily nothing has. I was 28 at the time.
Well now I live in Colorado which is one of the worst places in the states for skin cancer and if I am spending more than 10 minutes outside I apply the spray on sun screen. Cancer is no shit.
Don't let Mrs. M4arc get a hold of you guys because she'll dime you out over this stuff! She lost her father to melanoma and she's at risk as well so she goes to Duke twice a year to have a checkup.
However, they're finding out it's not necessarily the sun that causes skin cancer but rather the lack of vitamin D (which we get the majority of ours from the sun) that contributes to skin cancer. In fact there are more cases (and increasing cases) in the northern part of the country where residents get less sun throughout the year. Seattle now has one of the hightest ratios of skin cancer in the country!
Our doctors have recommened that we take at least 2000IUs of Vitamin D daily. This doesn't mean we can all run out and get sunburned, we still need to be careful about being in the sun but they are finding that getting the required doses of Vitamin D is helping cut down the risk of all types of cancer including melanoma.
Our doctors have recommened that we take at least 2000IUs of Vitamin D daily. This doesn't mean we can all run out and get sunburned, we still need to be careful about being in the sun but they are finding that getting the required doses of Vitamin D is helping cut down the risk of all types of cancer including melanoma.
New info to me, thanks.
Thanks for that Vitamin D info.
Wife used to work on skin cancer research. The importance of sunscreen cannot be stressed enough! Re-apply as needed. And make sure the kids are protected too!
Our doctors have recommened that we take at least 2000IUs of Vitamin D daily. This doesn't mean we can all run out and get sunburned, we still need to be careful about being in the sun but they are finding that getting the required doses of Vitamin D is helping cut down the risk of all types of cancer including melanoma.
More info on Vit D
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/vitamin-d-why-you-are-pro_b_585311.html
I know, I know, it is the Huffington Post. But the info is good. I have all sorts of info I have read on Vit D. I went from around 1500 IU (1000 IU tablet plus calcium and multi vitamin tablets with it) a day to now 2500 IU (2000 IU capsule plus some Cod Liver oil, Calcium tablets, and multi vitamins) and may add another 2000 IU.
My dad grew up in S Utah, high altitude, outside all the time, and is fair skinned. He has had a ton of skin cancers removed, a ton more moles, but so far no melanoma. He is turning 75. His forehead looks like a battlefield.
leopard hound
05-26-10, 17:56
my dermatologist told me that if it has hair coming out of it 99 percent of the time it is still healthy. i have to watch closely because i covered with moles.....:D
Don't feel bad man I'm there with ya! I went to the deratologis for the fist time last year at 32 and had two moles removed one of which turned out to be "pre-cancerous"... Really glad the Mrs. talked me into it! Now I go back ever 6 months. It sucs too b/c the doc always finds something to cut off! I think I'm buying her a nice retirment home! :D
Good on you for getting it checked out!
my girlfriend worked as a histology tech for UT Southwestern's mohs clinic up here in Dallas while she was finishing her Bio-Chem degree. I never thought much about skin cancer until she worked there for 3yrs.
I was amazed at all of the sad stories she came home with...people coming in to have a blemish or mole examined and then leaving later that day having 2,3,or 4 stages biopsied on their face and literally bandaged up with part of their nose, cheek or other parts of their faces or bodies removed. Then they have to come back and get a plastic surgery consult to repair their now disfigured face!! Scary.
Needless to say I wear 45 sunblock when I go out in the full sun. I'm blond with hazel eyes and lighter skinned so TX can be brutal.
Oh on a side note she came home one time and couldn't understand why the office was excited when a Chuck Norris came in.....REALLY? She didn't know who Chuck Norris was.....I obviously failed in my guy training of my girlfriend!! Lol..:confused:
Yep, I had melanoma. I delayed getting it cut out because I didn't understand the seriousness. After they cut a large hunk out of me under general anesthesia, they told me I was 2 mm from needing chemo.
Now I have to go in twice a year for full body scans. My doctor alternates with his cute PA in the hopes that one person may catch something that the other doesn't. Alas, Amanda got married. Oh well. :cool:
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