I learned today that a friend of mine is going in for surgery on Tuesday. I will keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.
When I was a graduate student, it was pointed out to me (by Alisa and my barber) that I had a questionable mole on my ear. So I went into the health services to get it examined. I saw a nurse practioner who looked at it carefully and then got out an illustrated guide. She looked at it a bit more and then said, "See! It looks like this one, so I think you're OK."
"You're pointing at an image of a malignant melanoma," I said.
"Oh!" she replied and looked at it again. She turned pale and said, "Let me go get the dermatologist."
He came in after a few minutes and took a sample for a biopsy. For about a week, I waited to see what the results would be. It didn't seem real that I could be facing an aggressive cancer and so my emotions were colored more by shock and disbelief -- and denial -- than fear. When the results came back, they were good -- it was a displastic nevus. I needed to get surgery to have the mole removed, but the prognosis was encouraging.
I'm tellin' ya though. You'd better hope the prognosis is good, because if the prognosis comes back bad, I'm still expecting you to win seven Tours de France before you cash in your chips.
Livestrong, dude.
StevenBrewer