2014: The Hits Just Keep On Coming!

Yes, that is sarcastic.  2014 was already on record as the worst year for me.  I know it is not for everyone, and I am so glad about that.  But really, I could have done without all this.

So, my GP has been after me to go get a baseline skin assessment done for about 3 years.  I am quite fair, so it makes sense that he wanted me to do this but I kept putting it off.  But then I noticed a few things - a few minor changes - that made me go ahead and schedule.  Last week, I went and had a very nice doctor look over every inch of me.  FUN!  She took one of the "changes" off using lidocaine and a razor, and told me I would have results within a week, maybe sooner.

My results?  They ended with "-oma"...yep.  In the year that already sucked beyond all expectations, now I also have skin cancer; squamous cell carcinoma, to be precise.  I will be fine, and I already have another procedure scheduled next week to have the area around the biopsy removed so as to make my skin cancer-free.  I'll have to be even more hyper vigilant than I have been about my skin care, and I'll have to get checked more often.  I'm okay with all of this.  SCC is common, and they know how to deal with it.  And if my body was going to do this, at least it is in the outer layers of the cells that make up me.  I have too many friends and family who have had much worse diagnoses, where the insides of them betrayed them.  Mine is just a teeny spot on my skin.  We're attacking this with our usual vigor, and I'm looking forward to it being in my rearview mirror.

But how much does 2014 suck?  It's 1000%.  This year sucks beyond mathematical possibility.  It may as well be Imaginary Number%.  I HATE THIS YEAR.  I hate it.  I'm so over it.  How ridiculous are things when being told that I have cancer is NOT the worst thing that has happened to me this year?

I cannot hibernate for 5 months waiting for next year, but I want to.

At the end of the day, I'm grateful to my doctor for pressuring me to do this, I'm grateful to my husband and family for not freaking out when I told them, and I'm grateful that I can have this taken care of with a minimum of disruption to life.  Whether or not I've been through "enough" this year, my kids certainly have, and I can't be the mom who had to tell them about their brother, and then almost 6 months later tell them that I have cancer.  They have been through enough, so for now they know that Mom had her skin checked because it's important to take care of yourself, and that I have to have a little more skin removed, and that they have to wear sunscreen every day.

So please, get your skin checked and wear your sunscreen every day.