The exact opposite of the new awesome

And now for something totally different...

About a month ago I decided to have this little mole on the back of my ankle checked by a dermatologist.


I probably wouldn't have thought much of it but last year my 27 yr. old sister had a similar "no big deal" looking mole that she had checked and it ended up being melanoma skin cancer (that's the really bad kind). And for a small period of time we weren't sure if she was going to be okay or not. In the end she was fine but it scared me enough that I thought that I, the x-lifeguard, swim-teamer, sunburned a million times girl, shouldn't take any chances and get checked out myself.

So I did. And my doctor agreed that the mole on the back of my ankle had characteristics of a potential skin cancer so he told me we'd have to take it off (gross). So we did. And I was left with about 5 stitches in my ankle that would be there for two weeks.


Two weeks later the stitches came out and my MD thought it might be a melanoma but wanted a second opinion so my results were sent to UCSF. Meanwhile, my ankle was healing very nicely.



Last Tuesday I got a call from my MD and he explained to me that I had a late stage one melanoma and we'd need to take more out of my ankle as soon as possible. So the next day I went back and had the same procedure done again. Just bigger. And this time with 16 stitches instead of 5. And they had to wrap up my whole foot and ankle so it didn't swell up (gross again).


So this is what it looks like now (ouch and gross).


One fun thing is I got an entire box of sample anti-biotics from my MD which made me feel special. It's like getting a free toothbrush at the dentist.


So now I'm just waiting for the results and am hoping all the cancer is gone. I should find out in the next few days or so. If you read the new awesome regularly you know it's more about puppies, rainbows, ponies and glitter than it is about cancer and stuff but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was a good idea to share this experience with you.