Dr. Robinson 2, moles 0
Tuesday December 2, I visit the dermatologist for a routine skin check, which I do every six months.Dr. Robinson biopsies two moles from my back.
Wednesday December 3, Dr. Robinson calls to inform me that one of the moles is a melanoma.”Malignant,” “cancer,” words you don’t expect to hear at 35.That’s the bad news.The good news is that the melanoma is at the earliest stage, and if he takes the mole off and gets the entire site, that’s the end of it.
Thursday December 4, Dr. Robinson chops out both moles: sketchy Lesion A, and evil rogue The Notorious Lesion B, which requires him to cut away a centimeter on all sides and down to the muscle layer underneath.Robbie feels confident that he’d gotten the whole thing.
Friday December 5, Mr. S took off the pressure dressing.More than 50 stitches greeted him.The photo is after the jump, and is not gory or anything; it looks kind of like eyebrows on my back, actually.
There is also good news after the jump, so take a deep breath and go for it.
Tuesday December 9, I call in for my lab results.I don’t expect to hear anything bad, but it’s still a huge relief when the nurse calls back and says, “He got it.”I had a melanoma in situ, Robbie took off the whole situ, done, thank you, goodbye.
Now, I have to go in for skin checks every three months, and I have to have various tests also — not to make sure it hasn’t spread, because it basically can’t have, but to provide a baseline (I could explain the concept in more depth, but it’s not interesting; just trust me when I tell you that Sloan-Kettering is not involved and it’s just maintenance).
But everything’s more or less fine.The stitches came out yesterday; I can sit straight in a chair again now, instead of leaning saucily; I don’t have to have radiation treatments or anything.I had a skin cancer, and now I don’t.
So, it’s not really a big deal, but at the same time, it is, because melanoma is really easy to head off, but really really a bitch to fight once it gets a foothold, so please, do not let it get a foothold.If you have any moles at all, please visit a dermatologist and get them looked at, and if the doctor thinks you should come in regularly to have them checked, DO IT.Don’t blow off the appointment, don’t rely on friends to tell you whether a freckle “looks weird” — go to the doctor.That renegade mole was on my back; I didn’t see it changing, I didn’t know it looked funny, I couldn’t see that little bastard at all, and if I didn’t go to the dermatologist regularly, it would have done its thing and who knows when I would have caught it, or whether we could have stopped it.
Not sure whether you need to go?Go anyway.Bring your kids, too; the moles that keep blowing up on me come from sunburns I got twenty-five years ago.Put SPF 30 sunscreen MINIMUM on yourself and your children every day, even in the winter, even when it’s cloudy.Don’t go to tanning beds, ever.Don’t lay out between 10 and 2; don’t lay out at all, actually, it’s boring and bad for you.Don’t think that because you have dark skin, it will save you; it doesn’t always.
I don’t want anyone to lie awake nights obsessing over their beauty marks, but seriously, a very minor amount of diligence here, an hour out of your life to go to a dermatologist and make sure you aren’t at risk, could make a huge huge difference.Nobody wants to become that person who goes to various doctors once a week and gets all Howard Hughes about things; “trying not to die” is not “living.”But neither is remaining in denial about a mole that’s turning blue or shape-shifting…or a mole you can’t even see.Maybe you don’t have moles, and that’s fine.I have hundreds.Dr. Robinson is on their shit like a vice-principal.I don’t love the stitches and the peroxide lavage or any of that hassle, but it beats melanoma.And I mean it literally beats it.A mole looks dodgy, you take it off.Done.Better luck next time, tiny jackass.
Get yourselves a Dr. Robinson.Get yourselves this one, if you want — that’s Dr. Bruce Robinson on East 60th in Manhattan.His staff is excellent, he’s got coffee and nibbles in the waiting room, and he’s a warm, friendly guy who spends as much time with patients as they need — and he does not mess around.You shouldn’t either.
To reiterate: I am fine.Robbie got the whole thing, because Robbie is the man.I don’t want you to freak out, not about me.But if one person gets freaked out a little, and goes into have her skin looked at, and finds a mole that looks kooky and gets it taken off, and is fine as a result, or if one person is like, “I hate how greezy SPF 60 is but I guess it’s worth it”?Awesome.You can’t go around afraid of little rando shit like this all the time, but you can be aware, and if you’re aware, you’ll be fine too.
I ain’t going out on a fucking mole, my friends, and none of you should either.Get ’em checked.
My heartfelt thanks to the nursing team of Mr. S and Skyrockets, who had to dress the stitches because I couldn’t reach, and to Dr. Robinson’s Scalpel of Swift Justice.
