A brief lull in the snow

Brought a lot of relief for me.

This will get wordy so be prepared. Sorry.

The roads started clearing up on Monday, but I was feeling worse. Lack of sleep, still in pain, emotionally drained.

After another freak out Monday afternoon with lots of crying I finally made the phone call. I called SK's office anticipating them not having an appointment until later in the week if at all. I did have an appointment with her next Tuesday, but I really hated to wait.

Miraculously there was an appointment at 8:45 Tuesday morning. It was meant to be!

I made a list of my concerns to discuss with SK on my iPhone. Yes I like to talk about my phone. I love it so.

First and foremost was the crying and depression. Then it was followed by the lack of sleep, the pain in my stomach, my chest, my shoulders. My shortness of breath, my racing heart.

I got up early Tuesday morning, got dressed and got behind the wheel of the car for the first time for almost a month. Josh let me have suby since the roads were still a little messy and suby drives much better.

I hate driving. I hate people that are on the roads. I almost rear ended a stupid older lady who STOPPED at a yield sign that I almost didn't see because of the snow on the curve of the road. Okay, I didn't almost rear end her, but I COULD have. Apparently I'm well known for my road issues. I just hate stupid drivers. *sigh* And what was stressing me out even more was the loads and loads and loads of traffic. I couldn't even get down the hill.

Apparently 83N was closed due to weather and a tractor trailer that tipped over spilling roofing nails, tar and shingles *slaps forehead*. Really?

So what normally takes me 10 mins to get to, took me well over 45 mins. Thankfully I am a freak of nature and had left 45 mins early. I am smart. Or crazy. Whatever. And let me tell you, driving after this surgery is rough. Everything feels tight and it is hard to turn the wheel of the car.

I get there, I sign in, they take me back to a room and THEN. Oh, and then. THEN they tell me SK is running late due to the traffic and I may have to see the other doctor. *gasp* Oh no. No nonononono. I totally panic. Oh gosh I guess my anxiety is worse than I thought. I frantically text my mom and Josh.

Then I get a brilliant idea. I step out of my room and tell the nurse I have to use the bathroom. I proceeded to lock myself in there for 10 minutes to stall. Again with my iPhone. YES I AM CRAZY. I'd rather people think I was destroying a toilet (obviously if you are a regular blog visitor, you'll know I've already done it) than not see SK.

I get back to my room and I hear them say she is almost there. Oh sweet relief.

When she comes in I almost cry when I see her. Ten seconds later when she says "oh honey how are you?" I really do burst into tears. I tell her everything. EVERYTHING that is going on. My list, things going on with my family, my skin issues. The flood gates are open and I'm spilling my guts.

I am talking frantically, my hands are shaking and apparently I turned ghost white (she asked if I was going to pass out) at one point as well. I have never trusted a medical professional as much as her. She always understands me, always listens to me and has never failed me.

After about a 45 minute session we have a plan.

First is to deal with the pain. Second get me some sleep. Third deal with my anxiety. Then we'll talk about maybe doing physical therapy for my shoulders if they are still bothering me.

She wrote me some prescriptions, hugged me, told me to call her today and made an appointment in March for a follow up.

I immediately headed to Target to get everything filled. I also asked them to fill my prenatal vitamins. Yes I take prenatal vitamins. My hair looks FABULOUS!! That's the only reason.

After my 45 minute wait I picked up all my drugs.

So I had my prenatals, but then there was the Tramadol (generic for Ultram), Lorazepam (generic for Ativan) and Lexapro.

And of course I got the one pharm lady that knows me because of our street name. So she probably thinks I'm a pain junky who is trying to get knocked up, and who is depressed and anxious. Whoa.

In reality. The prenatals really are for my hair. When I went off hormonal birth control my body went a little crazy so I needed a little something to get my body back into shape.

Tramadol (generic for Ultram) is a pain medication. It is not a narcotic. It can not be used in conjunction with any SSRI's or the like because of how it works. So I can't take the Lexapro.

