Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Out, out ...

I know some of you were worried about me after reading my item about skin cancer last week, and for that I apologize. I had my Mohs surgery on July 24 and it couldn't have gone better. I left Unionville at 6:30 a.m. and got to the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine at Penn at 7:45 (I didn't stop ONCE from Coatesville to South Street, 30 miles without a check!). They numbed me up, took it out, looked at the sample under the microscope to make sure it was all clear and then sewed me back up (and beautifully). I was out of there by 11 a.m. and home by 12:30.
Thanks to all of my friends who kept me -- and the medical staff -- amused with your emails, texts and Facebook postings to me throughout the morning. Here's the view I had, looking east toward Center City. I will spare you photographs of the surgical action, though I have some great ones!
The surgeon who did my procedure, Dr. Christopher Miller, is a total rock star: expert, focused, calm, matter-of-fact, gentle, in control. And the nurses and staff are top-notch; they made things as easy and pleasant for me as they could possibly be, physically and mentally, even asking what music I wanted to listen to (alas, Pandora was on the fritz, playing two channels at once and commingling "Hang on Sloopy" and "Call Me Maybe"). And they kept thanking ME for being "such a good sport"!
What does this have to do with Unionville? I know that many of you spend a lot of time outdoors, and a significant number of skin cancers are sun-related (though mine wasn't). Keep an eye on any iffy spots and bumps, anywhere on your body, and "have a low threshold" (in Dr. Miller's phrase) for getting them checked out. I was sure mine was just a skin tag.

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