The Dermatologist

I was not able to get into the dermatologist until the end of July 2010. She thought it may either be the Spitz Nevus coming back or just a Keloid scar. If it was the Spitz Nevus I would have to have it removed again because of how close it is to Melanoma, but if it was just a scar I would not. She did not think it was Melanoma; she even made the statement “It is not Melanoma, because you would be dead by now”. She said she wanted to do a biopsy to confirm what it was.

August 2, 2010, two punch biopsies were done. They said that because of my history of having Spitz nevus in the past it may take a few weeks to get the test results back. I did not give it too much thought. I was still just annoyed that I may have to get it off yet again. It didn’t dawn on me until the beginning of September that I had not heard from them yet. I called the office and inquired about my results. I was told that they were still doing some tests and that they had to send it to the State University Hospital for another opinion.

This was about the time when I started to worry. The next call was about a week later when she said that they would have to send it to California because it was still inconclusive. She told me at this point they had ruled out a scar, and that I would definitely be having it removed. She told me to think about when I would like to have the surgery. This is when I really started worrying. She didn’t go into detail, but I knew. If they had ruled out a scar that meant they were inconclusive about whether it was Spitz Nevus or Melanoma.

More time went by then I got a phone call on September 29th from the Dr’s receptionist. She is usually very bubbly, but this time she was very monotone. She said that Dr. O was in seeing patients, so she would like me to come in tomorrow and see her. I knew that it was bad news, had it been good news she would have called me back when she was not busy.

September 30th, Dr. O called Corey to make sure that he was coming with me to the appointment, she told him that it was not good news and that it was Melanoma. When we went to the appointment she explained what the different pathologists had found. She did tell us that the pathologist thought I may have been misdiagnosed in 2005 and that it was Melanoma then. She informed us then about the size of area that they would have to remove and that I would have a skin graph done. She still did not feel confident in the diagnosis and did not want to label it as Melanoma quite yet. She wanted it sent to a Spitz Nevus specialist in Ohio and then go from there.