Lexapro will be for when I am no longer taking the Tramadol. I've taken it before. It does wonders for my depression and anxiety. I went off it because I was "feeling better." You shouldn't do this. I was fine for 3 years though. Ugh. Depression is complicated. Don't follow my example.

Lorazepam (generic for Ativan) is the final drug I picked up yesterday. It is for an immediate anxiety reduction (Lexapro is long term depression and anxiety reduction). I took Lorazepam when we flew to CO. It makes me super sleepy and calms me down.

When I got home last night I took the Tramadol at 1PM and then again at 7:30PM. It was such a relief. It didn't make me woozy, it didn't take all the pain away, but it took the edge off and made me relaxed for the first time in almost a month. I couldn't believe the difference between this and the Vicodin I was taking before.

At bedtime I took a whole Lorazepam and promptly fell all the way asleep. It was AMAZING. I slept the whole night, I woke up feeling rested. I didn't lay awake for hours with my brain on full throttle.

If I felt good last night I felt GREAT today. Yeah, maybe it was the placebo effect. Maybe it was just having a doctor say to me that I wasn't crazy and we could work through this (no offense to Dr. P or his staff, but they don't KNOW me like SK knows me). Maybe SK really can work magic and knew exactly what I needed to get to a better place. Whatever it was I am so thankful for the sleep, the lack of pain, the lack of crying.

These are all the medications I've picked up at the pharmacy since all this went down (minus another bottle of Vicodin that I've already consumed and threw out).

This is all the medication I've taken BECAUSE of the surgery.

Boy this has been a rough road. I appreciate the support everyone.

Tomorrow is another follow up appointment with Dr. P, my surgeon.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

I once had a pretend brain tumor

I wasn't pretending it was a brain tumor. IT was pretending it was a brain tumor.

Way back during my first surgery blogging I mentioned this crazy phenomenon. When I was asked by the nurse if I was allergic to anything I mentioned tetracycline which is a common drug prescribed for acne. You can read the rest of that story if you follow the link (it's blissfully short and is the fourth paragraph under the first photo of me).

Both subsequent times I've had surgery I am also asked about drug allergies and both times I have told them about the tetracycline. Why this popped into my head today to discuss I don't really know. I mean I was looking at possibly side effects of long term Vicodin use (I know I've only been on it for like 4.5 days - I'm paranoid okay?) and then for some reason I threw tetracycline into the search engine.

(click HERE for more information)

Nothing came up. Hmmm. I mean well stuff came up (headache, nausea, vomiting, etc) but nothing about severe debilitating headaches that were associated with tumor like symptoms.

Although, if you type in pseudo tumor cerebri and read anything involving causes, tetracycline is listed. Interesting again. I suppose it is because it causes such a SMALL number of cases they don't want to freak anyone out, but let me tell you who was freaked out when no one knew what was going on - ME!

When I was 14 I had really bad acne. Actually I had it at 12 and 13 too, but 14 was when I made up my mind to DO something about it. After lots of creams, treatments, etc I was put tetracycline to try to dial down the massive large red breakouts all over my face.

Now my EXACT details on this whole escapade are fuzzy. It was almost 14 years ago and I was an overly dramatic, hormonal 14 year old. Suffice to say I started the tetracycline. My acne started clearing up. I also started getting debilitating migraines to the point I was super light sensitive and throwing up. This was attributed to "hormones" and "growing" and "girl problems." Then one day I passed out in gym class while running the track. And I mean face first plant directly into the cinders with no hands out to catch me.

It looked like I had acne all over again! Ha! Ok, I shouldn't joke, but what else is there to say? I looked a mess. Saw my doctor again. More "hormones, growing, stress, etc." and I was sent on my way.

