I saved my own life.

That's how I'm looking at it right now. The fact is, if I hadn't told my dermatologist that I was worried and wanted the mole removed, she never would have picked it out as being a problem. When I had my biopsy I asked her if there was anything strange looking about the mole to her, and she said no. She only took it because I wanted her to.

If I hadn't noticed it, who knows. I could have ended up dead in a year.

I saw the plastic surgeon today, and scheduled a miniature fleet of appointments. Stitches removal, pre op physical, surgery, post op (and I assume another round of stitches removal will be scheduled later.) As it stands they couldn't fit me in for surgery until April 20th. I hope to get a cancelation before that, because the timing isn't great for work.

When I have the surgery they will be carefully checking the skin for any evidence of migrating cancer cells. I should be okay, and if everything looks good then it is just Stage 1 and I'll have a 99% chance of being okay. Of course, there is the fact that I seem to be prone to melanoma, so I'll have to be even more careful than I've already been with my skin.

If they find more bad, then I think I'll need some lymph node biopsies, etc. I don't think my doctor expects them to find anything more.

The scar on my knee will probably be pretty big. I am hoping (oh so much) that I will come out of surgery with a normal looking scar. Depending on how it goes I may have a crazy puzzle scar if they have to move tissues around, or what I'm really afraid of.... a skin graft. I really really really don't want a skin graft, but I won't know until the surgery is over.

My priorities:
1) No more cancer in the area
2) No ugly skin graft

I'll be in a sexy leg brace for a while and will miss about a week of work.

I'm feeling a little calmer, but this is still very scary. I cried a few times today, but mostly about my puppy. I miss him....