Tags: Dr. Robinson rules moles drool photo essay PSAs
Sars, thanks for the kick in the ass. I’m 47, have led a life mostly outdoors standing in the blazing sun (teaching riding lessons and generelly leading the horsey life) and almost never wear sunscreen. Bad, STUPID habit, I know. I’ve been thinking that I really need to see a derm, it’s been on my to-do list for quite a while now.
I will be finding myself a doc and making an appointment, pronto.
I’m glad you’ve been given the all clear, and thank you again for bringing this up.
S
Just another thing, it took me 3 tries to find a dermatologist I liked. So if you don’t like your doctor, see about going to another one. The first dermatologist was too hard to book. I had a rash that kept coming and going, but by the time I had my appointment, the rash would be gone and the doctor couldn’t diagnose it if it wasn’t there. The second dermatologist dismissed the bump on my face, because, “You’re so young.” So I went to another one, he didn’t like the look of the bump and wanted me to have it removed. It’s funny to see his perspective on me being young. Instead of dismissing the possibility of it being cancerous because of my age, he sent me to a plastic surgeon to remove it, because he didn’t want me to have a bad scar on my face because “you’re so young.”
Yay for PSAs! I had a biopsy on a mole on my back a couple years ago – thankfully everything was fine, just a funny looking mole. My doc was listening to my lungs or some other normal exam thing, and said “Hey, this mole has some funny edges, have you had it long?” Well, of course it’s on my back, so I have no idea how long it’s been there. Boom, biopsy appointment. Didn’t have to have the whole thing removed, and my regular doctor has a sub-specialty in derm so she did it herself a week later. Now, of course, I’ve had multiple people point out the funny edges on my cancer-free mole remnant – that’s from the chunk she took off. I have some other ones not on my back that I try to keep an eye on, but the ones I think look weird the doctors never seem to be concerned with, ABCD be damned. There’s one on my side that’s irregular with a brownish birthmark under it that I think is just screaming to be examined, but the doctor says nope, that one’s fine.
Also! Cancer isn’t always moles! I know someone else mentioned that already, but it bears repeating. My mother in law had a pre-cancerous patch on her arm a few years back – no moles! To me it looked like a one-inch patch of ultra dry skin. Anything weird on your skin should be checked out. Anything.
First, regarding face moisturizer: I seem to be in the minority here, but I HATE Aveeno Positively Radiant Moisturizer. It feels like burning when I put it on my skin and then I don’t think it sinks in well. Same for the Neutrogena stuff with Helioplex. That actually brings tears to my eyes when I apply it. I have to use formulas meant for sensitive skin.
Second, thanks for the PSA, Sars. The chair of my department had to get malignant mole removed earlier this semester, so I told my students that they MUST wear sunblock every day if they don’t want this to happen to them, because we live in Florida and the sun is hell here. I can’t wait to move, honestly, because I’m pale and freckly and have hundreds of moles. Anyway, after class that day, one of my girls came up to me and thanked me for saying all of that, because her dad died of skin cancer and that he never wore sunscreen or went to the derm, AND that her sister is still going to tanning beds weekly regardless. My pale blonde sister also goes to tanning beds at least once a week. It’s awful, and she’s five years younger than me but looks five years older, and she’s bound for skin cancer herself. I think it’s hard to convert people to sunblock and flossing, and I’ve never gotten why people don’t do both. They’re easy and have big payoffs.
Am a 31-year-survivor of a malignant melanoma. It’s rare in juveniles–I was just 13 when I was diagnosed.
Still have my moles checked yearly. Usually the doc is quite bored with them. Have scars from the ones that interested them. Recommend going to a plastic surgeon if you don’t want scars.
And, congrats Sars. It’s always scary when the word cancer is involved!
Kudos to the good Doctor and done and done on the dermatologist & even MORE sunscreen.
Really glad you are all good! Though I’m sure the “saucy” lean was great. ;)
Holy crap, Sars. Glad you’re okay, and thanks for the warning.
Also? Your eyebrow description is so apt that I’m itching to get my hands on Photoshop and have a go with your photo. A little face, some sort of “Moles Suck” word balloon, maybe some sort of hairdo that incorporates/covers the bra straps…(itch, itch). God, the lengths I’ll go to in avoiding work.
I had my moles checked for the one and only time about 6 years ago when I was having a wart removed. The Dermo threw in a mole check for free.
