Tuesday, October 21, 2008

biopsy day

In about eight and a half hours, the dermatologist will take a punch biopsy. I'll get a couple of stitches and will have to deal with those for a couple of weeks, no big deal.*

At about the same time, my mother will be having a CT-scan-guided needle biopsy of her lungs. The last description she gave me of the possibilities: "It could be an infection, it could be pneumonia, or it could be something bad."

Something bad is her euphemism-of-the-day for cancer, a word she still has not spoken to me, regarding the possibilities here. She did, however, say it to my sister. Perhaps Mom thinks I have enough cancer to worry about on my own.

I'm a lot more worried about her test than I am about mine.

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* This particular mole is coming off because it just showed up quite recently, and it's rather large. It would be a freckle except it's in a place that never gets sun exposure, and freckles by definition are caused by sun damage, so that's out. The dermatologist asserts at my age, I shouldn't be developing new moles. Who knew? I can't worry about every spot that pops up on my skin, I'll drive myself crazy. In any random 2-inch square area, I probably have a half-dozen little moles and/or freckles, no kidding. And I'm supposed to keep track of them all? Having the body mapping photographs helps but eventually they're going to be too off, and I'll have to have it done again.

1 comment:

nina said...

Your doctor said you shouldn't be developing new moles? Really? I get half a dozen visible ones per month, it seems. And I am older than you.

I keep an eye out for weird stuff, but the rest I leave for an annual dermatologist check. You just can't worry about everything. There's too much out there.