Wart, skin cancer or something else?

Question

I know that lots of you are going to respond with "you should really go to a doctor if you want to know for sure, skin cancer is serious." Right, I am going to do that - but since it's 10p.m.. and all the doctors offices are closed and I'd like to sleep semi-peacefully tonight, I'd like to get some opinions. I have this red bump on my arm (its been there for a few weeks now). At first I thought it was a zit or pimple, but I couldn't get it to pop. Today I woke up and looked at it and realized that it looks a lot like a wart that I had on my hand when I was a kid... and has that same sort of texture. I went to CVS tonight to pick up some wart remover and read that common warts usually appear on the hands and fingers, and there's another kind that appears on the back of feet. Whatever this is, it is on the crease that connects the two ligaments/joints of my arm together (like where my elbow is, but on the opposite side). It's small (about the size of a piece of dip n dots ice cream), kind of a dark pink color I guess. It hasn't gotten any bigger that I can tell, and it actually looks like it might be smaller than it was a few weeks ago, though I could be wrong. Any med school students studying dermatology out there that could tell me what this sounds like?

Also, yes I do have fair skin and I did get sun burnt (not on a regular basis), but a few times a summer as a child.

Answer 1

You can get a wart anywhere. Commonly they are on the hands and feet because warts are spread by touch and you usually touch things with your hands or get them from walking barefoot.

Skin cancer marks usually are multi colored like a multicolored beauty mark.

You can try to treat it as a wart or just cut it off, but the only way to make sure it isnt anything serious is going to the doctor.  

Answer 2

HI there,

If I were you, i won't worry about cancer at this stage, worrying doesn't help.

I've had quite a number of warts before, once I had 10 of them on my two feet and it took 6 months of OTC treatments to get rid of them.

Just last year I had another wart growing out of my  hand and it grew to about 7mm in diameter.

If you've had warts or corn before you'll know how they look like, if you cut it with a nail clipper, you'll see that they have fibres growing outwards toward you, much like the firbres of a plant growing out from the soil.

Unfortunately, they don't disappear after you cut them (even if you cut it till it bleeds) they grow back and they grow deeper and bigger!

they are nasty little bacterials that feed on our blood stream and their lifespan is about 2 to 3 years!!! some say they will drop off by themselves after that but I wouldn't wait for that to happen cos I know they are contagious too! they can spread!!! to the other parts of your body or even to your spouse if your wart gets into contact wth them frequently.

anyway my last wart was with me for almost 2 years when I finally decided to get rid of it, I used OTC hi-tech "liquid nitrogen tehcnology" coolent to freeze it but it still didn't work, in the end, the good old corn plasters worked.

I used Carnation and Mannings (or Guardian) plasters they did really get to the root of it and it got very painful when your skin is almost bleeding from the peeling. In the end, it was the more expensive ones from SCHOLL that did the trick (another reason not to be cheapskate) as it had the added ingredient of ASPIRIN which took away the pain and made me leave it there longer.

Good Luck, and anyway there is also the optoin of visiting a specialist who will zit it with liquid nitrogent and that works very well for some people and also the homemade remedy of DUCT TAPE, yes, some warts die from just the ingredients from duct tape (or lack of oxygen, no one is really sure. Search on the web and you will see, though it did not work for me.

Good Luck!

Answer 3

As a renowned and highly qualified non-doctor I offer the following advice:

1 - Do not use wart remover on anything that might not be a wart.

2 - Immediately take a sleeping pill (an OTC such as Sleepeez or Sominex, if that is all you can get).

3 - See a doctor in the morning -- preferably a dermatologist.

4 - If you receive any advice on Yahoo Answers that run contrary to my three points above -- ignore that advice.

Good luck.