Melanoma fears

[Silas1066]

One of my biggest fears is skin cancer, specifically melanoma. I am fair-skinned (Irish and Swedish) and generally avoid the sun, although I have been burned in the past.

My 75 year old father was diagnosed with melanoma a couple months ago, and had surgery to remove it (the doctors say it was a success). He had a brown mark that was like a quickly growing age spot (liver spot kind of thing) on his face. What scares me about this is that his old dermatologist didn't think it was anything to worry about, and it didn't look to me like melanoma.

So now I am paranoid about my skin, thinking every mark is melanoma just waiting to happen! As I get older, I see these fears getting worse.

Anyone else go through this?

[bertybotts]

I have no advice, but yes, I go through this very often. It all started when I got a funny looking mole biopsied, which turned out to be 100% normal. Still, the paranoia has stuck...