BIG sigh of relief!!
I am very happy and relieved today! :) I didn't journal about this before, because I didn't want people worrying, but on Fri., Feb. 2, I had a biopsy on a pigmented patch of skin in an odd place that I was obsessing about. I feared it was melanoma. Of course it WASN'T! I should've known better, because I have a history of obsessing about benign skin lesions. (Ugh! Isn't "lesion" a yucky word? When you say it out loud, it just sounds foul! Try it...)
A few years ago, I obsessed about a flat pigmented spot on my lower side/back, which I had a dermatologist remove. I worried because it was bigger than a "standard" birthmark. However, it was not assymetrical, jagged-bordered or bi-colored (three of the melanoma warning signs). Also, it never got irritated and to my knowledge never changed. It turned out to be just what it looked like -- a large, harmless birthmark. I think the technical term is melanocytic nevus, but I'm not sure what the Dr. said.
Also a few years ago, I obsessed about something that appeared to be a deep cyst, located very inconveniently at my waistline. It very slowly grew, which I didn't like. I was also worried because it was not ON the skin, but within/beneath the skin (i.e. you couldn't see anything but skin rising due to something underneath). My dermatologist said it was a superficial subcutaneous lipoma, a totally benign, and actually rather common, tumor composed of fatty tissue. (My chiropractor thought the same thing. And he used to be a veterinarian, so he certainly knows his medical stuff! *chuckle*) However, despite these reassurances, I wanted it OUT!! I didn't like that it was growing. Plus I knew it would eventually get irritated by the elastic of my panties or the tight waistline of certain pairs of blue jeans.
So, it was removed, and it turned out not to be a lipoma after all! Rather, it was a keratin cyst, even though it was not the common type of keratin cyst that forms in/around a hair follicle. I still think it looked and felt more like a lipoma, but I trust the pathology lab. Besides, neither lipomas NOR keratin cysts become cancerous, so either way, I was safe! :)
Now the current thing. It was another case of something being "bigger than a standard birthmark" -- to quote myself from the first paragraph. I've had it my whole life, and I don't recall it ever changing. However, it's in one of the places on one's body "where the sun don't shine", if you know what I mean! heh And for some reason I got a thought stuck in my head that sometimes melanoma (the worst type of skin cancer) does a very ironic thing -- it strikes in places that DON'T get a lot of sun exposure. :( I guess I also thought about it because my good friend beckerbuns lost her dad to melanoma a few years ago.
Anyhoo, I had the thing biopsied on Feb. 2. The doctor said he'd call me in a few weeks to assure me it was benign, to tell me what exactly it was, and to see how I'm healing. But I asked him: "what if it's... melanoma?" To which he replied: "Bad news travels fast." What he meant was that if the pathology lab found it to be melanoma, he would call me right away!! Well, from Feb. 2 up until today, I kept hearing him say "bad news travels fast" and I kept hearing my own mind add: "no news is good news!" But I couldn't help but WORRY!! I felt pretty good, thinking about those phrases, and also thinking about how he was VERY confident, during the biopsy, that it was NOT melanoma. But I still felt like I had a damn Sword of Damocles hanging over my head! (Even in my anxiety, I'm still a walking collective of obscure facts! heehee)
Anyhoo, I see all my anxiety was for nothing! :) :D When the Dr. called me on my cellphone today, I was at work (at NurseWeek magazine, how appropriate) so I went outside to take the call. Because of that, I had nothing to write with, or write on, so I forgot all the technical jargon he read to me, courtesy of the pathology lab. *chuckle* But in layman's terms, it was a lentiginous nevus, which some folks consider a relative of the melanocytic nevus. If you click this link, you can see a very interesting (but short!) slide show about these lentiginous nevi.
Well, I'd better stop rambling before this turns into a lecture for the dermatological society! *grin* But SERIOUSLY for a moment -- if nothing else -- I hope reading this has reminded EVERYONE to check their bodies every so often, to see if any new birthmarks, moles, lesions or whatever have popped up, or to see if a current one has undergone any type of suspicious change. "The life you save may be your own!"
A few years ago, I obsessed about a flat pigmented spot on my lower side/back, which I had a dermatologist remove. I worried because it was bigger than a "standard" birthmark. However, it was not assymetrical, jagged-bordered or bi-colored (three of the melanoma warning signs). Also, it never got irritated and to my knowledge never changed. It turned out to be just what it looked like -- a large, harmless birthmark. I think the technical term is melanocytic nevus, but I'm not sure what the Dr. said.
Also a few years ago, I obsessed about something that appeared to be a deep cyst, located very inconveniently at my waistline. It very slowly grew, which I didn't like. I was also worried because it was not ON the skin, but within/beneath the skin (i.e. you couldn't see anything but skin rising due to something underneath). My dermatologist said it was a superficial subcutaneous lipoma, a totally benign, and actually rather common, tumor composed of fatty tissue. (My chiropractor thought the same thing. And he used to be a veterinarian, so he certainly knows his medical stuff! *chuckle*) However, despite these reassurances, I wanted it OUT!! I didn't like that it was growing. Plus I knew it would eventually get irritated by the elastic of my panties or the tight waistline of certain pairs of blue jeans.
So, it was removed, and it turned out not to be a lipoma after all! Rather, it was a keratin cyst, even though it was not the common type of keratin cyst that forms in/around a hair follicle. I still think it looked and felt more like a lipoma, but I trust the pathology lab. Besides, neither lipomas NOR keratin cysts become cancerous, so either way, I was safe! :)
Now the current thing. It was another case of something being "bigger than a standard birthmark" -- to quote myself from the first paragraph. I've had it my whole life, and I don't recall it ever changing. However, it's in one of the places on one's body "where the sun don't shine", if you know what I mean! heh And for some reason I got a thought stuck in my head that sometimes melanoma (the worst type of skin cancer) does a very ironic thing -- it strikes in places that DON'T get a lot of sun exposure. :( I guess I also thought about it because my good friend beckerbuns lost her dad to melanoma a few years ago.
Anyhoo, I had the thing biopsied on Feb. 2. The doctor said he'd call me in a few weeks to assure me it was benign, to tell me what exactly it was, and to see how I'm healing. But I asked him: "what if it's... melanoma?" To which he replied: "Bad news travels fast." What he meant was that if the pathology lab found it to be melanoma, he would call me right away!! Well, from Feb. 2 up until today, I kept hearing him say "bad news travels fast" and I kept hearing my own mind add: "no news is good news!" But I couldn't help but WORRY!! I felt pretty good, thinking about those phrases, and also thinking about how he was VERY confident, during the biopsy, that it was NOT melanoma. But I still felt like I had a damn Sword of Damocles hanging over my head! (Even in my anxiety, I'm still a walking collective of obscure facts! heehee)
Anyhoo, I see all my anxiety was for nothing! :) :D When the Dr. called me on my cellphone today, I was at work (at NurseWeek magazine, how appropriate) so I went outside to take the call. Because of that, I had nothing to write with, or write on, so I forgot all the technical jargon he read to me, courtesy of the pathology lab. *chuckle* But in layman's terms, it was a lentiginous nevus, which some folks consider a relative of the melanocytic nevus. If you click this link, you can see a very interesting (but short!) slide show about these lentiginous nevi.
Well, I'd better stop rambling before this turns into a lecture for the dermatological society! *grin* But SERIOUSLY for a moment -- if nothing else -- I hope reading this has reminded EVERYONE to check their bodies every so often, to see if any new birthmarks, moles, lesions or whatever have popped up, or to see if a current one has undergone any type of suspicious change. "The life you save may be your own!"