Goddamnit! Bits of me keep falling off!

[the_eggwhite]

Potential TMI:
For the second time in less than a fortnight one of my moles is giving me grief. As anybody who has any significant number of moles will tell you, every now and then they decide to go strange for a bit and then fall off. But never completely - they always grow a bit first, then about two thirds of it falls off leaving you with a smaller mole so that it can do the whole thing again at a later date.

Last week I had one go from my neck, just beneath my chin. This is why I currently have a full beard rather than a goatee (as opposed to my normal reason of forgetting to shave - this time I remembered and decided to wait until my mole had sorted itself out).

For the past few days I've been getting grief from one on my side (below, but not actually in, my armpit). This one is being significantly more troublesome than the one on my neck had been... It keeps catching on seams on my shirt and giving me nice little twinges of stabbing Arg! I say stabbing Arg! rather than pain as it's not actually that bad, it just always catches me by surprise and makes me wince. What's more, because it's a mole and moles think that if you're going to bleed it's worth doing properly, I've found myself having to nip off to staunch the torrents of blood once already.

If the damned thing doesn't sort itself out soon I'm going to go to the doctor and get the irritating little bastard removed completely.

Also, why are they called "Moles"?

Comments

[laumiere.livejournal.com]

Short for molehill?

You have my sympathy as fellow blighter-sufferer

[eggwhite.livejournal.com]

It's probably something like that... It just seems bizarre referring to small lumps of flesh that usually contain an excess of pigment as small blind tunnelling rodents.

[sea-cucumber.livejournal.com]

How odd!

The cunning linguist answers

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Main Entry: mole
Pronunciation: 'mOl
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English mAl; akin to Old High German meil = spot
Date: 14th century
: a pigmented spot, mark, or small permanent protuberance on the human body

If your moles give you trouble, especially bleeding, I'd see a dermatologist asap, you never know. Moles can grow into nasty things which can turn into skin tumours if you're unlucky (my mum had one of those but it was benign, fortunately).

Re: The cunning linguist answers

[eggwhite.livejournal.com]

I've had hassles with moles for all of my life, so I'm fairly used to their strangeness. Generally if the bit that comes off comes away clean and the bit that stays heals quickly and isn't discoloured afterwards things are fine.

I've been assured it's only really a problem if the bit that remains is bigger than the whole thing was before it went odd, if it changes colour or if the bit that's left is a solid lump rather than the normal mole squishiness...

It's just bizarre to have two of them go so close together.

Re: The cunning linguist answers

[satyrica.livejournal.com]

yeah, generally there's an all-purpose m*l- latin root which means dark/black and i suspect they all stem from that in some way

Re: The cunning linguist answers

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

So this means that the names for the animal and the bit on your skin have the same origin (meaning dark bit). Makes some sort of sense.

[cryx]

stoopid moles!!

Erm maybe put a little round plaster over it?

[eggwhite.livejournal.com]

I may well do so tonight... I meant to before, but it was the morning so I forgot.

[charliemouse.livejournal.com]

Erk! My sympathies. I have quite a few moles, but they are totally uneventful creatures, remaining dormant, static and very much attached.

I think it would only be TMI if you started posting photographs.

[sollunastella.livejournal.com]

Full sympathy. I had a mole removed from my back last year 'cos it was under my bra area and keep bleeding. Got another one also that will have to be done i think - however its not a bad procedure and was only sore for a couple of days afterwards.