I asked to have two small nubs frozen off my chest.  Little did I know the Doctor decided to take a biopsy to test to see if there were basil cells like I had on my upper left arm.  Well I thought nothing about it until I received a note from the V. A. informing me to make an appointment for surgery.  So this is the date for the surgery at Two P. M. We shall see how that goes!

Well it was an exciting day.  First my June 11th appointment was cancelled due to an emergency and the doctor asked me to come in on the 15th as the other surgery was very important as a man had horrible cancer on his face.  I, of course, agreed to the change!

My appointment was at 10:40 A.M. so I went early and had breakfast overlooking the Pacific Ocean at the Veteran Hospital's cafe and read the newspaper.  Then off to Dermatology and they had me come into the patient room on time and the nurse came in and checked me out.  I had a list of things I wanted checked and she had a good laugh.  I was prepared.  First she looked at the two biopsies they did a few months ago on my upper left chest region.  She said the one looked fine but the other may need surgery. 

I told her I had a small spot on my upper right arm so she checked that and the doctor came in and said they needed a biopsy just in case.  I also told them I had injured my right ankle area on a sharp metal piece on the work out equipment at the Y over a year ago and it still hadn't healed.  I said I followed their instructions for six months, salve and a band aide over it.  Well it never completely healed so I stopped the band aide and after a while, the scab fell off and the red spot was still there.  So I went back to the salve and band aide but the spot stayed the same.  So the nurse and doctor checked my blood pressure in my foot and ankle and said I had bad blood flow and so very little white corpuscles were in my lower body to heal my leg.  They suggested I start wearing pressure socks for 'life'!  Life, excuse me!  

So they did the following:

• Checked my upper left chest area - one spot was all right, the other needs surgery just to be sure!

• Checked my left sideburn and froze two spots on that area.

• Checked my right side forehead and froze a spot there.

• Checked my nose and froze a spot there.

• Checked a spot on my upper lip and froze that.

• Then the fun part, first deadened and then did a biopsy on my upper right shoulder.

• Finally deadened and did a biopsy on my inner right leg near the ankle.

After all this they said if either of the two biopsy came up with melanoma, they might be able to do all the operations in one session, the chest one, the shoulder one and the leg one (If all or any have melanoma).

The dermatology department is so busy they couldn't book me until September 10th at 1:30 in the afternoon.

I went in at 10:40 a.m. and left at 12:40 p.m. so I was there over two hours!  Such a deal as the Veterans Hospital does a fantastic job!

Return to the Research Projects Page

Created by: Charles W. Buntjer

Published on: 2009.02.05

San Francisco, California

Updated on: 2009.05.14