Hi, Im a 20 year old female who regularly tans in the sun and in tanning salons. I have been doing so since I was about 14 years old. I have had a large swollen lymph node in my right armpit for the last two years. I visited both my family doctor and a surgeon and was told not to worry about it, and that it would go away on its on. I haven't been concerned about it at all until I recently read an article in Cosmopolitan magazine about a girl who died from a suntan at the age of 26. She had melanoma and didn't find out about it until it was to late. Example being, she developed a large swollen lymph node in her groin area. Later to discover she had early signs that were improperly diagnosed. After reading the article I did a mole exam on my body using the ABCD graph. I discovered a mole on the left side of my back which I have had for as long as I can remember, but I don't remember the jagged boarder around it. The boarder is a different color than the mole itself, and forms a wavy outline. So now with a strange mole on my back, and a very large (grape size) swollen lymph node in my armpit... I am starting to become concerned. Am I jumping to conclusions? Do swollen lymph nodes always get diagnosed so passively? Or can a doctor simply tell the difference just by looking? No biopsy was performed on either visit. Advice would be extremely helpful, I am planning on visiting a dermatologist. Are there certain things I need to specifically ask for to make sure it is properly diagnosed?


Thank you to all who reply.