I have this weird bump/mole on my back. It usually doesn’t bother me but every few months it kicks up and gets sort of red and a little sore. It’s hard to monitor as it’s on my lower back and I can only see it with a mirror. I took this picture with a quarter for reference:
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/7269/weirdbump.jpg
Would a dermatologist be the person to see about it? Thanks!
Definitely see a dermatologist. FWIW, it looks like something I had on my leg. The dermo looked at it and told me it was a sort of a place where tiny blood vessels come to the surface of the skin. He removed it in a painless office procedure, did a lab on it and pronounced it benign.
But get it checked out.
I’ll second having a dermatoligist look at it. They’re the pros, and can tell the difference between serious and not.
I had a bad mole removed, and it turned out to be melanoma. Cancer is rated in stages, with stage 1 being the least serious, and stage 4 being the most. My mole was rated a stage zero. (I need a “huge releif and thak Og I can breathe again” smiley) If I had ignored it for another year or two, who knows. Melanoma is nasty. Since then (that was 2004) I’ve seen the dermatologist every six months for a once over. Given my history he takes off any moles that he or I think are the least bit suspicious. No further scares yet, and I’ve had several biopsies since '04.
There are several web sites that attempt to teach what is and is not serious. I learned I should never be a dermatologist - I suck at picking out the bad from the perfectly fine.
But the last advice I heard was ABCDEF:
Asymmetry - my bad mole looked like the Visa logo.
Blurred Borders
Color Changes
Diameter - larger than a pencil eraser
Evolution - change is a bad thing in moles
Funny Looking - if for any undefined reason you think it looks funny
If you have something on your skin that meets any of these criteria, get a dermatologist to look at it. It’s probably nothing, but in this case an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure.
If it bugs you, see a pro!
Yep, it’s time to see a doctor. I’ve had GPs and even Physician’s Assistants* remove moles and various lumps on my body. So far, I’ve never had anything come up as worse than pre-cancerous. I have a bad family history of skin cancers, though, so I’m a bit careful about these things.
*A physician’s assistant has more training than a nurse, but less than a medical or osteopathic doctor. They work under the supervision of an MD or OD, and can write some prescriptions. They can be great primary care professionals, and I’ve had excellent care from the ones I’ve gone to. One PA, in particular, was very skilled at removing warts and moles and such, and he removed a large number of those things from me. He was also very gentle when it came to pelvic exams and Pap smears. Unfortunately for me, he moved.
Thanks everyone for the advice. I’ll have to set up an appointment and see what’s going on with it.