FRECTIS

I took my oldest daughter in for a mole check today since she is covered in them.  When the dermatologist walked in she was so happy to see me and wanted to know when I’d be getting into the plastic surgeon to have the cancer and the two moles removed.  I told her my appointment was pending any removals my daughter might need (she didn’t need anything biopsied).  The doctor asked me if I was clear on what the results for the biopsies on the moles meant.  I said that I understood that they should come off because they were atypical but not cancerous.  She said, yes, but…  And then drew me a diagram that looked something like this:

Benign------------Atypical------------Melanoma
                    ^^^
           mild---moderate---severe

Note that she didn’t write basal cell carcinoma a/k/a the “good skin cancer” anywhere on that diagram.

That means the two mole biopsies came back with the potential of melanoma, only caught soon enough not to kill do any damage to me.  She said she does not order the biopsy of anything that looks less than moderately atypical, which is her code for this is freaking serious.  To compare the urgency of getting the plastic surgeon to cut the rest of what is left out of my body for good, she said it’s like this:  I could live with the basal cell carcinoma on my chest.  I’d look crappy in plunging necklines but we’d never know how ugly it might get because I’d be long dead from the melanoma from the mole on my hip and back.  I get it.

While she was telling me this I was translating it into terms I am more familiar with so I could process it and ask questions.  It’s like you get a pap smear and it comes back abnormal (“atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance” or ASCUS means take a closer look).  You go in for a colposcopy (fancy scope to look at the cervical cells during an exam), maybe a biopsy to send to the lab for an expert eye and maybe that’s enough.  Or maybe you need more treatments like a LEEP or cryosurgery.  But if you didn’t deal with the atypical cells at all you might end up with cervical cancer.  And dead.

Moral of the story, wear sunblock.  But not on your cervix (unless of course the sun shines there).

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