I really should go back for a full check. My Dad had to have his bottom lip removed due to a cancer. He was on holiday and thought it was a coldsore, but when it didn’t go away he went to our GP who took a look and refused to touch it. Apparently if you take half a cancer out, it spurs it on to spread so he sent him straight to a specialist. A week later he was in surgery. Luckily they got it all and he didn’t need any radiation therapy. The type he had is usually seen in men 20 years older than him, or farmers, who spend all their time outside (he was a teacher/principal)
Added to that I grew up in New Zealand, living under the ozone hole. Skin Cancer is our most common cancer and our melanoma rates are among the highest in the world. On the plus side, we have pretty good survival rates, as our docs are pretty clued up about funky moles.
I am one of the last kids to go through school in NZ before the NZ Cancer Society really got on the ball. Now nearly every primary school have policies where kids are only allowed outside if wearing a wide brimmed hat. At my nephews school, they all get given a hat when they start school. They also get slathered in sun block.
Between my family history and the ruddy ozone hole, I need to get on the ball. I’ll be back in NZ from February, and I think I will have to go in for a MoleMap http://www.molemap.co.nz It’s a programmed aranged by a group of dermotologists for effective early melenoma detection. You are physically checked out by a ‘Melanographer’ (read: dermo nurse) they take pictures of your moles, and they get looked at by dermo’s. The great thing about it is that there is not the waiting times for seeing a Dermo, and the pictures of your moles are saved for future reference. And the cost. It’s cheaper than a dermotologist too.
Sars, glad you’re going to be OK.
Sars, I’m really glad you’re okay.
I’m soooo freakin’ glad your doctor caught that, and you’re okay!
Sars: 2
Japanese Fighting Mole: 0
(That was probably my all-time favorite post ever. My sister and I still laugh about the Japanese Fighting Pine.)
I had a similar story, except that I was 21 when my malignant melanoma was diagnosed. Am 35 now and the only long-term repercussion is that Canada still won’t let me donate blood. (Well, that and the huge scar on my back.) Thanks for preaching about sunscreen and sunburns. Glad your excellent doc caught everything in time.
Sars, I read your site pretty regularly, and I am glad to hear that you caught it all and are fine now. It’s good that you’re so diligent.
Not to recommend in any way that anyone *skip* a derm appointment (I’ve now got my next one scheduled, thanks to Sars’ reminder, and I’m a dark skinned freckled girl with brown eyes who’s been told all of those things combined make me very low risk), I will mention to those of you who find yourselves in delayed visit situations due to botox appointments and/or crappy receptionists, something my previous derm. had me do: Have someone else take a photo of your back and the backs of your legs every other month, so you can look at the photos next to one another and track potential changes.
This way, if the doc. says in March that everything she sees is OK, and your next appointment will be next March, you can rest moderately easy if you don’t see a change, or call and request a sooner appointment if you do (and if they give you a hard time, you could probably even send them the picture as evidence).
I want to know what your ass said that puzzled your back so…that’s a perfect “Excuse me?” set of eyebrows.
Helpful hint from similar sitch w/sweetie – if you buy non-latex tape, and apply the tape under the ends of the stitches, parallel with the wound, one on each side, then the stitches poke the tape, not you. You can throw a bandage over that. Saves you lots & lots of itchiness.
I have a mole on my arm that I’m pretty sure is of the benignly malevolent sort (red aura, misshapen, whitish on top) – but when I showed it to the doctor I made the mistake of saying I had thought it was an ingrown hair when it first appeared. “Yeah, that’s all it is, ” he said, “stop picking at it.” The only problem is, I never picked at it so there’s no reason for the redness etc.. Now I’m too embarrassed to try to get another doc to look at it, after having it dismissed so lightly.
Sars, I’m so glad you’re OK.
Skin cancer is one of those things that scare that shit out of me. If you’re a worrywart like me, I recommend seeing the derm for another reason as well: to clear away the terrifying cloud of mystery around your moles. I made myself CRAZY obsessing about moles for a while (I have too many to count, in all shapes and sizes, and I try to keep an eye on them but it’s really, really hard to keep track, to say nothing of the ones I can’t see), and I was too scared to go to the doctor because I had myself convinced, CONVINCED that she would see my moles and gasp in horror and tell me I was on the brink of death, and I truly wasn’t sure I could take that. I was so scared of that completely invented situation that I put off calling the mole doctor for YEARS. (If I thought I was dying of skin cancer, wouldn’t it have made more sense to go to the doctor and get it taken care of than to sit at home letting it get worse? Yes, and my brain knew that, but it wasn’t enough to get me to do it. Paradoxically, one of the things I was most afraid of was being told it could have been prevented if I hadn’t been too late, and the more I waited, the later it got, and the more scared I got to go in.)
