What's up and what's going on...

So, some explanation for the absence that took me away from my regular blogging!

Back in late August/September I had some health issues, and without going too far into the details and giving a play-by-play, I finally got a resolution. But for the better part of two months, I was sick, and fraught with anxiety and panic attacks (part of the issues I was having was related to my anxiety disorder, which is now under control again) but now I'm back to my regularly scheduled life, already in progress.

What a roller coaster that was, though. I could barely function, and went without sleep for nearly three weeks. And by "without sleep", I mean, I was getting more sleep when Angelica was a newborn. The first night I got a decent night's sleep I woke up feeling like a new person, and thankfully I've been sleeping just fine every since that.

Having gotten the anxiety and other health issues under control (which thankfully turned out to be a big nothing), I went to the dermatologist for a check-up. I had one particular "spot" on my chest I was concerned about being skin cancer, and while I was there, I thought...eh, might as well have her look at these two other things (which I really thought were just scars) on my nose.

The spot on my chest was fine. Spot #1 on my nose was fine. The other? Well, it turned out to be skin cancer. Basal cell carcinoma, to be specific.

Hi folks, meet my cancer. It's that little spot you MIGHT see on the side of my nose there. And this is my attempt at a bad-ass face.

Imagine that, a pale-skinned, freckled, red-headed chick who has lived in Florida her whole life getting skin cancer! I mean, what are the odds? (Sense the sarcasm, friends.) Truth be told, my mom was very strict about making sure I wore sunscreen as a kid, and I always have been as an adult. I can count on one hand the number of times I've had a sunburn. (And I know without a doubt which one of those times was what caused it...thanks, Warped Tour 2000...)

I guess pale-faced redhead trumps SPF30.

The long and short of it is that it's nothing to worry about. I'm going in for surgery tomorrow to have it removed, and the procedure they use to do it has a 95-99% success rate. Meaning, I will go home tomorrow after the surgery cancer-free, and it has about a 1-5% chance of recurring.

And even if it does come back, it's not life or death. This kind of cancer doesn't metastasize, so it won't kill me. It might just make my nose ugly. I'll take that over death!

So what prompted me to get that particular spot looked at? Honestly, I'm not sure. I hadn't even thought twice about it until the morning of the appointment I'd made to get the spot on my chest looked at. I never in a million years would have thought the spot on my nose was cancer. I just thought it was an annoying blackhead that kept coming back. It was just slightly larger than a normal blackhead, and I really just wanted it to go away, so I figured the doc would prescribe a cream.

Upon examining me, she looked at the spot on my chest and said, "Nope, that's fine." (was just an irritation), looked at nose spot #1, "nope, that's fine." (was just scar tissue) and when she got to (what I didn't know was) the cancer spot, she paused, and said, "Oh. (long pause) Yep. Let's biopsy that."

In my head I was all, "WTF? REALLY?" But I'm glad I asked. Even if it's not life-threatening, it's good to deal with it now before it gets worse (and the disfigurement to remove it would then be worse as well).

So, all in all, it sucks, it's annoying, but I'll live and that's what really matters. And I'll take my battle scars as they come.