The report is in...

In April, I caught a glimpse of a mole on Elizabeth's upper back that I had never seen before and warning bells went off in my head. Having had a few moles removed myself, I'm always suspicious of new ones, and this one had some traits that are not good--irregular and more than one color. I called our insurance (which was just recently changed): "Can I take her directly to the dermotologist, or do I have to go to our own doctor first?" Since she had a couple of moles already removed last year, it was okay to skip our own doctor. When can we get an appointment? In June, with removal in July! Well, part of the problem was not being in town some of those weeks. Anyway, the mole was removed right after we got back from vacation, and the pathologist report came back two days ago. It contains "atypical cells", cells that are in transition toward melanoma! They now want to go back and make a larger incision to make sure they have a clean border with no atypical cells. That is scheduled for Aug. 7th.

The nurse also said Elizabeth will now need to have a yearly full-body scan to check for further problems, as it is a little unusual for a 12-year-old to already be developing skin cancer, especially the most serious kind. I feel that we were very blessed to discover this so early--very blessed indeed!