Then that winter I was walking home from school. I lived 1/2 block from the high school, so not far at all. I did however, in that 1/2 block distance, have to cross the one "major" street in my hometown (yes, there was only one, MAYBE two major streets). I was midway across that street when I collapsed. I have no memory of feeling weak. Just walking and then someone carrying me home (a school friend who saw it happen).

The speed limit wasn't high, but had I passed out in front a car, it still could have run me over. Ugh. Bad thoughts.

That was when the neurologist got involved. Several MRI's, tests and scans and low and behold they found my pretend tumor! I had a large increase of fluid that was pushing on my brain just like a tumor would.

I was told to stop all medications I was taking and present a list to my doctors. List was presented, medications were stopped and miraculously the REALLY bad headaches and the passing out stopped (temporarily).

After about 4 months I was called back to the doctor's office to get my official diagnosis. I had an allergic reaction to the tetracycline that cause a pseudo tumor cerebri. It is most common in women of child bearing age and even more common in obese women. Now I fit the first criteria, but at that point in my life, I was still really skinny. This issue causes problems in less than 1% of the population and the fact that stopping the tetracycline cured the swelling in my brain I was officially diagnosed and told to NEVER take it AGAIN.

Apparently the less than 1% diagnosis still prevents LOTS of medical professionals from knowing about it, which makes sense to me. Could you imagine having to know EVERY potential issue with EVERY potential person?? It's why we have the internet people!!

So that is my fun story for today. It only took me almost a year to explain it. Lol.

However it doesn't explain why I wrote that my last post was #150 when really I only have #148 (well this one will make #149) published. I'm sneaking this in HERE way down at the bottom because I feel dumb. I didn't realize I had two unfinished posts lurking around that I gave up on. Oops. My bad. Ignore my mistake. I'll make up for it with MORE POSTS!!

Check back later this week for some Q&A from emails I've gotten (and I will respond to those emails shortly as well - I promise!!), and maybe another discussion on my weirdness including my predisposition to passing out and WHY am I allergic to the alternatives to things?

Always a fun time around here!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Post #150 has graphic photos

Seriously. Graphic. As in they are photos of the inside of my body. I know the inside of my body is pretty gross. I have seen photos before. I got a 4 set during my last surgery. I don't think I posted them. Maybe I did. I don't see them though. Hmmmm... Oh well.

Honestly they look a lot like these photos. Honestly I don't really know what I am looking at. You probably don't either. Unless you are a medical professional and then - why are you reading my blog? I'm really not that interesting!

So there are only 8 photos below. There should be 12, but my every amazing husband apparently scanned the same set twice and missed one set. Oops. Maybe when he goes back in to scan set 3, I'll see if he can scan in the set from last year since they are SO different. Lol.

On to the photos. Now these aren't ultra sound or anything fancy like that. They are literally photos taken with a small camera that was placed inside my abdomen so that the people performing my surgery could see what they were doing without flaying my stomach open.

The photos were scanned in, emailed, and then cropped so the picture quality is probably not great. Sorry.

The only really cool thing I can see is that the two right bottom photos and the one left bottom photo is the AlloMax that was attached to my diaphragm. That is the human tissue that can't be rejected, can't degrade, and has to hold up or we'll be going through surgery again.

Please send your positive thoughts to that gross looking piece of soggy thick paper towel thing.

Josh had scanned these photos yesterday and sent them to me last night. He sent them while watching Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe. Now Mike Rowe is an amazing guy who I swoon over every time he comes on TV. Maybe I'll talk about him another time.

The particular Dirty Jobs episode was Season 5, Episode 21. It was titled Fireworks Technician. There was an offshoot segment about a cow that has a hole in it's side that they fish inside of to study cow digestion. I couldn't watch. I felt like that cow. At least my holes got closed up. This cow has people digging in its guts daily. Sorry cow. :-(

And speaking of closing of holes - that will be a nice transition for the final segment of today's blog post.

I had 5 incisions last surgery. I had no stitches to close them up, just some steri strips and about a weeks worth of healing time and they were fine.

