skinned.

The stitches are out.

When I visited my dermatologist this morning, I was also told that the chunk of my arm she removed two weeks ago was in fact malignant; it was a basal cell growth, and she made the right call in removing it upon that initial appointment.

This wasn’t a surprise to anyone. It’s why I went to see her, and it’s why she hacked it out immediately.

She could also tell from the tissue samples that she removed the whole thing. So that one is done.

We then turned our attention to my face, specifically to that dry patch next to my left eyebrow. She scraped a little sample, and then burned it off the surface. Even though they numbed the spot beforehand, this was every bit as disconcerting as was the digging from the first visit, only this time instead of the tugging and pulling, I got the smell of my own burning skin along with an unpleasant hissing noise.

Those are minor inconveniences; again, I’m happy to be addressing these problems before they become Problems.

The scraping she took will be biopsied, and what happens next depends on the results. She expects it to be malignant, but unless it turns out to be a more serious variety, I won’t go back until the fall so she can check to see if it’s all gone. If it is something more serious, I’ll visit in a couple weeks and we’ll take care of it then. Either way, I’m not too concerned — this time, I got someone to look at it early, when it’s easy to fix.

You guys are all going to do the same, right?