UPDATE: Doctors Optimistic and So am I

On Wednesday, I had my first visit to Washington Hospital Center to clarify what needs to be done and where I stand up to this point. I remembered almost immediately why I dislike afternoon appointments. It seems like the later in the day you have a medical appointment of any kind, the less your chance of being seen in a timely manner tend to go down exponentially.

My appointment was at 3:00 and getting there early helped a little bit. I must say up front that WHC is not an easy place to get to, which makes it fortunate that my procedure will be out-patient.

By the time the visit ended, I met two of the doctors (plus an intern) who will be teaming up on me, one an oncologist and one a surgeon. There will also be a plastic surgeon involved, but he got "called away" at the last minute. The word I received is that we're dealing with a phase II-A or II-B melanoma, which indicates that the wound is very treatable, most likely with a single visit. The procedure is called a sentinel lymph node biopsy, which means I will have a dye injected into the site of the melanoma to determine whether it has spread and if so, how far. We're looking at a four-inch area that will be trimmed away, which I assume is where the plastic surgeon comes in. A visual and by-touch exam by all three physicians I saw seem to suggest that my lymph nodes are in decent shape, hence our shared optimism that the melanoma has not spread.

I should get a phone call this week to schedule the surgery. Once I have a date, I then need to take a physical exam with my GP to "make sure I can tolerate" such a procedure. Naturally, I don't anticipate an issue there.

I will update here as I learn more. In the meantime, I appreciate all the prayers and happy thoughts I am receiving. Again, if you're reading this rather than hearing from me, I apologize, but this is an easy way of communicating without spending all day on the telephone.