When educating people about melanoma, the fact that is stressed the most (equally alongside the importance of monthly skin self-examinations) is how crucial it is to have skin cancer quickly diagnosed and treated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what happens when you discover a suspicious skin growth and wisely go to have it checked out\u2014only to learn that you can\u2019t get a dermatologist appointment for an unacceptable length of time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Above all else, the one thing that you\u2019d never do is shrug your shoulders, take an \u201coh well, I tried\u201d attitude, and then drop the matter. That could be a fatal mistake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dermatologist appointments are often scheduled 3 or more months in advance. That\u2019s too long to wait if you\u2019ve found something suspicious on your skin. However, before trying to expedite an appointment, be sure to check the photos and information on skincheck.org<\/em><\/a>. Don\u2019t \u201ccry wolf\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once done, contact a (or your own) dermatologist, explain your concern, and state that you\u2019ll accept any time slot opening they may have available to you. Also, ask if you can be called first in the event that another patient cancels a previously scheduled appointment. If you are successful at securing a quick appointment, don\u2019t expect a complete skin exam. Generally, in these instances a dermatologist will focus solely on the source of your concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019ve done everything discussed above but still can\u2019t get a fast appointment, (no longer than within 1<\/em> week) there are other avenues to pursue. You can:<\/p>\n\n\n\n With some exceptions, referrals are not usually difficult to obtain. If your physician does deny you one, either find another doctor or go get checked out anyway. General practitioners don\u2019t have the extensive training and experience with skin cancer that dermatologists do. Unfortunately, this inexperience has led to numerous unnecessary melanoma deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The bottom line is that these are merely petty obstacles that pale in comparison to the ultimately horrible end-result of an undiagnosed, untreated melanoma. Money and medical red tape should be no deterrents to protecting your health, and potentially saving your own life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dermatologist appointments are often scheduled 3 or more months in advance. That\u2019s too long to wait if you\u2019ve found something suspicious on your skin. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,43,64,66],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/melanomaeducation.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/melanomaeducation.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/melanomaeducation.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melanomaeducation.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melanomaeducation.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/melanomaeducation.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1002,"href":"https:\/\/melanomaeducation.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338\/revisions\/1002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/melanomaeducation.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melanomaeducation.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/melanomaeducation.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What can I do if I Still Can\u2019t Get a Fast Appointment?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n