Melanoma
Posted by: mistymae53
30th Mar 2012 07:38pm
I wondered if people on here are checking the soles of their feet for moles or strange legions. I have just had a scary experience, and had to have a nasty biopsy on the sole of my foot as a result. Has anybody else on here ever found themselves in a similar position to mine, who would think to look under their feet or between their toes, I didn't thank heavens it was benign,I will be more alert in future!
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Comments 6
Kessa1959
We have regular screens at a skin cancer clinic and they are very thorough, they check not only on the soles of the feet but also between the toes right up to checking the scalp. They also take photos of moles to check for future changes.
liz
Melanoma is one of the 'hidden' threats. A friend of mine had one removed from her neck some years ago. About 10 years later it came back and the time between discovery and death was less than 2 weeks. It had invaded her brain...
People forget about the soles of feet yet we lie on our tummies and sunbathe and what part of our feet are looking at the sun?? Thanks Mistymae53 for drawing attention to this.
frilly
I have had a melanoma it was on the top of my thigh. it was the size & appearance of a small freckle but had a couple of small red lines from it. I went to my GP he said it was ok but would send me to a Specialist to look at it because I had noticed it. The Specialist said the same, except he would remove t because I had noticed it.
I waited a couple of weeks & rang, the secretary told me I had to ring "this number" & ask for an appointment.
When the phone was answered the voice said "Melanoma Unit Sydney HospitaL"
That was where it was originally. You can imagine the shock I received, I will cut it short now. When I had it removed. the piece out of my thigh was 8ins by 9ins, That is a great lump. It was a horrible ward I was in, the first person I saw was a young girl with a big piece of what looked like green plastic foam stitched into her cheek,
I then had to struggle to get my thigh to straighten out as they had used my Ducte?r muscle to hold up the form of my thigh . This prevented a big hollow. There was no physio organised I just struggled & worked it.
Over the years I went into RPA Melanoma unit & I will never forget a lady who had her melanoma removed 24 years previously & suddenly it returned as a lump in her groin. I was just glad to get home as I had had several bouts of cysts in odd places internally& did not want to know what just "Might"
That is well over 20 years ago now, I have quite a few auto immune illnesses to cope with. One very worrying thing I hope you have been told. Melanomas can be hereditary. My eldest daughter has had one. The melanoma Unit rang me to ask if any other member of my family had one. I was not sure about my father, they rang his GP in the UK to enquire.
They rang me back to say "NO" he hadn't but said they were looking for may e a third as they do tend to run in families. That shocked me.
mistymae53
Thankyou for all replies so far, and yes this was a frightening experience, and the emergency biopsy wasn't nice at all. I have fair skin and don't sunbake or go out into the sun for anytime without adequate protection, when the small mole on my foot was found to be unusual in shape, and with an abnormal appearance, to say it was unnerving is an understatement, so to every-one please check under the soles of your feet and between your toes! I don't want any-one else to find themselves in the situation that I may very well have been in had the biopsy not come back benign!
bunny
how right you are...i recently lost my mother to melanoma...hers started out from under the thumb nail and was being treated just as an infection
mistymae53
My girlfriend's son is now on a clinical trial, he responded well to "Yervoy" I hope thats the right name and surgery initially, but the melanoma has returned after two years and it is everywhere, but the worse place he has it in his liver, but he is on this trial we dont know if he will get the actual trial drug or not we can but pray. Yes I did know it was hereditary, very scary indeed. Another thing poeple should be aware of is when you go to the beach to sit down with a towel under your bottom, believe it or not this too is a place where people dont think to protect themselves and apparanently another place where melanoma can strike. We live in such a beautiful country, we are very lucky, but vigilence with this dreadful illness is something we always need to be aware of, I'm so glad to hear that people are checking the soles of their feet and between their toes.