Melanoma

When Doug went to the dermatologist two last week, he had a biopsy of a large spot on the top of his head.  I had noticed it awhile ago as I was cutting his hair, but the doctor in Goshen had told him last year that they would just need to watch it.  I was glad that our new one took a different approach as the biopsy results confirmed that it was melanoma. We were both thankful to find out that it was stage zero as it was 100% curable.  The dermatologist would just need to remove it and Doug would be fine.

It all sounded easy yesterday when they removed the melanoma.  They would leave the wound open until they could confirm that they had removed it all.  We would receive instructions on how to clean it out and care for it until our next appointment in a week.  If they got the results early then we would come back on Monday or Tuesday for stitches.  We both felt very good about the process and even took pictures of Doug’s bandaged head.  Meg texted right away that she loved his new yamaka and Doug replied that he felt it was more of a papal cap than the traditional Jewish head ware.  

Everything changed late this afternoon when Doug took off the bandage for me to clean the wound.  It was by far the most disgusting thing that I had ever seen.  It looked like they had removed the two inch spot with a melon baller.  Cleaning it out was awful, especially when I kept thinking about the nurse’s last words - “Make sure you clean it well because if it scabs over, we’ll never be able to sew it shut.”  

Somehow, Doug and I got through the process, but it completely overwhelmed both of us.  We left for dinner at Las Margaritas shortly afterward, and I do not remember one thing that we said or did for the next hour.  I have never had that happen, but I must have been so incredibly upset about the procedure that my brain couldn’t process anything else.  I am not sure how I will be able to do it again on Sunday, but hopefully, it won’t be quite so bad.  I told Doug that if I really can’t do it, we will just have to go to urgent care for help.  That at least made me feel better for the time being.  At least I now know that not choosing a profession as a nurse was a great idea.