New year, new scar

As I mentioned earlier this week, I had a derm appointment on New Years Eve. Weird, I know, but it takes two months to get an appointment with my doctor, so I take what I can get. I've gotten several text messages and emails asking how things went, so here's the DL: one of the spots I was worried about looked suspicious to my doctor, too. They took a biopsy, and I should be hearing back within a week or two. Lucky me got to have stitches on NYE. Fun! (not)

I've had spots biopsied since my melanoma, but there was something eery about this appointment that gave me deja vu. The spot they biopsied was just this small, dark freckle that's popped up over the past year or so with slightly uneven pigmentation. It's not related to the old cancerous spot at all, but it's mere inches from my old scar. I think the proximity of it freaked me out a little bit. I mean, what are the chances that I get two primary melanomas right next to one another? Granted, I did burn that part of my body pretty bad back when I tanned, so maybe it's coming back to bite me in the ass. Who knows. Not going to worry about it for now.

My friend Melissa wrote a provocative blog post the other day in response to comments that were made on Facebook about stage I melanoma bloggers. As I've said before, I know I've never had to go through anything nearly as awful as my late-stage melanoma friends. But that doesn't mean I can't empathize with them and relate. One of the shitty things about skin cancer is once you've had it, you're exponentially more likely to get it again. Every time I go to the dermatologist for the rest of my life I get to worry: Is it back? Will it be worse this time? As Melissa said in her post: "We all know one loose cell and a stage 1 can become a stage 4 in a heartbeat." True statement.

No matter how you spin it and no matter how good or bad you have it, melanoma blows. I don't think any of us like writing about this stuff. Did you know I used to be a fashion & beauty blogger before all this? (OK, maybe you can tell by my sporadic product review posts.) But if we're not writing about it, then nothing is going to change. People are going to continue being diagnosed.

So fingers are crossed for good news. On a lighter note, I'm stoked for 2013. Lots of exciting things planned. Weddings, lots of travel, event planning madness, and more. Thank you to all my readers and friends for your continued love and support. I'm way behind on email, life, etc. so if I owe you an email, I promise I'll be in touch soon :)