Dermatology Woes

For the second time in six months, I've had to have skin removed after abnormal biopsies on moles. Ugh. Right now I'm sporting some awesome stitches covering a 2-inch incision on my back.

Last summer, I was at my parents' house, and my sister noticed a mole on my shoulder that she thought looked suspicious. I hadn't been to the dermatologist since before I was pregnant with Drew, which is shameful given my mom has had skin cancer 4 times including melanoma when I was in elementary school.

I found a dermatologist about 5 minutes from us and went in August. I was expecting that if they found something they wanted to remove, I'd have to come back, but nope, the doctor found 5 moles he wanted to take off and off they came. I got a little numbing shot in each mole, and GROSS ALERT, he scraped them off with a razor blade. The moles then got sent to the lab for testing.

I got a call a couple 2 weeks later that 1 was 'moderately abnormal' and they wanted me to come in to see a plastic surgeon to have more skin taken off. That procedure was also very fast, but given the location of the spot {it was the one my sister found on my shoulder}, I could kind of see what the surgeon was doing out of the corner of my eye, and that was probably the closest I have ever come to passing out, ha.

I went back in February for a 6-month check - it would have been a year if everything came back normal - and the doctor found 5 more moles to take off. This time one was 'abnormal' and one was 'severely abnormal'. For the abnormal one, I go back soon for a re-shave, so I'm guessing they just take more with the razor blade, gag. But for the severely abnormal one, it was the same plastic surgeon and the same procedure, just a bigger section removed. The first one was about 1 inch, and the second one is about 2 inches. The plastic surgeon told me that it was called severely abnormal based on how much of it acts like a cancerous mole and that if left alone it would likely turn into cancer. Interesting...

This one has hurt worse because of the location - it's right under my shoulder blade so picking anything up seems to stretch it - so you can imagine how that feels every time I pick up Paige. The instructions said not to lift anything for 2 weeks - not possible! It's feeling a lot better though 1-week later - my only remaining complaint is I think I might be a little allergic to the surgical tape - I itch SO MUCH! Brent is sick of hearing me complain about the itching or asking him to itch my back, ha.

There's no point to this post, except to tell y'all to get your moles checked if you don't on a regular basis! Here's to hoping the doctor doesn't find 5 moles every 6 months to take off! {grin}