Monday Thoughts

Many thoughts were bouncing around in my head this morning as I drove into work. At a recent trip to the dermatologist for my annual skin check, my doctor decided to remove yet another mole because it looked suspicious and they wanted to do a biospy on it. I've been going through this process since I was under my mom's wing. I believe this is the 4th mole I've had removed over the years. I am their ideal candidate at the dermatologist for skin cancer--fair complected, tons of moles and my mom has had skin cancer. They are very careful about documenting the changes in size, shape and color of my moles, so much in fact that they actually photograph them so they can track them from year-to-year. When they remove a mole, they always offer reassurances that it will probably check out fine. And they're right. It normally does. And I'm not one to worry about something until I need to and therefore I haven't thought about it much since my appointment last Tuesday.

But for some reason on the way in this morning, I was thinking "what if." What if THIS is the time that something is actually wrong? What if they tell me I have skin cancer? What would I do? How would I tell my husband? My parents? What would this do to all the life plans we have laid out? It's scary to think that your life could change with one phone call. I'm sure I would be strong and resilient. And maybe it would turn out to be a minor surgery and things would get back to normal. But it could always be the other extreme too, you never know. Oh how our lives would change.

Maybe it's the fact that it's almost our 1-year anniversary (already!) that I was reflecting on life. Or maybe I had too much alone time this weekend. Regardless, it was a morning for being thankful for how wonderful life has been thus far, how healthy I've been, how lucky to marry the man I love. I know that so many people out there aren't as fortunate. And I know too that if a bump comes along in our journey, he and I will be able to tackle it together.

And wouldn't you know it, when I got to my desk this morning I had a message waiting from the receptionist at my dermatologist's office that was left on Friday (I had worked from home), asking me to call the office. Surely the receptionist wouldn't call me with bad news, right? They'd make the doctor do that. Definitely the doctor. I called. Good news...again. The test came back benign.

I could have known the good news already on Friday....FRIDAY! But I know today and that's just as good. I'm fine and will be celebrating my 1st anniversary with my husband in Seattle on Sunday...with an extra twinkle in my eye.