A Stitch in Time, and Four in My Head...

  Well, I had the stitches taken out of my nose today, and I don't have to wear those annoying band aids on it any more. I do have to wear SPF 50 and a wide brimmed hat for the rest of my life though.I also had the cyst taken off the top of my head and I now have four stitches up there. Apart from feeling like someone is pulling very hard on a wad of hair on the top of my head, it isn't too bad. I'm going to live in fear of someone bumping me on the head for a while though.
  I promised a review of the Our Generation mini doll last week, but I ran out of time. It's nearly ready though, and you'll be seeing it in the next couple of days, along with some cool finds.

The State of My Nose

  If you read the blog the other day you'll know I was found to have a basal cell carcinoma on the side of my nose recently. Friday I went in to have a cyst removed, but suggested they deal with the cancer first. The doctor thought he might already have gotten the whole thing when he did a 'shaving'  at the beginning of the week. He said that we could leave it at that and keep an eye on it in case it came back, or, just in case, he could remove the surrounding area to make sure he had gotten all of it. I asked if there was a chance it could come back under the surface of the skin and we wouldn't see it. He said it might, so I told him to 'cut my nose off'.  I ended up with 5 stitches inside, and about 20 stitches outside, in what he referred to as a 'running baseball stitch'. (I said, "That's funny, because I was feeling like laying my head in a baseball mitt and I didn't know why.") It goes most of the length of the side of my nose. It hurt like crazy yesterday, but it's not too bad today. I still can't blow my nose though! My eye was pretty puffy this morning, but I think it has gone down a lot now.

Talk about your foul balls...

  Now that that's taken care of, I received a letter from my other doctor's office today, telling me that my routine blood tests showed an abnormal thyroid. As "Rosanne Rosannadanna" used to say, "It's always something!"
 

Not So Good News

  I went to the doctor recently to see about having a cyst removed from the top of my head. While I was there I also had the doctor look at a small bump that appeared on the side of my nose a while back. A simple act like scratching my face caused it to bleed, and that's not normal, so I was concerned. He shaved it off and sent it for a biopsy. Turns out I was right to be worried. The doctor's office called today to say that the bump turned out to be a basal cell carcinoma. In other words, it was cancerous. The good news is, basal cell carcinomas 'almost never spread to other parts of the body and become life threatening'. I have an appointment tomorrow to have the original head lump removed, and an appointment for April 8th to have the basal cell thingy removed. I'm going to ask if they can switch the dates though, so I can get rid of this thing and feel safer, and know I'm ok. Also, they already cut a chunk out of the side of my nose, so it only makes sense to do it now before this heals, so it will only be one healing and scar less. They said both would take about a half an hour, so it's not like they need more time than they already had set aside for me.
  Basal cell carcinoma is caused by sun exposure. Since the kids aren't little anymore I don't have to spend time outside with them as they play. (These days we can't even get Ivy to leave the house!) I really only go out in the sun to hang laundry, yard sale on summer weekends, and go to the flea market with Lori 3 or 4 times a year. I don't normally get sunburned, and have had few sun burns in my life. I am fair skinned, being a red head, but I've never had a problem with burning. In fact, I tan if I'm not careful. I'm going to have to make sure I start wearing sunscreen all the time and start wearing my hat on a more regular basis. (I did start wearing one to hang laundry, but I have been bad about doing it all the time.)
  I should be ok. I may have a big scar on my face, but with this face that isn't much of a loss anyway!