Even though I was almost 100% sure the “growth” under my arm was noth­ing because it had been there over 10 years and hadn’t changed one iota, it was still reas­sur­ing today to go to a der­ma­tol­o­gist to have him tell me it was just a nor­mal ker­ato­sis, one they could take care of then and there, so I let him. Won­der what took me so long? I’d look at it fre­quently and think I should have it looked at, just to make sure I wasn’t being cocky and self diag­nos­ing, and then I’d do noth­ing. Turn­ing 57 puts things in a lit­tle tighter per­spec­tive. That and know­ing I slathered baby oil on to get a “gor­geous tan” in my teens, twen­ties and thir­ties.  And I did keep look­ing at the skin can­cer charts on occa­sion to com­pare, and I say this with humil­i­a­tion, since I am a nurse.  It was stu­pid. My ex-husbands sister-in-law found a growth on her leg, went in, and within a year had died from the can­cer. It was really, really stupid.

So this is a wake up call to oth­ers who might be as stu­pid as I, and believe it can’t hap­pen to them. It didn’t hap­pen to me, and for that I am for­ever grate­ful and yes, I did learn my les­son and the next “I think that looks weird” will not take me 10 years to pon­der. Look your­self over, or bet­ter yet, have a sig­nif­i­cant other or spouse give you a good look­ing over. Great pre­cur­sor to some won­der­ful “things” and it may just save your life.

Now if the darn thing would just stop hurt­ing from the instant freez­ing job I had done.….…..