Dr. Prats used the same incision sites as last time to do this surgery. This time though he needed stitches for the one incision due to how much stretching was done with the instruments. That incision looks awful. See?

If you click on the photo it will get larger, but I just want to make sure you guys see how really gross it is! So I cropped it closer. See below.

The small white piece at the bottom right of the incision is the internal stitch that has once again made its way to the surface of my stupid body. I learned my lesson LAST time in regards to pulling on things around incisions.

Okay, well if you didn't lose your lunch from the photos in this post KUDOS! I think these are all the gross ones for a while. Unless Josh gets those other ones scanned in and then I'll post those too. Lol.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

What are you allergic to?

Some people are allergic to food. Others to the outdoors. Dust, bugs, cheese, latex, wool, certain drugs, other drugs, etc etc. I have one drug allergy. I also have an allergy to the latex free gloves. The latex ones are fine - go figure. I have a lot of skin irritations too. Thanks for that one mom!! Sensitive skin ROCKS!

Recently I've had an ever growing sensitivity to adhesive. Yes you read that right, adhesive. Like the stuff that helps things stick to you so you can heal. AWESOME.

When I had my arm gouged by the dermatologist I was told to put a band aid on after with Vaseline. After like a day I was itching my band aid like crazy. When i took it off it the area was red, swollen, and there were tiny tears in in skin. THAT hurt more than where the stitches.

So when I had surgery last friday that put on steri strips and then band aids. I HAD to take them off after like a day. Red, irritated and itchy again. I tried putting on other band aids because there was still some bleeding and seeping. No go. One day later I took them off and found this.

Can you see right where the band aid was stuck? Want a close up? It's really nasty gross!!

Do you see those two red areas on the edge of the leftover sticky?

That is where the skin was RIPPED OFF. Seriously.

Yes that hurt a lot. I think this was like time number 83 I'd cried since Friday. At least it felt that way. Blech.

This is the surgery I just can't seem to catch a break with. Recovery is still going rather rough. I'll update tomorrow hopefully all about today. It's a doozy!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

It's kind of not funny anymore...

So I tried to make light of this whole mysterious "thing" in my chest cavity. I made up interesting theories, joked with friends, nurses, doctors and medical staff, and generally managed to keep my mind off of it.

Up until this afternoon I was fine. Then I kept trying to get a hold of my surgeon. Several phone calls later and - nothing. I was frustrated and angry that I didn't know what was going on. I was highly emotionally agitated.

Sometimes I think I "just know."

At 6PM I got a phone call from Dr. Prats office. It was one of the nursing staff. It isn't any of my funny theories. It isn't the space from my old hiatal hernia. It isn't even a new hiatal hernia.

I have a paraesophageal hernia. It's the serious one.

Here is a quote from WebMD (not that I think this is the expert on these issues, but I am less so, and this pretty much says what the nurse told me over the phone) :

The paraesophageal hernia is less common, but is more cause for concern. The esophagus and stomach stay in their normal locations, but part of the stomach squeezes through the hiatus, landing it next to the esophagus. Although you can have this type of hernia without any symptoms, the danger is that the stomach can become "strangled," or have its blood supply shut off.

I asked some questions of the nurse and made an appointment to see Dr. Prats tomorrow.

I then proceeded to cry. And cry. And cry.

Yes, it could have been cancer. Or a tumor. I could have an inoperable problem. But it is none of those. And I've never really had any of those issues (besides the bit of skin cancer), so I don't know how bad it could be. Right now this is my worst thing though. MY worst thing. So far all my issues have been relatively benign and not scary. I CHOSE to have the fundoplication surgery knowing it COULD down the road cause problems.

This impending surgery is not something I can chose to have or not have. I have to have this fixed. It isn't an option.

Right now I have no idea how soon this will be taken care of and how much of an impact this will have on our upcoming (on THURSDAY) vacation. The nurse seemed to think it is unlikely I will be able to ski. I hope this won't be considered emergency surgery and keep me from going.

