MorningStar Posted March 11, 2008 Report Share Posted March 11, 2008 I am declaring March Mole Awareness Month! Two of my friends lost their mom to cancer this past Summer. It was horrible and it prompted my friend to get a mole checked she had been ignoring. It wasn't cancerous, but it did have abnormal cell growth and they had to remove the surrounding tissue. She then urged her sister to get all of her moles checked and they removed one from her leg. It was a melanoma and thankfully found very early. I thought, "Wow, their mom saved her life!" It was a very cruel death, but I think her mom must be in Heaven thinking how she would gladly give her life over her daughter's. I wish it didn't have to be that way, but her daughter has a two year old. Their mom lived a very good and full life. Neither of them would've had their moles checked if it weren't for their mom. Anyway, I am going to go to a dermatologist and get my moles checked. They take pictures of them and check them again a year later or so. I am asking as many people as I can to please do this as well to honor my friends' mom. Thank you! MorningStar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanutgallery Posted March 11, 2008 Report Share Posted March 11, 2008 Great post. I went in last summer at my GP's request to have my moles looked at and they removed one that tested positive for cancer. I was lucky and we got taken care of surgically. So far it hasn't come back. I still have to go in every 3 months for a recheck. I urge everyone to go in if they have any odd looking or new and fast growing moles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningStar Posted March 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2008 Thank you! I'm so glad yours was caught early too! I am dreading having mine checked. I only have one significant one and it's in sort of an embarrassing location. *sigh* I'm going to find a female dermatologist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moksha Posted March 11, 2008 Report Share Posted March 11, 2008 This reminds me of an interesting article I read back in the April 1995 issue of Discover magazine about a mole-like creature that was terrorizing penguins.April Pazzo was about to call it a day when she noticed that the penquins she was observing seemed strangely agitated. Pazzo, a wildlife biologist, was in Antarctica studying penguins at a remote, poorly explored area along the coast of the Ross Sea. “I was getting ready to release a penguin I had tagged when I heard a lot of squawking,” says Pazzo. “When I looked up, the whole flock had sort of stampeded. They were waddling away faster than I’d ever seen them move.” Pazzo waded through the panicked birds to find out what was wrong. She found one penguin that hadn’t fled. “It was sinking into the ice as if into quicksand,” she says. Somehow the ice beneath the bird had melted; the penguin was waist deep in slush. Pazzo tried to help the struggling penguin. She grabbed its wings and pulled. With a heave she freed the bird. But the penguin wasn’t the only thing she hauled from the slush. About a dozen small, hairless pink molelike creatures had clamped their jaws onto the penguin’s lower body. Pazzo managed to capture one of the creatures—the others quickly released their grip and vanished into the slush. Over the next few months Pazzo caught several of the animals and watched others in the wild. She calls the strange new species hotheaded naked ice borers. “They’re repulsive,” says Pazzo. Adults are about six inches long, weigh a few ounces, have a very high metabolic rate—their body temperature is 110 degrees—and live in labyrinthine tunnels carved in the ice. Perhaps their most fascinating feature is a bony plate on their forehead. Innumerable blood vessels line the skin covering the plate. The animals radiate tremendous amounts of body heat through their “hot plates,” which they use to melt their tunnels in ice and to hunt their favorite prey: penguins. A pack of ice borers will cluster under a penguin and melt the ice and snow it’s standing on. When the hapless bird sinks into the slush, the ice borers attack, dispatching it with bites of their sharp incisors. They then carve it up and carry its flesh back to their burrows, leaving behind only webbed feet, a beak, and some feathers. “They travel through the ice at surprisingly high speeds,” says Pazzo, “much faster than a penguin can waddle.” Pazzo’s discovery may also help solve a long-standing Antarctic mystery: What happened to the heroic polar explorer Phillipe Poisson, who disappeared in Antarctica without a trace in 1837? “I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that a big pack of ice borers got him,” says Pazzo. “I’ve seen what these things do to emporer penguins—it isn’t pretty—and emporers can be as much as four feet tall. Poisson was about 5 foot 6. To the ice borers, he would have looked like a big penguin.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningStar Posted March 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2008 Almost sounds worse than cancer, Moksha! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
havejoy Posted March 11, 2008 Report Share Posted March 11, 2008 Holy Mole-y Sorry, I just had to. Seriously, it is a good idea to check your moles at least monthly and get a dermatologist check every year or two. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vanilla Posted March 11, 2008 Report Share Posted March 11, 2008 MorningStar, Thanks for the great reminder!Moksha, you might want to check this out:Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningStar Posted March 11, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 11, 2008 Sure thing! I made my appointment today. April 14th at 10:45. I've never been to a dermatologist, so I guess I'll talk to her about lots of issues! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maya Posted March 11, 2008 Report Share Posted March 11, 2008 Mole an animal living under ground, a mole month.... why? Is this a mole year??? My first tought as I read the subject... I think I have to have my sons mole cehcked, I doubt I have any.. at least they do not grow... I do have one patch though that I do ot like... but it is behind my shoulder so I can not see it. The doctor has looked at it , but that was all. Good reminder! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tree Posted March 12, 2008 Report Share Posted March 12, 2008 i have several, one big uugglly!!, one on my back was removed in 1993, and grew back immediatly, but i never went back to have it checked and now i have a few more little ones all over my legs , arms , back and face, ive been discussing with my husband to go get checked out , thanks to your post in honor of this special lady i will go get them checked out. i know i neglected to do the right thing , so if i get bad news its my fault.( i just want to make the temple before i croak!! ) lots of love tree Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningStar Posted March 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 12, 2008 I'm sure you'll be fine! My friend was so lucky that they caught it early. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moksha Posted March 12, 2008 Report Share Posted March 12, 2008 Moksha, you might want to check this out:Hotheaded Naked Ice Borer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Yikes, sounds like moles were trying to get the drop on us a bit early. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningStar Posted March 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2008 Woo hoo! My sister-in-law just told me that she is getting checked! She is so funny. She says she has been wanting to get her moles checked for a long time, but she didn't know what kind of doctor to see. She's so social phobic, she wouldn't just pick up the phone and ask someone. I love her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorningStar Posted April 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2008 I got my moles checked today and everything is fine. Yay! The doctor said I'm not a very moley person and it doesn't look like I've been in the sun much, so she is not concerned about me getting skin cancer. She was so nice and funny! If I have another skin issue in the future, I am definitely going back to her. Well worth the 1/2 hour drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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