Fine and dandy, but after two years and nothing has shown up again, I’m not worried. Of course I’d go see an MD if I felt it necessary, but I don’t see any problem with trying to rid yourself of something with vinegar first.
Well timed. chique’s birthday (the Doper we lost last year to melanoma) would have been 2 days ago. As Mama Zappa said, she’d be here yelling at people to go get 'em checked out.
That’s fine if you don’t see a problem with doing it yourself, but I’d discourage you from telling others that they should do it.
That’s exactly what it was like for me. I had a smallish one on the back of my neck that protruded a bit and annoyed me. The dermatologist used a topical anesthetic that felt cool (as in temperature) and the scalpel just felt like additional coldness. I felt nothing. I tought the floating ing looked gross. They sent it off for a biopsy just to be 100% sure it was harmelss, and that’s the end of the story. You can’t even see a scar.
Surely explaining my own experience on this forum isn’t telling anyone else to go out and do the same thing. I do think most everyone who posts here is capable of thinking for themselves and making their own decisions.
I removed a couple with wart remover. Saw it on Dr. Oz.
Just pretended they were warts and followed the directions. I’ve also just cut them off with sterile nail clippers. (That’s harder because of the EWWWW factor).
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being extremely painful, it is like a -2. There is something incredibly satisfying about having your plastic surgeon scrape away a pesky mole.
Can anyone tell me what the typical cost is for mole removal? Is it per mole or per treatment?
I am a redhead with a high strung dermatologist that removes, well, anything that she feels is suspicious. I have had a lot of freckles, moles, other bits of skin removed. I just follow her instructions for aftercare ( usually euricin gel) and the itching is not bad. I find if a scar is starting to be itchy, silicone gel scar remodeling pads stop the itch, and also help scars flatten and stay flexible.
Latest advice I’ve gotten is “ABCDEF”. The “F” for “looks funny”. If a mole seems odd to you in an undefinable way, get it seen by a dermatologist. As well as for Asymmetry, Blurred borders, Color changes, Diameter larger than a pencil eraser, or Evolution (changes over time).
It’s odd for a non-medico like me that some of the ugliest skin lesions are not medically significant, but a harmless looking little Mastercard logo would have killed me. That’s why I go to a dermatologist every 6 months - he can decide what’s worth removing for lab analysis and what’s OK to leave alone.
My biggest problem with mole removals is that insurance companies will only pay for two removals in a single visit. If I have four moles worth getting under a microscope I have to make a second appointment, miss part of another day from work, and my stupid insurance company has to pay for two office visits. I can’t believe enough people have moles removed for fun that this policy saves the insurers any money. :mad: The mole removals are easy - a quick injection of local anesthetic and I don’t feel a thing.
At the last derm office I worked in, we would take a deposit of $175, for self-pay, established patients, per growth, and then you might also get a separate bill from the pathologist we used- everything except skin tags has to go to pathology. That bill would almost always be less than $100.
Appt made; they’ll both be gone before work on the 23rd.
Update
So, today is the 23rd and I really did follow through. After an almost 2 hour waiting room wait (Who the Hell starts their day 2 hours worth of patients behind???) I explained the moles to the hung-over med asst (she really was a nice kid; just has a bad case of the 3-hours-o-sleep 20s). The Dr was great. He looked at #1 and said “Thats no problem, but we’ll take it off.” He looked at #2 and said “Thats no problem, but we’ll take it off.” I was smiling…grinning like a fool, when he said “Uh-oh. What about this one? This one needs to come off. Now.” Evidently it has all the signs of a cancerous or pre-cancerous melanoma. The next few weeks til the test results come in will be fun… 
The PA who actually did the slicing was clueless & trippy (in a knife-wielding medical professional kind of way). She wanted to relax me so she turned on the intercom radio while she worked. I distinctly remember Journey playing and her singing along as she carved one of the divots out of my back.
“Street-light. People. Oh…oh…oh…OOHHH!” :eek:
I can honestly say that Steve Perry’s high note brought tears to my eyes like never before…
I have had several moles removed from the garden and front lawn over the years. On one occasion my friend’s grandpa caught two moles in a trap at the exact same time. He didn’t think anyone would believe him so he took a couple polaroids.
(Wasn’t the best evening to be a dinner guest in their home, was an effective appetite suppressant at the dinner table.)
i’m also prone to skin tags. they are a royal nuisance, that’s for sure.
the dang things appear in the worst places like the edge of my collarbones where clothing rubs and also right at the bra line, which is even worse.
i prefer to have them removed without numbing, because the injection is worse than the actual snipping for me.
a quick sharp second of pain and it’s done. the second group was more uncomfortable because the bra had irritated the snot out of them, but a few dabs of antibotic cream afterward and a bandaid or two and i was fine.
about a week later the office ALSO called me with the “results of my biopsies!” I had had no idea they were even going to do biopsies and i wasn’t best pleased because of the expense, but there wasn’t much i could do about that part. better i guess to know they were benign.
Wowser. So the two you mentioned earlier (including the ‘8’) were OK but the doctor spotted a different one that looked like Bad News? Yoiks. Glad we scared you into going!!
The answer Typo got from his doctor when he asked “what if I’d ignored this” was something along the lines of “doing interferon therapy and looking at a year or so to live”. :eek:
It’s weird what dermatologists will find alarming versus what others do. The one I had cut out and turned up to have precancerous changes actually appeared to me like it was disappearing from the inside out (“haloed nevus” is the technical term). I thought that a disappearing mole might be a good thing!
I owe a Lot of people in this thread hugs. Thank You!!!
I wasn’t going to fess up to how much the Doc freaked me out when he said that if there wasn’t a serious response. FTR, the bad one was below my left shoulder blade & it felt like she carved out a mellon-ball sized chunk o’ me.
OK, it was probably marble-sized, but I’m telling you when someone has a blade in you and is fishing around like they lost a quarter in there, it feels a lot bigger.
And I’m sorry if I dissed Steve Perry or Journey unintentionally. I’m sure to the PA, it was just like cutting steak in a restaurant when a good song comes on.
(I must have been good; its not like she sent me back…)
'nother update: got a call at the end of the day yesterday from the dr.'s office. All four removals were benign. One had “more cellular activity” than the others (sorry, can’t recall the technical term she used) but that overall no further treatment was necessary.
Huzzah for good news! 
Or a spy? Or a sea-wall? Or a chemical measurement? Or even a type of sauce ?(pronounced differently)
We once had a little test where the word “MOLE” was written on the board, and you were supposed to write down your 1st definition, supposedly that would give a hint as to your college major or occupation.
Thanks for the good news update.