I have a spot on the side of my face, close to my eye and I was wondering if it was skin cancer?

Over the summer I had it on both sides of my face and it got worse when the sun was out. I dont have any health insurance so I never went to the doctors for it. Then come fall they went away. Now three weeks ago a small red bump appeared. At first I thought it was a pimple, but it has not gone away, and in fact gotten larger and started to hurt. I dont really have the money to go to the doctors, but I dont know what to do. Any suggestions?

There should be a clinic in your community where you can be seen by a doctor for a small fee or depending on your income, no fee at all. Having no money for a doctor is no excuse when you have an unexplained condition which may or may not be serious. Call your local hospital and ask them for the telephone nuimber of their clinic.

You can go to a hospital and apply for free care.

These are the things they tell you to look for when you think you have skin cancer:

A- Asymmetry- is the spot symmetrical?
B- Border- is the border irregular?
C- Color- is the color consistent, or does it vary throughout the spot?
D- Diameter- Is the spot larger than a pencil eraser?
E- Elevation- Is it raised?

If you have one or more of these symptoms, it could be cancer. See your doctor regardless, because you could have another skin condition or an infection.

There is a method around for checking for skin cancer. It is called A B C D. A is for assemetric. Is the spot on your face assemetic. In other words, if you were to split the lesion in half, would both halves be identical in size and shape. The B stands for border. Is the border of the lesion irregular in shape. If it is like a perfect circle...it is okay. If it has a bumpy or wavy look to the border...it is not good. The C stands for color. If it has different variants of color in it...it is not good. If it is one solid color...that is okay. And the D stands for diameter. It is bigger than the eraser of a pencil. If you go through all these questions and one or some of them look bad....go to a dermatologist and he will be able to tell you right away if it looks suspicious. Good Luck!