Has anyone had experiencce with skin cancer?......

[Izzy_*now*]

-- I had a small lump removed in out-patient at the hospital in 2003. It was almost on my eyebrow on the left.

A couple of years ago, at the dermatologist's, regarding almost impossibly itching rashes on my arms, I asked her to check my forehead for 3 'spots' I could feel--slightluy itchy. They were pre-cancerous and she hit them with liquid nitrogen. I have not been back to her, but they came back and I can feel those 3, plus 4 similar spots, which were 'hit' by my doctor with liquid nitrogen this year, but they are all here plus an excrucuating itch underneath the scar of the one removed in 2003.

I have read on the Internet that liquid nitrogen is not that good and that surgery is the solution.

Does anyoone know or know someone who knows?
I have mentioned before that I do not always trust what my doctor says!

I also have  at least 4 spots across my clavicle that itch and he said they were nothing. They itch and are slightly 'sore'.

I also had a brown mole that blistered up and settled down to a brown mole, and another mole that changed from brown to pink, blistered then settled down to pink.

Any info would be appreciated.

I could go directly to an oncologist, but then I am not covered by the Health PLan. I need a referral from my 'ignorant' doctor

Thanks in advance
Izzy

[Overcomer]

We all are very pale and my girls and I have had moles removed.  Some moles are cut off with a blade and some are frozen.  The real moles are cut-the dark skin is frozen.  Some leave what look like chicken pock marks and some you cannot tell.

[lighter]

My mother just went through two surgeries to have cancer on her leg removed.  

They went in about an inch or so, in three spots total.  She had a skin condition to drew attention to the cancer, which turned out to be blessing.  

Her Dr. is the guy who invented the procedure she underwent, which requires he take tissue, then biopsy.  Take tissue, then biopsy, till he's sure he's got it all.  I think it's a lengthy procedure but this isn't something you want to mess around with.

The recovery takes months as mom had to scrape the wounds 3 times daily with a clean white washcloth and cause healing to fill in from the bottom.

I don't know how that doctor would approach cancer on the face.

I believe mom had Squamus? cancer?

I'll check on particulars if you'd like.

Lighter

[Overcomer]

I also had a red patch that seemed like a little scaly sore-it was skin cancer but has not returned but I watch that spot-not itchy.

[finding peace]

Izzy - did they do any pathology on tissue?

There are different kinds of skin cancer (ones I know of off the top of my head, squamous, basal cell, and melanoma). 

(I am not a Dr.) but melanoma I believe is the most dangerous.

Lollie has good advice - please get another opinion from an expert.

Love,
Peace

[Leah]

Gosh (((( Izzy ))))

I don't know anything at all about this, however, I do send my sincere wishes for a swift solution.

Love, Leah

[Izzy_*now*]

I have nothing as visible as these images….

http://www.skincancerguide.ca/prevention/images.html

….except maybe the last one.

This describes the one removed by plastic surgeon in 2003.

Basal cell carcinomas are usually:

• a single, small, and firm lesion
  dome shaped and flesh-coloured
  raised at the edges
  pearly or milky white bordered
  covered with tiny blood vessels - easily seen over the top and around the tumour
  may look like a pimple that won’t heal - ulcerated and bleeding at the centre

The other spots, other than moles, I cannot see. I can just feel them and the itch.

I think of myself as a person who has always avoided the sun….then I think back to my young years when dad has us doing the haying and the harvesting. We were constantly in the sun, with a few breaks in the barn.

I am not worried yet. I will ask GP for a referral. GP never used a magnifying glass, but the dermatologist did.

[gjazz]

Izzy:  Ditto Lollie's advice: got to a good dermatologist.  They can send you to an oncologist if necessary but many types of skin cancer can be treated at that level.  There has been much in my family, in people as young as 40--hey, we're a good California clan.  But DON'T WAIT.

[lighter]

Yes yes yes..... get a referral and I think my mother's cancer was red and itchy, not raised or mole like.

Lighter

[Izzy_*now*]

Thanks FP re the pathology

Never heard a thing and all was well until 2006, when I had the itchy spots appear. As I said I cannot see them

I couldn't see the 2003 one either. It was a small spot and itched and I thought it was maybe a blackhead or pimple by my brow, that I could 'gouge' out. I tackled it constantly. It bled and I waited a bit and went at it again. This is maybe 2001?---- I was with the N and it was the lighting in the house with drapes closed and stapled to the wall that it was 'out of sight' as a lump---then came 2002 and I left him--I was at the hairdresser's and after I looked in the rear view mirror to pull down my bangs (as she always made them too short.) I saw the lump with the sunshine coming right through the windscreen so asked DR about it and had it removed April/03

[lighter]

Oh Lordy, Izz.....

go see the specialist.

Soon.

Please.

Light

[LilyCat]

Izzy,

You should go to as fine a dermatologist as you can find, as soon as you can get there. (Doesn't have to be today or tomorrow, but you know what I mean.)

I don't have any experience or know anything about skin cancer, but I work for the world's largest medical publisher, and one of the magazines my division publishes is about skin.

Once you've had sc, you should get screened EVERY YEAR by a qualified dermatologist. Your doctor should have told you this. My doctor screens me annually and I've never had it and am not especially a candidate for it.

Don't mess around with this. Don't panic, either, but go get it checked out. Best case it will be nothing and you'll have peace of mind. Especially since it's been a few years, you will look smart for doing so.

Good luck, let us know how you do.

[Izzy_*now*]

Thank you LC

OH my! You wouldn't believe the lackadaisical attitude from both my GP and the dermatologist.

She froze with the liquid nitrogen first and they returned.

Then I spoke to GP about a referral again and he said, more or less. "I can do it!" and used the liquid nitrogen, but only on the places that I said were itchy. I've never liked him and once I got him (doctors taking on new patients) I cannot get another.

I was thinking this morning about my sister saying, "They might not appear larger, but they can go in deeper." She had a spot on her chest a few years back.

Mine are on my forehead--I guess they've hit my brain now! That's what's been wrong!

Thanx
Izzy

[LilyCat]

Hi Izzy,

Find other doctors. Hopefully you live in an area where you have some choices. If not, drive!!

There's no excuse for that kind of attitude on their part. Maybe they are well-meaning, but...at best they don't seem effective. You don't want to mess around with this.

LC

[Izzy_*now*]

Thanks LC

I'm stuck with the ones I have.

Perhaps I ought not be as nonchalant about it either, to them.

In the office, Blast, out of the office.

I wonder if I ought call the Canadian Cancer Society?

xx
Izzy