This was all complicated by the fact that I hadn’t been to the regular doctor in a while either, and I needed a PCP to get a mole appointment, etc. etc. and it was a big production that I never felt up for. Anyway, finally after a near-panic attack (or maybe an actual panic attack; I don’t have anything to compare it to but it definitely sucked) I called and got things rolling. Just seeing my new PCP was enough to calm me down, because, as a medical professional, her lack of horror at my obviously cancer-weeping moles was very reassuring. I got in to see a dermatologist not long after. She was rather crotchety but kind and I felt myself in good hands. She didn’t faint in horror either. She saw three that looked iffy (she must have sensed my heightened anxiety about the whole thing and was quick to assure me that they did NOT look cancerous) and suggested that I have them taken off. I did, they were biopsied, and one was “slightly irregular” or something but generally no big deal.
I can’t tell you what a load off my mind it was. The best part was, she sat me down and explained all the stages that precede the big C. She stressed diligence, and regular checks, and all that. She didn’t say “Don’t worry about it!”, but she showed me that it was something to keep an eye on and not to lose one’s shit over *without reason*. Not having to stare at that irregular-shaped mole on my left arm and go to sleep worrying about it improved my life vastly.
I had a slight recurrence of this idiotic and self-invented problem when I moved and had to set up with a new doctor and dermatologist, but I got it done, I had my moles looked at and had couple more removed from my head (near my hairline; very little shaving necessary, though I had a not-very-noticeable muttonchop on one side before it got long enough to tuck behind my ear). One came back fine; one came back with somewhat dubious intentions, but they got it all. I’m now set up to go yearly (the derm’s recommendation), and I think after this nudge from Sars I might change that to twice yearly after my next appointment.
I don’t know what my point is; I just wanted to share my experience in case anyone’s reading this thread in complete heart-stopping terror (as I am, a little bit) and hiding under the bed instead of calling the dermatologist. If you’re a very moley person, hearing “anything irregular on your skin could be cancer” and looking at the, say, 17 moles that you can see on one arm with your sleeve rolled up just above the elbow can send you into shutdown. Don’t try to diagnose yourself. Don’t talk yourself out of going because you’re sure everything’s fine, only to wake up in the middle of the night sweating because you’re sure everything’s NOT fine, and then repeat that cycle 78 times. If you have moles, get them looked at by someone who knows what they’re looking at. Do it at regular intervals, and keep an eye out for changes. If something’s funky, they can remove it. Don’t let it send you around the bend, and don’t put your head in the sand about it either. Just call up, say calmly that you need a mole check, and get it done.
Sars, thanks for the PSA about this, and I’m SO GLAD, again, that your JFMs have been vanquished.
P.S. And if nobody does this but me, then never mind. :)
F. McGee, (and, Really? Fibber? Cool!) I don’t use anything fancy on my skin; I also don’t get a reaction; maybe my sunblock will work for you. Day in, day out, summer and winter, I use SolBar 50 Block Sunscreen. The sunblock isn’t nasty, greasy, or burny; in fact, if my skin’s been dryish, it sucks the sunblock right up. Usually my skin is oilyish, but it works well with the SolBar, whatever it’s doing that day. I put my makeup on over the SolBar, and I think it goes on more smoothly as a result, but I don’t look weird or glisteny if I don’t wear makeup. I’ve tried a few other, newer products, even a couple with a higher SPF; they always get delegated to “torso/extremities”, and the SolBar goes on my face. It also, mercifully, doesn’t have any kind of heavy scent.
Yes, thank you for this! I sent it to my husband and told him I’m holding off on trying-for-kids until he gets an appointment, because I don’t want to be a young widowed single mom if I can help it. That FINALLY got him to at least get a name. He says he doesn’t want to go in because they’ll go overboard and remove a bunch of stuff that’s just fine. I say they are trained to know what to look for, and even if they do remove too much…yeah, so, better than DYING.
He is very mole-y and burns semi-easily and never wears sunscreen unless I bug him, and we live in Arizona, skin cancer capital of America…ARGH!
So, thanks for the ammo :)
Hi, Sars. I don’t suppose Dr. R has office hours on Saturdays? Because for me, most derms don’t, so it’s less an hour from my life and more a workday, which, sigh.
I don’t know if he has office hours on Saturdays. I have to travel an hour each way to get there; it’s always a work day for me, too. Sometimes you have to make yourself that important for a morning.
