The Shark Bite that Might have Saved My Life

Maybe this isn't an everyone story.  In fact, at first I just shared this concern with a select audience. But, eventually I'm going to want to wear those cute tank tops I bought at TJ Max right before our Hawaii trip so everyone will see it anyway.  By it I mean the shark bite on my shoulder.
   It started off as no big deal.  Once a year I visit my dermatologist and sometimes there's something suspicious to remove.  Because I somehow got the lucky gene that gave me lots of moles, I've done this since I was quite young and had many moles removed.  For years I thought it was just an annoying and fairly unnecessary inconvenience.  I would wait and postpone and cancel appointments.  Then, my then three-year-old was diagnosed with melanoma in 2014 and my invincibility hit rock bottom.  The It could never happen to me thought completely disintegrated, pretty much for every single thinkable possibility.  Because what three-year-old gets melanoma?
  Then, being in the melanoma community and involved with the melanoma research foundation I started learning just what my risk factors were.  Even ONE sunburn in my childhood, even ONE trip to the tanning bed, lots of moles, and FAMILY HISTORY.  So, it wasn't panic that caused me to start making my yearly appointments a priority, it was just common sense.
   This year on my visit to the dermatologist I had two suspicious moles removed.  I use suspicious fairly loosely because with these risk factors we often just ere on the side of caution.  I didn't feel very concerned.  However, a few days before our trip to Hawaii (for our Make-a-Wish trip because my child had MELANOMA) I got a call from the nurse.  She left no specifics on the answering machine.  She wanted me to call her.  Didn't they just leave the results last time I had one of these benign spots removed?  I started to shake a bit as I dialed the number.
   With my kids suddenly deciding to yell at eachother in the background I got in touch with the nurse.
   "We got your results," she began.  "The first mole from your leg was just a mole and nothing more.  The other spot however..."
   My heart jumped into my throat. I'd heard that however before.
   She went onto explain that it had "changing cells" but that they caught it in time.
   "So, it's not cancer?" I still tried to rewind her words and play them back in my heard.
    "The pathology report does not say cancer on it," she said carefully, as though scouring the report while talking to me on the phone.
    We scheduled a wide excision for my first day back from Hawaii.
    I did share this news with the group of parents I converse with online about pediatric melanoma.  I knew they'd understand how scary the words wide excision, changing cells and looking for clear margins can feel after where we've been.
   I got an e-mail from one of them saying she was waiting for the blog post about the shark bite.  I told her that was the best part-that no one will have seen me since the trip so will of course assume I have a huge shark bite scar on my shoulder.  We got eachother.  Sometimes when you've been through some pretty unthinkable things your sense of humor goes somewhere weird.
   The day of the procedure went well enough.  It was kind of gross and weird and then sore and it was sad to come back from Hawaii and immediately take a long break from swimming and swim suits.  And then, on top of that it did get infected and I needed an antibiotic and follow up appointments.  But, when I think of the word changing cells and know what that means I'm still thankful for the scar.
   I mostly share my shark bite story because I go pretty often to get this checked out.  And still, sometime in the last twelve months this had time to start.  When I think about how lightly I took this, I realized how easily it could've grown and spread.  The thing about skin cancers is that, while melanoma is extremely deadly, skin cancers don't typically begin by hiding somewhere-they usually leave obvious clues that can be easily checked out.  So, hopefully the worst thing that can come of making that appointment is an hour lost or a really awesome shark bite story.  Who knows?  A shark bite might save your life too.