Here is a photo of what this looks like.

The problem with this (in my head) has to do with my toupet fundoplication. The whole top part of my stomach is wrapped around and stitched to my esophagus.

I can't keep speculating. I'll find out more tomorrow. I'll update more then. I'm upset right now.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Scanning the Thorax for Alien Babies

I had my CAT scan this morning. Not sure why CAT needs to be shortened to CT. We are talking one letter and no extra syllables.

Weird.

So the tech/nurse preps me and lets me know that the dye will feel warm, I will get a metallic taste in my mouth and I will feel like I am peeing myself.

Check, check and oh yes, check.

They aren't kidding, you really truly feel like you've just peed your pants. Such an odd sensation!

This is what I hung out in.

Or at least something similar.

They are supposed to get the results to my surgeon by 1PM. Hopefully he calls shortly after that.

Dun dun dun...

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Let me add something to my December 1 post

Monday December 7 at 9:30 I have a CAT scan. Why? Because I saw the surgeon today.

He was perplexed by the... mass. I enlightened him to my theories of aliens, worms and boobs. He then added his own theories.

Most likely it is a hiatal hernia (boo). Very slim chance it is just the space left behind from the fixed hernia. Even slimmer is the alien baby and coming in last and barely on the radar are my worms and third boob.

Although, if it IS alien we are flying to area 51 for fun. His treat! Weee!!

In all seriousness I did ask him what the plan was if it is a hernia. You'll never guess, so I'll just HAVE to tell you. Surgery!

Hm. So much for my potential new year's resolution of no surgeries in the upcoming year.

Oh, and the surgical resident was excited to meet me. Apparently I am something of a celebrity in the small world of local surgical residents. My surgery was interesting enough that it's discussed among them. It felt kind of weird.

Another funny of my visit was my offer to the nurse to see my x-rays. She was all "I don't really know what I'm loo *I pull out the x-ray* oh my god! Even I can see it's wrong." Awesome!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

It's December 1

Which means only 24 days until Christmas. I love Christmas and normally adore this time of year, but things have been less than fabulous around here.

Let's do a list of things that is going crazy in my life as a way to deal with it and MOVE on.

1. My alien baby. Surgeon appointment on Thursday. I better get some answers.

2. Family issues. Teenagers are stupid. I love them, but stupid. *sigh* I screwed up too as a teenager, but when I was a teenager there wasn't the social networking or INTERNET or the over abundance of cell phones. Stupid.

3. A week from Thursday we leave for CO. The Ativan test went exceptionally well on Sunday. I'm still nervous about getting everything together and about the whole... you know... FLYING thing.

4. My christmas/holiday cards are out. Now I'm afraid I forgot people. Awesome.

5. I'm getting sick I fear. My throat is sore. Really sore. I have a tree to buy and decorate on Saturday!!

6. Still have presents to buy and wrap, and yet when?

7. Need to buy all the ingredients for Christmas cookies, make said cookies, wrap and distribute. Oh, and before all THAT I need to figure out WHAT I'm making.

8. Oh, and I have to pack for the trip.

9. The house is barely half decorated.

10. We are hosting TWO family Christmases at our house. This means we need to clean the house.

So want to be able to properly stalk my movements?

Thursday Dec 3 - surgeon appt

Friday Dec 4 - pick up friend WEDDING dress

Saturday Dec 5 - get Christmas tree

Sunday Dec 6 - pack and maybe make cookies

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday Dec 7,8,9 - work

Thursday Dec 10 - fly to CO!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday Dec 11, 12, 13, 14 - hang out in CO and try to get together with some friends

Tuesday Dec 15 - fly back from CO

Wednesday Dec 16 - do lots of laundry

Thursday, Friday Dec 17, 18 - work

Saturday Dec 19 - finish shopping/wrapping for Christmas

Sunday Dec 20 - enjoy the day... or most likely clean the house

Monday Tuesday Dec 21, 22 - work

Wednesday Dec 23 - have my arm cut open to remove the pre-skin cancer cancer cells

