Two months ago, I fell up the bleachers at a football game. It never broke skin but it made sense that it hurt. But when my leg hurt worse two weeks later, I knew something wasn't right.
melanoma

The Waiting Game

September 3, 2021 /
Two months ago, I fell up the bleachers at a football game. It never broke skin but it made sense that it hurt. But when my leg hurt worse two weeks later, I knew something wasn't right.

I missed a call from my doctor today.

I was on my way to work and accidentally declined the incoming call. I had been talking to my mom and I didn’t recognize the phone number. The call came in just as I was ending the call with my mom, inadvertantly declining the call from my doctor too.

About a minute later, my phone alerted me of a new voicemail. I listened to that message no less than three times in the next three minutes. The one word that was garbled in the entire message was the one that could alter the entire meaning.

About two months ago, in my typical graceful fashion, I fell up the bleachers at my friend’s football game. It never broke skin and since the bleachers were metal, it made all the sense in the world that it hurt like hell. But when my leg started to hurt worse than ever about two weeks later, I knew something wasn’t right.

The only thing I can compare the pain to is the lidocaine injections I receive when my doctor is excising a mole that came back as moderately or severely atypical after a biopsy. There was a red spot the size of a golf ball accompanied by a lump that burned any time something touched it. A slight brush of my cat’s tail against it was enough to bring tears to my eyes.

After five days of antibiotics that did little to no good, my doctor determined it was most likely a community-activated MRSA (staph infection) and gave me stronger medications. For the next seven days, I slept terrible, had wild, vivid dreams and felt like my body was deteriorating from the insides. Needless to say, antibiotics and I do not get along well. I though my stomach and intestines were going to burst.

Out of an abundance of caution, they decided to have my dermatologist do a biopsy on the mass at my next skin check two weeks later. We removed the halo nevus on my left shoulder and did a punch biopsy of the mass on my shin. That was more than two weeks ago…

My doctor and I both feel pretty confident that the halo nevus will come back completely benign and we found no other moles of concern. It’s my shin that’s the wild card this time.

So when I got a voicemail from my doctor, my heart sank. In my world, the doctor doesn’t usually call unless it’s bad news. And the garbled word in the message? Cyst. Or was it test? I couldn’t tell. Moments later, I got a text that I had new test results.

Let me tell you, the remaining 3 miles to get to work and check those results was the longest 3 miles of my life. Even longer than the last 3 miles of a 7 mile run. I was able to {miraculously} reach my doctor when I got to work and it was just more results from blood work I had done this week, not my biopsies. These results weren’t what we’d hoped but they were better than before. I’m focusing on the progress and we’re adjusting my medication.

16 days and counting on the biopsy results.

Let the waiting continue.