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I don't know what area you live in, but if you have the ability to travel more of a distance, you could try dermatologists in other large cities within a few hours drive. Inconvenient, but it may give you more options. I totally sympathize because I recently moved to an area with far fewer physicians than the area we formerly lived and we had a 3-6 month delay getting new patient appointments.
As others have recommended, you may try making an appointment with one of your current doctors. Doctors often know one another and if your doctor thinks the lesion looks suspicious, he/she may be able to get you an appointment - or tell you how to get one. Once you get a dermatologist, I would highly recommend going annually for a skin check.
Hope you have luck getting an appointment with a doctor - and that the lesion isn't cancerous!!
Just go to your local Urgent Care. If it is serious they will help find someone. Today, doctors only want to write referrals so people are expected to use Urgent Care as their PCP. Even Walmart is getting in the clinic game!
It's on her FACE. Waiting 9 months or even a few months means it could become quite disfiguring - regardless of what it could turn in to or grow into. It doesn't have to kill the OP to be something that is important to treat.
how about going to your PCP and see if they can get you an appointment sooner? I'm sure if a general practice MD called and said, Hey I've got a patient with a suspicious lesion, can you look at it pretty soon? they will get better results.
^^^This. I've done it and it works to get you in faster.
Thanks for all the replies. I did point out the lesion to my PCP and her office made an appointment with a large clinic about 50 miles away. There was a cancellation slot available in 3 days but I had something else planned for that time. I phoned the clinic to cancel and the scheduler gave me a new appointment the end of August- the closest available date. I phoned 2 other clinics and their closest available appointments were not until late October. Question: why don't more med school grads specialize in dermatology?
They say that squamous cell cancer is more insidious than malignant melanoma as it can quickly spread to the brain and liver. Speaking of brain cancer and with Joe Biden in the news, his son Beau died of brain cancer. I'm wondering if Beau had an SCC lesion and either never knew about it or didn't act soon enough.
Thanks for all the replies. I did point out the lesion to my PCP and her office made an appointment with a large clinic about 50 miles away. There was a cancellation slot available in 3 days but I had something else planned for that time. I phoned the clinic to cancel and the scheduler gave me a new appointment the end of August- the closest available date. I phoned 2 other clinics and their closest available appointments were not until late October. Question: why don't more med school grads specialize in dermatology?
They say that squamous cell cancer is more insidious than malignant melanoma as it can quickly spread to the brain and liver. Speaking of brain cancer and with Joe Biden in the news, his son Beau died of brain cancer. I'm wondering if Beau had an SCC lesion and either never knew about it or didn't act soon enough.
So you had something else to do that was more important?
Question: why don't more med school grads specialize in dermatology?
In answer to the above, Dermatology is one of the most competitive residency programs to match into (along with Orthopedics, Plastics and maybe Neurosurgery). Only the very top medical school grads are able to go into Derm and almost all of those are allopathic grads (MD's), very rarely DO's. The reason is that it Derm is considered a "lifestyle" specialty because the hours are reasonable, it's pretty much clinic only (no inpatient work) and the income potential is very high because many physicians can, and will, do a cash only business. Additionally, there is only so much demand for Dermatologists, as opposed to GP's, for example, so there are invariably less training programs available.
As others have said, SCC's are generally slowly growing and non emergent, so you should be fine getting into see someone in a timeframe that's reaonable.
Thanks for all the replies. I did point out the lesion to my PCP and her office made an appointment with a large clinic about 50 miles away. There was a cancellation slot available in 3 days but I had something else planned for that time. I phoned the clinic to cancel and the scheduler gave me a new appointment the end of August- the closest available date. I phoned 2 other clinics and their closest available appointments were not until late October. Question: why don't more med school grads specialize in dermatology?
They say that squamous cell cancer is more insidious than malignant melanoma as it can quickly spread to the brain and liver. Speaking of brain cancer and with Joe Biden in the news, his son Beau died of brain cancer. I'm wondering if Beau had an SCC lesion and either never knew about it or didn't act soon enough.
Maybe you didn't realize it at the time, but you were lucky to get an appointment in just 3 days and given how anxious you are, I'm surprised you didn't reschedule your other plans. Since the appointment you rescheduled is with the clinic the PCP scheduled you with, I'd think that avenue is exhausted. It's now early July and since your appointment is now about 6-7 weeks away, that may be the earliest you're going to find.
Suck it up go to urgent care. I developed a rash on 40% of my body after retracing my steps I determined it was prob posion ivy. My GP was closed sat I was miserable and couldn’t wait until Monday no derm would see me sat. Don’t self diagnose you will drive you self crazy and most of the time it will be wrong. You could just have contact dermatitis aka any type of rash.
Thanks for all the replies. I did point out the lesion to my PCP and her office made an appointment with a large clinic about 50 miles away. There was a cancellation slot available in 3 days but I had something else planned for that time. I phoned the clinic to cancel
So, despite wanting someone to see you right away, you give up the appointment. Guess it really wasn't all that imperative.
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