Rest Day

Every Friday is a rest day in my training program.  Today I am especially grateful that it's Friday...

A few weeks ago, my husband noticed a suspicious looking mole on my foot.  Since my mother-in-law recently had a very large precancerous mole removed from her heel at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, I figured a trip to the dermatologist would ease his mind.  I kind of figured the doctor would take a look at the mole, say it was nothing, and I'd simply be out the door with a prescription for my stubborn rosacea.  Well, I didn't get off that easy...

I guess what they normally do to test moles it do this "prick test" that grabs a tiny tissue sample along with part of the mole.  The nurse asked the doctor, "can we do this?"  He said, "Yes, let's do that..." "Even with her Deep Brain Stimulators?  It might be better to just remove it."  The doctor had a look on his face as if he was thinking he should know exactly what to do here. "I'm just concerned about her bleeding."  I then asked him, "Is there heat involved with this test?"  Yes, heat would be involved.  I said I probably couldn't have that test done, but if he wanted to he could call Medtronic to find out for sure, that I had their contact information on me.

I suppose to save time and remove doubt, they decided to shoot my foot up with Novocaine and completely cut out the mole to send it for testing.  If the test results come back as a melanoma (which he doesn't believe it is), the doctor informed me that he will need to remove more of the tissue where the mole was.  If there are abnormal cells in this sample, he wants to remove two other moles on that foot.  If it's simply a mole, he will probably not have to do anything.  For now, I need to keep the bandage on my foot and leave it open to air tomorrow.  If I want to go running tomorrow (which I do) I will need to put another bandage on.  Oh, and did I mention that my foot really hurts right now? LOL.

The good news; however, is that I can still plan on running the marathon regardless of the test results.

Right now, it's also snowing.  I really wish we could have another warm winter.  I need to be outside for all of my long runs.  Oh well, roll with the punches.