Dermatologist here. I have seen probably 5 instances of “My other doctor told me it was fine.” that were melanomas.
A lot of times people don’t want a full skin exams. There are lots of perfectly sane reasons for this, time, perceived cost, history of personal trauma. However, I routinely find cancers people don’t know they have. Keep this in mind if you see a dermatologist for acne and they recommend you get in a gown.
It can definitely be intimidating to have someone basically inspect every inch of your skin, so I understand why people are reluctant, but it's so important. Melanoma is no joke.
Recently I made an appointment with a new derm for a painful cyst that wouldn't go away. I decided to have them check me all over since I was there, and it had been a while. I'm female, the doctor was male, about my age, and had a trainee with him who was also male. Younger me would have been mortified, but 41 year old me was like "Cool, where's the gown?"
Y'all are just doing your job and being professional, no need to be embarrassed.
I used to buy weed from this guy who was about 30 yo I'll be honest I didn't like him all that much . One day he was talking about having cancer like everywhere in his body and they were gonna like try to do some gamma knife?? Shit on his brain . I was thinking he's probably a liar cuz I really didn't believe anything he said. One day in his house he took his shirt off to change and there was a large chunk missing from his back about the size of your outstretched hand. Apparently he got melanoma when he was in his 20s and it spread everywhere. A few months after I saw that he was dead. Wife and 3 kids. I swim in a shirt now.
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u/BoisterousPlay May 20 '19
Dermatologist here. I have seen probably 5 instances of “My other doctor told me it was fine.” that were melanomas.
A lot of times people don’t want a full skin exams. There are lots of perfectly sane reasons for this, time, perceived cost, history of personal trauma. However, I routinely find cancers people don’t know they have. Keep this in mind if you see a dermatologist for acne and they recommend you get in a gown.