Not a dermatology student, but a question

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HereWeGoAgainSkin

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What do you do when you have a mole that grew substantially but the earliest appointment they have is 3+ months from now?

From what I can tell, non-dermatologists know absolutely nothing about melanoma diagnosis. I'm not a dermatology student but I'm confident I'm better at diagnosing melanoma than non-dermatology field doctors. Case in point, I was on r/askdocs a while back (on reddit), and a girl posted a picture of an OBVIOUS seborrheic keratosis. A doctor replied telling her to get it checked out, and when I replied, "isn't this seborrheic keratosis?," he responded by saying that it's "not worth the risk."

She went to a dermatologist who told her it was a seborrheic keratosis.

If they can't even recognize an obvious seborrheic keratosis, when even I can do that, what good are they for melanoma diagnosis?

And I get extremely irritated by the idea that X number of months won't make any difference. At some point, in one moment, a cancer goes from one stage to the next, assuming it's not already stage 4 (and even then, that still progresses in terms of involvement and affects the chance for remission). There's a straw that breaks a camel's back.

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What do you do when you have a mole that grew substantially but the earliest appointment they have is 3+ months from now?

From what I can tell, non-dermatologists know absolutely nothing about melanoma diagnosis. I'm not a dermatology student but I'm confident I'm better at diagnosing melanoma than non-dermatology field doctors. Case in point, I was on r/askdocs a while back (on reddit), and a girl posted a picture of an OBVIOUS seborrheic keratosis. A doctor replied telling her to get it checked out, and when I replied, "isn't this seborrheic keratosis?," he responded by saying that it's "not worth the risk."

She went to a dermatologist who told her it was a seborrheic keratosis.

If they can't even recognize an obvious seborrheic keratosis, when even I can do that, what good are they for melanoma diagnosis?

And I get extremely irritated by the idea that X number of months won't make any difference. At some point, in one moment, a cancer goes from one stage to the next, assuming it's not already stage 4 (and even then, that still progresses in terms of involvement and affects the chance for remission). There's a straw that breaks a camel's back.

Unfortunately, I'm going to have to lock this thread because it borders on the edge of asking for medical advice.

My advice would be to seek opinions from a medical professional. Unfortunately, many dermatologists are booked out months in advance, I would ask to see if you can be placed on a cancellation list. Or continue to call other offices until you find someone who is available.

I wouldn't completely discount the opinions of non-dermatologists. Yes, a dermatologist is who you should ultimately see but I know plenty of PCPs who can at least appropriately triage the lesion and even biopsy in some cases.

You can certainly use any one of the numerous teledermatology platforms that have popped up but for lesional derm, I would recommend that you see someone in-person. Good luck.
 
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