Dodgy Moles

When we were sat with Julie the nurse in the office of the Superdrug store getting our blood pressure checks done, we got talking about our home exchanges in Australia.   Julie mentioned that the UK now has a higher rate of skin cancer than Australia and on hearing this, I decided to book myself in for a mole check.  My sister Lou had a check done in London last year and she has been constantly nagging me to go and get checked.  Actually I had thought I might get this done whilst I was actually in Oz but the opportunity never came up.  My appointment was yesterday afternoon which didn’t impress Phil much because Tuesdays is half price at the cinema.   I was half tempted to cancel but in the end decided not too as I didn’t think it was fair cancelling at the last minute.

Julie remembered me from last week and soon got to task asking me10 million questions about my sun abuse.  For once I didn’t lie and was quite honest about my sun bed use and not using sun screen.  I could tell she wasn’t very impressed with my answers and I have to admit, neither was I.  Anyway, after the interrogation I stripped down to my underwear and Julie began my mole check.   She explained to me before she begun, that she had a gadget (can’t remember its official name) that she would use to look more closely at any suspect moles and that if she found anything really dodgy she would take a photograph.  Her examination of me was thorough; hairline, eye lids, face, arms, fingernails, body trunk and even the soles of my feet.    She used her ‘gadget’ lots of times to get close up.  She spent ages examining my back, eventually getting out her camera to take not one but several shots.

When I was dressed she downloaded the pictures of the dodgy moles on my back for closer inspection on the screen.  I can tell you it wasn’t a pretty sight, Julie said there were 2 areas on my back (6 moles) that she wanted to refer to the dermatologist.  This freaked me a little so I agreed to pay the extra for the referral.  It was a little bit more money but she gave me special discount and it only cost £20 for a second opinion.  The cheaper option would have been a letter of referral to take to my GP but I’d rather know now if it’s something nasty.  The Superdrug dermatologist is based in Austria but Julie has promised that she will get back to me today with his results.

I hadn’t realised how many moles I had on my back because I never see it but on seeing the close ups on the computer screen, I have already made a vow to myself, to use a stronger sun cream and to stay away from sun-beds forever. It’s too late to repair the damage that I’ve already done to my skin but at least I can prevent any further damage.  According to Julie, I have several red bumps which are very likely to turn into crusty moles as I age.  Yuk!  Apparently it’s partly due to a mixture of aging, sun and generics.  Wrinkly and crusty, how attractive is that!

The mole test is not cheap; £30 for a single mole and £95 for a full body check.   Phil nearly feel on the floor when I told him the price but I think it’s worth the money and would certainly recommend anyone with a suspect mole to go and get checked out.  Phil thinks there is nothing wrong my moles and that Julie is being a scaremonger and I certainly hope he is right.  Better safe, than sorry.  Sorry no photo's of the offending moles, that would be just too gross!