TheBanyanTree: spots

[Laura]

I've been seeing spots.  Spots on me, I mean.

I figured it's because I'm under a little bit of stress now, what with the end of school and us 
being behind, my husband being sick as a dog (where did that saying come from?  My dogs 
aren't sick.), field days, class registrations, meetings, blah, blah, blah.  Stress gives me 
pimples.  No big deal.

Except... there is this one spot, on my chest, that pops open and bleeds.  Not a drop of 
blood like a zit, either.  Lots of blood.  Lots and LOTS of blood.  Way too much blood for a 
tiny little spot like that.  Plus, it's been there for a couple months, and I don't usually get zits 
on my chest.  Yesterday was the fourth time in the last two months that it's popped open and 
wouldn't stop bleeding, so I called the doctor yesterday afternoon and got an appointment 
for today.

He said it was an early stage skin cancer.  No, not a melanoma - that was my first question.  
:)  It's a basal cell carcinoma.

http://www.skincancer.org/basal/index.php

If you're interested, I suspect from the appearance of mine that it is a nodular type.  Only 
mine is tiny, compared to the ones in the pictures on that web page.  Tiny like a zit.

The doctor said he could take care of it right away.  He went and got his little wheelie cart 
with the two tanks on it, with the wand attached by a hose.  He pushed the end of the wand 
against my leg (there was an old bumpy scar there we had planned to freeze off anyway, so 
he went ahead and did it today) and pulled the trigger.  I didn't feel anything.  The scar was 
extremely insensitive anyway, and it didn't hurt at all while he was freezing it.

Then he put the end of the wand on my chest and pulled the trigger.  That was a whole 
'nuther sumthin', lemme tell you.  Stung like mad!  After a few seconds, he stopped and took 
a look at it, then used the wand again.

He told me that the two places he froze would swell and blister, then scab over.  He also 
told me that once they scabbed up, it was ok to pick at them.  Wonder why he'd tell *me* 
that?  ;)

Sure enough, the one on my chest has a large raised area around it, with the little red spot 
that is/was the cancer in the middle of it.  Looks kinda like a bee sting.

I'm to watch that one closely after the scab comes off, and if I have any questions or 
observations, I'm to call him right away.  According to him, 80% of early basal cell 
carcinomas can be destroyed with freezing.  I hope I'm not in the other 20%.  After last 
summer's ordeal, I really have no desire to get cut on again for a long, long time.

-- 
Laura
wolfljsh at gmail.com
Visit my Blog!