Good News :)

We met with a dermatologic surgeon today for a second opinion. She made me feel so much better about the situation and I am no longer overly worried. She felt that the mole area was definitely larger than she would like to see and it should be removed, but that it didn't look like melanoma. We will have to wait for the biopsy following surgery to be 100% sure, but she was comfortable saying that it seemed fine to wait a while (until at least the 1/2 marathon I'm training for is over) to have the surgery because even if it were melanoma (which she is pretty confident it isn't), it wouldn't spread that fast to be a real concern. So, we scheduled surgery for November and now feel very good about the situation.

I think it helps that her specialty is cancer related surgery unlike the previous surgeon we saw who was just a general surgeon. It's also great that she understood how important continuing breastfeeding was and reassured me that it won't be an issue (maybe more pain than normal due to the stitches, but it should be fine to resume our normal nursing schedule within a few hours after surgery). It was also a relief to hear that she will only be using local anesthetics unlike the other surgeon who intended to put me under for a 30 minute surgery. The last thing that was reassuring was that she said the recovery time would be about a week or less which sounds much better than the 3-4 week recovery the general surgeon discussed. It will still be a 4 centimeter incision (kind of shaped like an eye), but she suspects that will take care of any abnormal cells. If not, she may have to go back in to remove more, but that's worse case scenario.

Overall, we were very comfortable with my new surgeon and feel like she's a good match and is very knowledgeable about what I'm dealing with. I know it was in God's plan to find her and for her to decide to see us because she usually only deals with people who have actual cancerous lesions to be removed, but she made an exception to meet with me. Thank you for your prayers; I also know they were part of the great news and the sense of relief I'm feeling.

Now, on to the 1/2 marathon training and hoping I can make it past the 3 mile run I'm tackling tomorrow. Baby steps...