Thursday Dec 24 - work early and begin food prep, then have immediate family Christmas

Friday Dec 25 - Christmas! Open gifts with Josh, then drive to parent's house

Saturday Dec 26 - Drive back from parent's house in time to make it to FIL side family Christmas

Sunday Dec 27 - Get up early to make food, and then host MIL side of family Christmas

Monday Dec 28 - SLEEP

Tuesday, Wednesday Dec 29, 30 - work

Thursday Dec 31 - New Year's EVE

Friday Jan 1 - Thank God it's the freakin new year and hope it's better than the last one!!

I might update now and then. If not either I'm doing the above things or I'm dead. Weeee!!

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Weird medical news

I should be used to it right? Bleh.

This is the SUPER condensed version.

Last Wed, first appointment at new chiro.

He takes some x-rays, then comes in all concerned about the DETAILS of my fundoplication surgery. I tell him, he shows me my x-rays and there is something... abnormal on them.

I already had an appointment with SK on Monday (today) to discuss my flying anxiety so I decided to wait.

Pick up the x-rays at chiro office and head to SK.

She thinks things don't look right either.

Oh and I am SO thankful for the iphone in light of my 45 minute wait to see SK. That story involves an older patient who was having an allergic reaction, but waited all weekend just to go to the doctor office where she proceeded to go into cardiac arrest. AWESOME.

She sends me for MORE x-rays.

Do those.

Results - large hiatal hernia.

Um? BEFORE surgery I had a VERY SMALL almost non-existent hernia. Now it's the size of my fist when it the VERY SMALL hernia was fixed in Feb.

BUT, the radiologist would like to take a look at the original films that I picked up at the chiro's office early this morning. Chiro is old school films, radiologist is all on the computer.

So now tomorrow I have to get up early AGAIN and meet with the radiologist for him to look at the original films.

I have not gotten to sleep in since... last Monday?? OMG, I HATE mornings and this lack of sleeping in is ruining my LIFE.

Not quite, but almost.

Here is the image in question. It's the big perfectly ROUND thing in the middle of my chest.

My theories were:

1. Alien baby (I started watching V) - if this was the case I would make millions which would be awesome. SK even wants to be in a photo if this turns out to be the case. Lol.

2. Worm colony - there was this House episode where this porn star had worms. I ate a worm when I was little. I figured it just had dormant babies.

3. Third boob - since I had the reduction my breasts were angry and were creating a third interior boob to make up for lost tissue.

It looks like it's none of those, but the final diagnosis isn't confirmed yet!

Oh, and I got some Ativan for my flying anxiety.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

Excellent Health Update!

Last Thursday I went in for blood work as a follow up to my AWESOME cholesterol levels.

This time(ish) last year I had blood work.

My total cholesterol was 363. Normal according to my paperwork is <200

Borderline high is 200-239

High is >/= 240

My LDL (that's the bad stuff) was 289. Normal is <130

Borderline high risk is 130-159

High risk is >/= 160

HDL (the good stuff) was 53. It should be between 35-75. Yay! I win on that one!

Triglycerides were 106. The range is 20-150. Another win!

The CHOL:HDL Ratio for FEMALES

Moderate risk >5.17

High risk >6.39

Mine was 6.85. Ouch

For MALES (just in case I have some reading and interested)

Moderate risk >6.09

High risk >7.30

Basically that is a lot of numbers indicating one thing. That was BAD news. Now, I understand a lot of people don't put much stock in high cholesterol numbers. There are a lot more factors that go into determining whether or not "high cholesterol" really means an increased chance for heart disease. And a lot of those people do not have numbers that are almost double or triple the recommended numbers.

I understand the concerns with taking drugs to try to "fix" something that may or may not be broken is not what some people would do. But here is why *I* do it.

