OK!WTF?! PET SCAN help please!!!

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Mirmirpanda
Mirmirpanda Member Posts: 89
edited June 2014 in Stage III Breast Cancer

Hey ladies.



So, I finished my 4 AC's, I am about to start my 12 weeks of Taxol and 13 Herceptin treatments. Was giving myself a long over due pedi and painting my nails with a fabulous new polish and I made a horrifying discovery.



I've always had a cute lil' mole between my toes, it's no longer cute and no longer lil'. It fits ALL the categories of Melanoma. F#@k!!!



Went to a walk in clinic this morning,as my GP is on vacation, the Dr. looked @ it for 2 seconds and is having a dermatologist call me for an appointment.



So, now I'm freaking out!!! But, I had a PET scan not too long ago and the scan was "clear". Would a PET scan have picked up skin cancer?





Ugh!!! Just another thing to stress about. If I had hair I'd be pulling it out!!!! This is my first Mother's Day and I'm spending it worrying my face off :(



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  • Momof2inME
    Momof2inME Member Posts: 683
    edited May 2013

    I am so sorry this is worrying you. Especially on Mother's Day. Chemo is hard enough without worrying about something else on top of it. I have had 5 moles removed in the last 3 years. One huge one was removed on my head during chemo. I went bald and freaked when I saw all the moles on my head. I was convinced I had a melanoma. It was benign along with another big ole mole that turned crusty (yuck) that I had removed 2 months ago. Even the dermatologist was unsure what it was this time. Benign as well.

    My point is... take a breath (or in my case an Ativan Smile) and enjoy your family for the rest of the day. See what the derm has to say. Doc will probably remove it but most likely it really is just a pesky mole.

    HUGS to you today!!!

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  • Mirmirpanda
    Mirmirpanda Member Posts: 89
    edited May 2013

    Thanks. I've just totally lost my shit. Thank goodness for Ativan.



    I'm having such bad anxiety over having the breast cancer that to even imagine having skin cancer too is just beyond what I can grasp, especially with my daughter just turning 9 months.



    More hurry up and wait.

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  • rozem
    rozem Member Posts: 1,375
    edited May 2013

    mirmipanda (hi fellow canuck) chemo does weird things to moles and skin stuff - i swore i had melanoma and had my BS look at in (he does BC and melanoma, how convienient) he said it was fine, i did follow up with a derm and it was fine.  It did get darker/change color during chemo but i had it removed just in case and it was b9

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  • Outfield
    Outfield Member Posts: 1,109
    edited May 2013

    mirmirpanda,

    A PET can only show abnormalities in the area that's pictured in the scan images.  At my institution where pretty much all PET's are PET/CT's, it's common to get from kind of the bottom of the skull to the upper thighs.  You have to specially request other body parts, like feet.  I don't know if that's true in other places.  

    Another thing - a doc who doesn't do biopsies won't spend more than 2 seconds looking at a mole that's got someone worried.  It just doesn't take that long to look.  

    I'm really sorry this is how you spent mother's day.  There are way too many of us diagnosed with little kids (mine were 2 and 3).  Hugs to you and your baby.

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  • bluepearl
    bluepearl Member Posts: 961
    edited May 2013

    Sometimes a hematoma gets under a mole (they form for no particular reason) and make them bigger and badder looking. That happened to me. Doctors send you to dermatologist and often take biopsies even when they don't look like melanoma. I had a funny skin "lesion" on my bum because it wouldn't go away. Doctor looked at it and said "I think your husband was right.....you sat on a walnut"...I was cleaning fresh picked walnuts from our tree and they have tannin in them...turns your skin deep orange to brown and I must have sat on one.....but I get your fear because I also had a hemotoma that I was POSITIVE was melanoma. Nope. Once we have breast cancer (or any cancer) we start to become body scanners........that being said, good to get it checked out.

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