Overheard: At a Party**

Friend #1: So... what did you do to your foot?

Me: Uh...

Brother: Skin CANCER!

Party Guests: [laughing] That's funny!

Me: It's true.

Party Guests: [Stunned, awkward silence]

Brother: Yeah, she's being a total baby about it.

Party Guests: [nervous laughter]

{{{ Several minutes later }}}

Friend #2 (was in the bathroom): Hey, what did you do to your foot?

Party Guests in unison: Skin CANCER!

Friend #2: [laughing] No, really, what was it?

Party Guests: [shaking heads] That's it.

Friend #2: Oh. Sorry.

**My Dad heard this story and thought it was really funny. I tried to make this funny, but I think it's one of those where you had to be there. On a side note, hello Val! It was great to meet you!

FAQ: Are the Crutches Really Necessary?

At the risk of turning this into a "Med Blog"...




Yes.

New Information

Read here about Horse Chesnuts.

What's going ON out there??

We don't watch TV, the news, we don't read state or national newspapers, and often, I don't really even check the news on the internet. But when I check my Yahoo email I do glance at the little news summary to the left.

Today, I saw this and it made me wonder just what's going on in the world right now...

Overheard: After Work

Me: They were having Sky Watcher Training today.

Him: With light-sabers and stuff?

Doh!

-or-
Happy Mother's Day.

One of the hardest parts about being Stephan & Anna and living in Montana is not procrastinating when holidays are coming up. We're the epitome of last minute shoppers. I remember our first Christmas together when we rushed around on Christmas Eve trying to find a Taco Bell that was open and selling gift certificates. Last Christmas it was the beginning of December when we started ordering things online, but we still didn't manage to get everything out by the Big Day.

On Tuesday night I thought we were totally good ordering Mother's Day gifts over the internet. Tuesday! That's like, 4 whole shipping days before Sunday. The excitement was in the air while I didn't have to click on "overnight delivery" for anything. Yippie!

Except when we called Stephan's mom this morning, she hadn't received her flowers yet. I tracked the shipment on ups.com to discover that, although I paid for 2-day delivery, the "delivery date" had been "modified" by UPS.

Grrrrrrrrrr.

But Happy Mother's Day to our moms, our friends who are moms, our sisters(in-law) who are moms, people who are gonna be moms, people who HAVE moms, and people who like moms. I hope all your brunches/dinners/Chinese Food take-outs were fun this weekend.

Why Monday Sucked

Remember when I said Monday sucked? Well, now I think I can tell the Internet more about that. Last week I had that tiny freckle taken off the bottom of my foot (I wrote about it here).

Monday the doctor called first thing in the morning to check up on me. I was so happy that he called, "how sweet!" I thought. As he started talking I started getting more and more nervous.

Doc: Anna, we got the pathology report back this morning.
Me: Oh, cool! (totally thinking things are fine)
Doc: The verdict is malignant melanoma, but it's just Clark's Level 2.
Me: Uhhhh, huh?
Doc: And I looked it up and the 15-year survival rate for that is 98%-100%
Me: ... Oh (seriously getting disappointed).
Doc: So we'll get you a referral over to Billings. They'll need to take more skin for testing.
Me: .... mmm.

The conversation with my mom went ok later that day.

Me: Mom, it's malignant melanoma.
Mom: Does that mean cancer?
No. Tell her no. Say NO.
Me: Yes.
Mom: Should I be worried.
Yes, because I'm freaking out.
Me: No. Let's agree not to worry. I won't worry; you won't worry.
Mom: Ok.

The flurry of internet research followed, including this site from the American Academy of Dermatology that says exactly what Melanoma is, what it looks like (mine looked the most like the example for unusual color), and what standard treatment options are. The American Cancer Society has a GREAT website with great stories about cancer survivors. Some made me cry, but most helped me feel a LOT better.

Also, Wikipedia has the best information about what the different stages are, and you can see there that the Clark Level 2 is actually nothing to worry about. All this information has really helped me. I have another operation scheduled for this coming Thursday where they'll take out 1cm of skin to make sure all the bad cells are gone.

What can you do? Three steps.

1. Check your freckles!! When in doubt, check it out. Call your doctor RIGHT AWAY for an appointment if anything looks different.

2. Say a quick prayer for me: I really believe in the power of positive thoughts/prayers.

3. Get on with your day: enjoy today. Don't let yourself worry about things too much. Find something you love to do, and do it.