Because I can. Seriously. I have these tools at my disposal that may or may not make a difference in my future health. If I were to find out that I did not use something that was available to me that could prevent future problems I think it would bother me. No, I know it would bother me.

Yes I am placing a lot of faith in science, pharmaceutical companies, researchers and doctors. I'm not very into conspiracy theories. Sorry.

So back to ME.

Blood work. Last Thursday. Results today.

Ready??

Total Cholesterol - 308!

LDL - 229!

HDL - 55!

Ratio - 5.70!

Triglycerides - 124 (I like carbs. Sue me.)

How did I get here?

Yep. That big bottle (of 180 tablets for those reading it) lasts ONE MONTH. You take SIX per day. This is how large they are.

Okay that isn't ACTUAL size. But break out your meter stick and check it out. They are NOT small.

So six of those a day for 6 months (I didn't start taking them religiously until April after my breast reduction surgery) and you can see where I'm at. I would love to get under 300 total, but we'll see what happens.

Now, according to SK (and I know she's right), if I were on Lipitor (or another statin) I would most likely be well under that 300 mark. But I will not take Lipitor.

That's for another post.

But on other good news quickly (we're watching a movie)...

My glucose levels are also down (102 --> 88).

Just a tad bit of bad news. My ex beauty mark area that is now a HOLE in my back is slightly infected. It's super painful and red around the edges. If it gets worse I have to make a phone call on Monday to get some antibiotics. Ugh.

Two out of three ain't bad.

*hugs and kisses*

mj

More slicing and dicing.

So I FINALLY made a dermatologist appointment. I've needed to make this for like 10 years now. Whatever. Actually I made the appointment back in... oh... MAY. It was yesterday. Dermatologists around here are hard to come by.

Let me take that back, GOOD dermatologists around here are hard to come by. In fact, my GP's office suggested I take my moldy body all the way to Lancaster (a whole 30 minute drive!) to see the derm office over there. So off I went yesterday to Dermatology Associates of Lancaster.

The office ladies were super nice and helpful. The waiting room was clean and well maintained too. And full of old people. I was the youngest person in there by... 40 years or more. Ha.

Why did I do all this? Well because of the photo below.

See that? That's my beauty mark. Cindy and Marilyn may have rocked them on their faces, but mine was shyer and ended up on my back. It used to be large and flat and happy. I liked it. It added character to the vast barren landscape of my back.

And just so you know I did not take this picture just to show off my mark. This photo is a cropped photo of my super sun burnt back at the beginning of summer. I'm not a complete photo taking freak. I didn't even take a picture of the cool owl necklace I wore yesterday that everyone complimented me on. (Yet. *hrmph*)

So back to my mole (who am I kidding calling it a beauty mark?). It was big and flat for YEARS and then two years ago it raised up. One theory of mine was that it felt like my ever expanding chest was in competition and felt it had to do SOMETHING so it grew too. OR, my body felt it necessary to balance me out. Hmmmm, who knows.

I assumed I would go yesterday they would look at everything, say all was well, MAYBE discuss removing my friend in the future and all would be well.

Ummm... she took one look at it and said "that's coming off today." Huh what? Like, ummmm, okay. I guess. Now I do not like to show fear to doctors (weird right?) so while my whole "huh what?" was going through my brain my mouth was all "yeah sure awesome! no problem! what pinch? Oh look at that lump of mole you just cut off and placed in that jar!" Ugh. She took one off my arm too.

She is considering removing the one on the bottom of my foot as well. Apparently bottom of foot moles have a higher rate of skin cancer? Weird.

I should hear in a week.

And wouldn't you know it that the nurse (who totally saw me all but naked in just a tiny bra and tinier panties) is the sister of one of Josh's teammates. I was in LANCASTER people!! And somehow I ran into someone who knows someone I know. Hi nurse!

I'll keep you all updated on my moldy outcome.

I see SK on Friday for a general wellness checkup.

*hugs and kisses*

mj