Awesome. Congratulations on the good diagnosis and I hope your healing goes quickly and uneventfully.
Good for you, too, that you have an excellent doctor. I went to a dermatologist a few months ago regarding a mole that had appeared on the sole of my foot. (Attention black folks, this is where melanoma strikes us the most!) The doctor did NOT examine me. She stood with her back to me for most of the consultation, said I needed to go to a foot doctor (I am currently recovering from major foot surgery and already see a foot doctor once a month) and then oh-so-sympathetically snarled, “Do you want me to prescribe you something for your FACE?!” If I have deadly cancer eating away at my back, I have no idea.
So, I’m shopping around for another dermatologist. If anyone out there knows someone in the upper Bronx/lower Westchester area, please drop me a line.
Leigh, start giving those moles names. What made my sweetie FINALLY go get a mole/monster removed was that I named it “Milton” and asked after its welfare every day. “How was your day, honey? And how’s Milton this evening?”
Stupid, but it worked. Good luck with your Mr. Stubborn.
@Bill, go ask another doc. Just do it. Do it now. That mole sounds like trouble!!!!
I’m so glad you’re okay. And thanks for the message, I really needed it.
I can’t believe nobody’s said – or sung – this yet:
What’s that you say, Dr. Robinson –
Evil Mole has left and gone away?
Yay, yay, yay,
Yay, yay, yay!
I grew up in Australia.
’nuff said, I’ll get on it.
*sigh* DO NOT WANT but you have persuade me SHOULD HAVE.
Hey Sars, I’m glad you caught that in time and are okay! It’s so important to get these things checked out, and so many people don’t. I hope your healing goes well.
We need your snark in this world! :-)
Yeesh. Very glad you’re OK, Sars.
Sars, I am glad to hear that you are ok! I am a cancer survivor myself (Hodgkin’s Disease, 9 1/2 years in remission, go me!) so I understand how it can be scary. I have loved your website and TWoP for years and thought I would let you know!
Please everyone, get checked if you can! I know it can scary, but trust me (and Sars!) that it is better to know than NOT to know!
Happy holidays everyone!
I’ve been on holiday and missed this originally, but I’m so glad you’re ok Sars. I’m a fair-skinned lady with a million freckles and a family history of melanoma (dad had 4-inch wide scar that stretched from his armpit to his hip) so I will cheerfully back the “get em checked!” message.
Thanks so much for all the kind words, everyone — and to all of you who’ve made appointments this past week, good for you. I promise to get a dentist’s appointment in January.
Thank you for writing this. Just thank you. My partner’s cousin died from melanoma in June. She was only 35. It is a horrible, unforgiving disease and so many people just don’t understand just how awful it is. Hell, I didn’t understand.
I am so happy you’re ok.
So, I went to my regular doctor today, because I can’t get insurance to pay for the dermatologist appointment without a referral.
Anyway, he said that none of my spots looks suspect, but said that we could remove the one on my leg (the one I keep shaving off every few months for the past 15 years) and he could send it to be biopsied (sp?) and that way insurance would probably pay for the removal.
So, I’ll be doing that sometime in the next few months I hope.
@Tisha – don’t leave it for the next few months. Like you I had one on my leg that I was worried about even though the doctor wasn’t concerned. He offered to remove it if I wanted, which I did. It was a melanoma. Boy am I glad I insisted. Sure I had to have a couple of small operations after that (most of the pain was to the wallet), and now I sport a super-cool scar on the thigh, but I’m okay. And if I’d left it? Not good. Several of my friends have similar stories to tell. I’m 29.
Now I’m mostly worried that I live in a different country where the docs aren’t so familiar with skin cancer. The upside of having a bad one removed is that they don’t hesitate to remove any others after that.
If you don’t like/agree with the first dermatologist you see, find another one! I can’t reiterate that more strongly. I developed a bump, right by the inner corner of my eye, which I ignored for a year hoping it would go away. Finally, I went to a dermatologist who told me it was just a cyst and he could remove it for me. I said no, because I didn’t want him wielding a knife so close to my eye. Almost two years later, I went to another dermatologist who came highly recommended (in Tribeca, for you New Yorkers) and he immediately said that I needed a biopsy. Turned out that the mysterious bump was cancerous and I needed a special surgery to remove it, since it was so close to my eye. I was so lucky that this second dermatologist caught it, and that it hadn’t spread during the intervening two years. Get a doctor with whom you feel comfortable, and see them regularly!!