26 Yr. Old Male - Freaking Out - Need Help

[Generic120]

Hi -

I'm a 26 year old caucasion male with brown hair/eyes. About 10 years ago I suffered a blistering sun burn over my entire upper body, from the face, to the back of my neck, shoulders, arms, and chest. It was bad, very, very bad. But, it was the only sunburn of its' kind that I have ever had... And actually, I cannot even think of another burn within recent memory because ever since that experience I have kept myself well protected from the sun.

Here's my concern. To the left of my nose, about 1/2 inch, and below my eye, there is a slightly raised surface that matches my flesh tone and cannot be seen, only felt. I first noticed this about one year ago, and thought nothing of it  because it was so small, painless, and seemingly inconsequential. But just the other day I started toying with it and it became quite red, and the area over/around it inflamed. Not itchy, not painful, just much, much more noticable... Like it grew in size as a result of my playing with it.

Since that inflammation, I have used warm compresses and a warm rice bag every night to soothe it. On the surface it seems to have returned to how it was before - and there was never any drainage, nor did it ever appear to form a 'head'. What concerns me is how this slightly raised area feels from beneath the surface of the skin... I know that sounds strange - but I have gently pinched the skin upward a bit, and it feels like there is additional 'growth' behind where the raised surface is on the exterior of my cheek. Total mass seems to be approximately the size of a pea, but it is not 'round' - like a cyst would be.

I do not believe I have any other symptoms that merit interest - overall I feel very healthy and do a rather physical workout 6 days a week. (Indoors.)

I have read a lot on the internet about skin cancers, statistics included, (all of which seem to logically rule me out as a potential skin cancer patient), and I have seen many, many pictures... Almost all of which tend to show ulcerated lesions - and even those which are not ulcerated seem to still shout off the page that something is very wrong...

But despite logic and statistics and how innocuous this seems on the surface, I am terrified out of my mind that I have some sort of invasive skin cancer that is going to require very complicated treatment that will leave me terribly scarred, and/or ultimately dead.

So here are my questions... Based on what I have been able to succintly type here:

What do you think this raised area is?

If you think it is cancer, what kind and how bad does it sound to you?

(On this latter point, I have not seen very many examples of what skin cancers look like stage by stage, so I am hoping you might clarify if it seems as though I have found this in the all important early stage of development.)

PERHAPS MOST IMPORTANTLY, what else, aside from skin cancer, could this lesion be?

Which is more likely... skin cancer or an alternative benign condition?

I think these last couple of questions are very important because I cannot shake worst case scenarios out of my head - and have not found many likely alternatives, (on the internet), to what I have that are not cancerous.

Believe it or not, I feel better with more information, not less, and right now, I feel like the only information I have is that none of the cancerous lesions I have seen online look like the lesion I have - which makes me hope that means I have found this early if it is indeed a skin cancer - but on the flip side, I do not know what the alternative diagnoses are either.

Your help would be greatly appreciated... I have an appointment to see my dermatologist on 1/12/10. I am terrified.

Thanks.

[nickppatel]

I wouldn't stress.  My understanding is that if it's not melanoma, you don't need to freak out about it.  Other skin cancers rarely metastasize much, or at least if they do it's done very slowly.  What you describe doesn't sound like melanoma, so I would TOTALLY relax and just see what the dermatologist says.

[Generic120]

Thank you for your reassurance. It is appreciated. The one thing I am clinging to right now is that I have never had ulceration present itself - which seems to be fairly characteristic of most skin cancers in the more advanced stages... So, I am hoping that my potentially worst case scenario is an early stage cancer that can be cured.

After researching a little more, I found sebaceous hyperplasia looks similar to what I have, but my question would be if it would have the growth beneath the skin surface like mine seems to have.

Oh, and one last question that I neglected to mention... Can skin cancers become inflamed if poked, prodded, etc... as I have done... and then suddenly diminish in size due to warm compresses? It seems like my area of concern can grow when I fiddle with it, and then recede when I relax and leave it alone...

I hope a MD offers an opinion on this matter soon because I think it will help me mentally prepare for my visit this Tuesday.

[Pum]

I'm glad you are seeing a dermatologist as I'm sure they will be able to put your mind at rest. There are so many things this could be. It definitely doesn't sound like skin cancer, at least not melanoma. It could be a simple mole, they do come in all colours, scar tissue from an old pimple, an oily cyst or many other things.

Take care and try not to worry. It won't change the outcome one way or the other. Try to keep busy in the meantime.