Biopsy, Carcinoma, no fun, Son praying, priceless…

I’ve had an itchy spot on my scalp behind my left ear for some time now. At first I thought it was somehow caused by my glasses rubbing up against my scalp. Every once in a while it would scab over. Didn’t heal. I had my wife, a nurse practitioner,  look at it about a month ago. She said, "That doesn’t look good." She looked again and said, you had better see a dermatologist.

Expecting it to take a month to get in to see the doctor I was surprised that I got in to see him the next day. He said, "That looks like a basal cell carcinoma, but we will take a biopsy to make sure." Carcinoma? Biopsy? For an itchy spot on my scalp? The doctor did the biopsy which took about five minutes and told me to call in Wednesday for the results. While I was waiting for the doctor to return my call on Wednesday a good friend called. It was great to hear from him. I said, "You have just made my day by calling." He said something like, if my call makes your day you must be having a pretty bad day like sitting around waiting to hear bad news from a doctor. I brushed off his off-hand comment, it was a little too close to home.

After we hung up, I called the doctor’s office and found out the news: Basal Cell Carcinoma. "We can do a procedure and remove it, let me have my colleague speak with you to arrange it." The appointment was made for yesterday at 9 a.m. Turns out my spot was actually a pretty big spot. The procedure involved removing the growth, taking a slide of the fringes to make sure all of it was gone, and then closing up. So between the "removal" and the closing up there was about a 30-45 minute wait holding a bandage up to my scalp to provide pressure.

I was in good company in the waiting room with others who had bandages on their noses and ears. Eventually they brought me back in and said there was a small spot remaining but that it would be removed when they pulled together the loose skin to close the wound. About a half an hour later I was on my way home, an ace bandage wrapped around my head like a turban to apply pressure and minimize bleeding. My wife is using the turban effect to hold a bandage in place while I work today (see self-photo, right).

This weekend I am taking it easy, keeping the pain medication flowing. Expectations? Full recovery with about a 4 1/2 inch scar in my scalp.

On Friday, right after I got home my wife took Ben and they went to get my prescription filled and run some errands. As soon as they walked in the door Ben said, "I want to pray for you, daddy." "Dear Jesus, Help my daddy’s head to get healed, Amen."