Silence of the Lambs

Last month I had a biopsy done on a mole in the middle of my upper back. The only reason I knew I should get it checked is because my massage therapist told me it looked suspicious. I am very glad that she bothered to look and that I listened and had it checked! I have probably had about 8-10 skin biopsies in the past 20 years and this was the first one that was cancerous. To be specific, I had malignant melanoma in situ (which means the root was in the biopsy).

Once the biopsy result came in, I was referred to a dermatologist (the only one we have at the Naval Hospital). Apparently when a biopsy comes up as malignant melanoma, they automatically want to go back and take more of the surrounding tissue to make sure there are no more cancerous cells. This seemed reasonable to me.

Surgery site

So I went to the dermatology appointment thinking that they were just going to remove a little bit more skin around the mole that was already taken. That was not the case. She explained that she has to measure out one centimeter from the mole and take out that area of skin. Ok, I was still thinking this was not going to be a big deal. The problem though, was that this area was circular and you can't stitch up a circle without having a very puckered scar left behind. So she had to draw a diamond shape on my back that encompassed the circle around the mole. Now we were talking about an area approximately three inches long!

Obviously, I still had to get it done, I just wasn't expecting it to be quite that much skin. So they had me lay down on my stomach, numbed up the area really well, and went at it. It probably only took about 20 minutes and except for smelling my flesh burning when she was cauterizing the area and feeling a slight tug when she was stitching me up, I wouldn't have known what they were doing.

Once I got dressed and I was getting ready to leave, one of the techs came back into the room to retrieve the tissue. Of course I asked if I could get a picture of it!! Sorry it's a bit fuzzy but you can definitely tell that it is fairly thick. I would guess at least one centimeter thick! I had no idea she was going to need to go that deep!!

The diamond shape of the skin reminds me of the movie Silence of the Lambs. In case you have forgotten, the serial killer was removing diamond shaped strips of skin from his victims. It was a lovely thought while I was having my back worked on!

This all happened on Monday and now I have to be careful with my showers. I am not supposed to get the area wet and I have to have the bandage changed every other day for two weeks. Then I get to have the stitches removed. Of course this happens while Carlton is gone but luckily I have friends who have been very helpful in changing my bandage for me! There is definitely no way I would be able to do it by myself. Here is a photo I took when I got home from the appointment - you can kind of tell how big the bandage is:

Here are photos that my friend Jessica took during the first bandage change just two days after the procedure.

Almost looks like a pantyliner

12 stitches!

Another fun issue I was dealing with the past week was our Tucson. We have had painters working on our neighborhood painting the exterior of the houses for about two weeks now. For the first part of the job, they use a sprayer to get the base coat on the house. They covered the vehicles in front with big pieces of plastic which were tied and also secured with tape. The afternoon of the second day, I happened to go outside and noticed that the plastic on the Tucson was almost completely off the vehicle. I looked more closely and noticed what looked like specks of paint, of course it's white paint and our vehicle is black.

One of the workers noticed me looking at my vehicle and came over to check it out. Then he called his boss over to look as well. Joe (the foreman) said they would clean it up and if it wouldn't come off, they would pay to have it detailed. I ran into him the next day and he said it did not come off, so I just had to find out how much detailing it would cost and they would pay for it. Luckily we have car detailing services on base, so it was easy for me to get an estimate. Turns out the vehicle needed a clay treatment to get the paint off without also damaging the underlying paint of the vehicle. $300 for that treatment.

That same afternoon I found Joe again and told him what the estimate would be. He promised to have a check for me the next day they would be there. We also got to talking and I found out that he had lived in San Diego before moving to Guam a couple years ago. So we were reminiscing about various wineries that we had enjoyed in the area along with beers and restaurants.

The next time the painters were in the area, Joe came by and brought me the check along with two bottles of wine! It was very thoughtful of him and excellent customer service that we don't normally see on Guam. I was very happy that they didn't put up a fight about taking care of our vehicle. I just had the Tucson treated today and although I do not have a "before" picture, here is an "after" picture!

Very shiny and clean, inside and outside!

The wines from Joe

I also wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who has been so generous in their donations! Carlton and I really appreciate your support! In case you missed it, here is the link for more information:
https://www.crowdrise.com/baby-for-the-brindas/fundraiser/jenbrinda