Question:
I'm a 24-year-old male, and I noticed a suspicious mole on my upper buttocks about 2 years ago. I have a good many moles on my body, but nothing too out of the ordinary really, and I have a cousin who at a young age was diagnosed with a sort of "pre skin cancer." Anyway, about the mole, it was weird because --and I kid you not-- after I noticed it and went for the initial consultation to my primary care provider, it, over the span of two weeks, TOALLY disappeared, or at least turned from being brown to pink. When I went
in to give the biopsy sample to my primary care provider, I had to show
him where it "used" to be, but it wasn't too difficult since it still
had a pinkness to it. So, 2 bad signs were shown here: a new mole
growth, and its disappearance within the span of about two weeks.
Anyway, there was no cancer/pre-cancer found from the biopsy, assuming
they did it correctly. Now, two years later, in the very same spot
where the biopsy occurred, the SAME sort of mole has returned.
I guess my question is how often do these types of mole-changes happen
in people with no skin-cancer?
Answer:
Just got back from my dermatologist's office. Turns out it wasn't
actually a mole at all but rather a hemangioma, which tend to change
rapidly, thus the worry on my part, as it looked just liked a mole to
the naked eye. He determined this by looking through a DermLite
device, which is basically a handheld microscope that allows him to see
under the surface of the skin. What a great device...no biopsy was
required and thus no cutting and scarring of my skin, even though it
had already been cut on years ago by an earlier biopsy and wasn't in an
obvious area...Still, though, if I have a concern about a mole in the
future, I'm definitely going to him or if I live elsewhere to a
dermatologist who uses a similar device.
