FREAKED OUT!

Alright, I am stressing just a tad. Let me rewind and tell you the story. A couple of months ago at school we had a seminar put on by our resident Plastic Surgeon Dr. Freyer. The seminar covered the basics of skin cancer - symptoms, characteristics, etc. You see, in the cosmetology field, we are exposed to places on the back of the head, neck, or other areas that you may not see every day. So, it is important for us to know what we are looking at in order to be able to identify something we consider supsicious, or possibly skin cancer.

Ok, so there is a sad story involving this very type of situation. We have a student at our school who attended a previous seminar put on by Dr. Freyer on skin cancer. She had been cutting her husband's hair for over 14 years, and noticed he had a large, irregular mole on his scalp. Thinking nothing of it, she never made an issue and left the mole alone. After attending Dr. Freyer's seminar she began to worry because the mole had characteristics defined by Dr. Freyer that may indicate a problem. So her husband came in to see the doctor. It was recommended that he see a dermotologist, and have the mole removed.

When the biopsy was completed on the removed mole it ended up coming back as positive for melanoma (the worst form of skin cancer). At that point the cancer had already spread throughout his body, and in 8 weeks of finding the results, the man passed away. That is how serious these types of things are.

So of course, after the seminar everyone was in a panick. We all have moles, sun spots, or other things that may "fit" in the skin cancer spectrum. I myself have a very large mole in my pelvic area. I have had two separate doctors tell me at some point I should think about having it removed. It is about the size of a dime, mostly circular, but has some rough edges, which are both bad signs.

Well this week the mole began to ache. It's weird really, not a normal ache but more a sharp pain. It has a small lump underneath it as well, and is painful to the touch. Yesterday it really started to bug me, and I decided I better trust my gut instinct and make an appointment to have it removed. My appointment is at 3:00pm today, where they will remove the mole, and send it for a biopsy. I am totally freaking out! Of course I think "yep, I have cancer, gonna die" but I have to take a breath and just wait. That's the hard part though, waiting. UGH. I am so not good at that. I am a worrier and think the worst until someone confirms that I am ok, and going to live. So stay tuned for more! Wish me luck!