Keep Breathing

Last Friday, I had a routine dermatology appointment. As I sat in the room waiting for the doctor to come in, I debated on whether I should mention this mole that came on pretty quickly. You know those conversations you have with yourself in your head? I kept telling myself it was not a big deal and to stop. Still waiting, I eventually decided I would just mention it towards the end of the appointment- like an afterthought. No big deal.

She looked at it with her funky looking microscope/light that made me feel like one of the film strips I've studied in photography classes. She said it looked fairly normal. Whew! Then she compared it to others and took into consideration how quickly it developed and its size. She decided that she should remove it- just to be sure. She would call in about ten days with the results. As it turns out, I am glad she played it safe.

Since I am working on the whole worry free lifestyle (have not perfected it yet!), thinking about the results was shuffled to the back of my mind. When they called today, I missed it and they left a message asking me to call back. The first thing that popped into my mind was: “oh no! Why would they need me to call if everything was not ok?” Decided to knock it off and went to class. They eventually called me later in the afternoon. She told me that there were abnormal cells in the biopsy but they “got it all.” Breathing easier, I shared the great news. There will be more caution practiced in the future with any concerns about skin changes. For now, I am thanking God for the blessing and working to keep in that positive light.

Stepping back, I know that worrying about the results would have just added more stress to my life and would not have helped me speed up the process of waiting. Nothing but living in the moment would have helped me get to this point. It may sound stupid because these thoughts so simple. Once you reach that point where your life has gone out of your realm of control, simple is what works. Keep that in mind - something we learn when we are young (and in my psychology research classes): KISS = Keep It Simple Stupid. That can be more powerful than you could imagine. Next time, we can talk about going to therapy later for calling yourself stupid all the time. :)