Freaking out about Nodular Melanoma

[OuchStomach]

I am driving myself nuts.  I have an upcomming Derm appointment but I looked online first, and scared myself silly about nodular melanoma.  I am 28 yrs old.
I am a picker.  I get acne a lot on my arms and I pop them.
I have one red spot on my right side of my ribcage.  Its small and not too elevated.  I have picked at it often, and I believe it has been there for as long as two years.
On by left arm/back (where they meet) I have another hard spot that I know I have picked at a lot.  This hard spot has been there for over a year as well. It currently has a scab on it from me picking and the skin around the scab is raised.  There are a couple small hard spots by this one that I have picked at as well.  I assumed these were just all acnes.
Of all these little hard spots they are colored by the blood under the skin (when I press on them they become white and then fade back to red).
All of these hard spots have been picked at.  I don't know if they were acne at one point or not, but I know I picked at them as if they were.  They have not gotten really big, but like I said I have picked.
I never knew there was such a thing as nodular melanoma till I looked it up.   My question is, would melanoma act differently than I have described?  What I have does not look like the pictures of melanoma online, but I do pick at them.  I assumed that Melanoma would be harder, or more obvious than what I have, but I'm scared big time that I have had it and just been slicing off the top layers for a long long time.  Never did any of these spots have some color to them to make me scared, I read how nodular is usually very dark.
Also, if it were Melanoma for a year or more, would it be more obvious, even with picking? I read how nodular is super fast acting and I am talking about spots I have had for 12+ months.  Just really scared.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

These sound like picked pimples, not nodular melanomas.  Please lay off scouring the internet and no more picking, so the dermatologist can tell what the bumps are when you go.

Thanks.

Dr. Rockoff

[OuchStomach]

Thank you doctor, I have been wearing long sleeved shirts to try and not pick and not look this week.

Picked pimples can leave long term, raised scars?   This was my original thought before I came to the internet and scared myself.  Haha, I actually just dry heaved due to anxiety.  

Thanks again.

[OuchStomach]

I wonder too if the skin above the armpit where the arm and back come together is a slower spot to heal.  Thats where the largest bump is (just smaller than an eraser head).

I have plent of little scabs from where I have picked, but its only at this one spot where the arm and back come together that the scabs are circled by raised irritated skin.  Just wonder why this one spot and not the countless on my arms.

[OuchStomach]

Back from derm.  Evidently the spot on my side is nothing, the lumps on my back/arm are from picking and they are heavily scarred (skin there doesnt heal very well) and theres no way they are melanoma.  The one on my chest and face I had picked off earlier in the week and are just scabs so he told me to come back once the scabs heal if I feel like I need to.  He froze the lumps on my back/arm and the areas on my arm where I have picked.

He did cut 2 moles out.  One in the middle of my lower back and one on the back of my right leg.  Said they were bad moles and the one on my leg was larger, but the one on my back was goofier and more concerning.  He said though that they both were super small (both way less than an eraser and no elevation) that I have nothing to worry about.  That even worst case they got them early enough.  They did a deep shave biopsy and will let me know results next week.  The one on my back I've known about for 18+ months cause I went to a derm then and he said wait and watch.  This new derm says they never tell a patient to wait and watch and just cut to be safe.

He said its actually very normal for people in their 20s to have the signs of beginning skin cancer and that people just dont go to the derm until years and years later when its bad.

So thats about that.  Evidently I had something bad, but we caught it in time.  Does this all sound about right and things were taken care of? It sounds good to me and that I may have just saved myself a lot of hardship in the future.