I’m watching La-La Land right now and it’s the part when John Legend comes on screen and runs into Ryan Gosling at the jazz bar. I’m reminded of several hours ago when I was getting “numbed up” and waiting for the doctor to come in and perform a skin excision on the back of my leg. The doctor’s assistant decided the music in the office sucked, brought her iPhone into the room and put on the John Legend Pandora station. She was the second best part of my experience in that office. The first best part? Getting rid of those bad cells in my skin. The third best part might have been the John Legend Pandora station.
A couple of months ago, we were in the middle of packing up our house to move. My in-laws were over helping out with the kids so Ian and I could get stuff done, as packing up a house in two weeks with two kids is pretty impossible. We were all taking a break, hanging out on the back deck. I had my left leg propped up behind me on something when my father-in-law said to me, “Have you ever had that looked at?” He pointed to a mole right below my calf. I told him it was looked at two years ago and the dermatologist wasn’t worried. Hmmm…but had it changed in that time? I got thinking.
It started feeling itchy and looking blue to me, which was probably in my head since I was paying such close attention to it. Regardless, I had to have it looked at. It had been two years since I’d had a total body skin check and skin cancer runs in my family. Time to take care of myself. Time to pay attention.
I had the mole looked at three days later and left the office convinced it was no good. The doctor said it was concerning and needed to come off immediately. Then he asked me how I was feeling and if I had been losing weight unintentionally! That was alarming.
Results came back in less than two weeks (the window of time they give you for getting a pathology report, which feels like forevvvvverrrr). It was not cancer, but the cells were moderately atypical. They also didn’t get clear margins and wanted to take more out. Atypia can be mild, moderate, or severe. Sometimes atypical cells turn into cancer, sometimes they don’t. I didn’t want to risk it, so agreed that more should be taken out. Another thing I learned was that the most important thing you should be looking at in a mole is “evolution.” Not asymmetry, borders, color, diameter. Watch to see if and how they change over time.
So, today I had the excision (15 sutures…doc doesn’t mess around!) and since my mole was initially biopsied, Ian and Quinn have also had full body checks. My doctor told me that he was happily surprised that my results were only “moderate atypia.” He honestly thought we were dealing with melanoma, which is the deadliest form of skin cancer. It can spread to lymph nodes and major organs so quickly.
I hope this story serves as a kick in the ass for some people like my father-in-law’s comment was for me. We need these out of the blue reminders that come from strange places sometimes. Don’t question the who/what/where/when/why of these reminders. Be thankful for them. Act on them.
