No one likes to admit that they’re doing something wrong. God knows, I used to be the poster child for saying, “well it’s wrong only if you look at it that way (i.e. probably the correct way but I’ll be damned if I say otherwise)”. I think most self-aware people recognize that as you have more and more life experience, you realize exactly how little you really know about most things in the world.
Why am I tearing down your confidence in your abilities? I swear, it’s for your own good. You see, when it comes to skin cancer and being able to recognize what’s cause for alarm versus what’s not, we may not always do a good job.
My friends at the Phoenix Skin Medical Surgical Group put together a handy little infographic (scroll down to view it) to show some of the most common mistakes in self-diagnosing skin cancer. Even if you don’t scroll any further, the biggest takeaway is this: The biggest mistake is waiting too long for a spot, pimple, scratch or rash to go away. I’m guilty of that. My pink melanoma sat on my knee for nine months before I got my ass into the doctor to have it looked at. That ended up being nine months of me playing Russian Roulette with my health (and honestly, with my life because melanoma is not anything to play around with as we all know).
I am sharing because I think the information is really beneficial. The only caveat I have about the information presented here has to do with the benign moles. If you’ve had a skin-colored, red, blue, pink, or brown raised bump on your skin since you came out of your mom’s womb, you’re probably OK – after your dermatologist looks at it, measures it, and makes sure it’s not growing when you go in for your annual skin check. However, if you get a new or a growing bigger raised bump on your skin in the aforementioned colors, get your ass into the doctor if it doesn’t go away in 6-8 weeks. My melanoma was a pink, raised bump that appeared out of nowhere and then just hung around for awhile. It didn’t grow bigger in diameter (it was just there one day looking the size of an eraser at the end of a pencil) but it was growing deeper into my skin. A few more months and a few more millimeters into the dermis and this blog wouldn’t be nearly as sarcastic.
Courtesy of Phoenix Skin Medical Surgical Group