Y’all always want purty pitchers... here’s my latest.
Around mid-December I found this... no idea where it came from... no trauma... no memory...
Like always, I started researching and discovered “subungual melanoma” I had never heard of developing melanoma under finger or toenails. I thought melanoma was always caused by sun exposure.
But, subungual melanoma is generally the result of heredity and/or trauma (anytime in one’s life)... and it’s generally pretty aggressive and pretty deadly, because it usually appears after it’s been growing, under a nail, for some time.
As a cancer survivor, I was stunned by the possibilities. The nail was splitting and the cuticle showed what could be a “Hutchinson’s Sign”... but, subungual melanoma doesn’t usually present, on the nail, apparently overnight. It usually effects darker skinned people... but my paternal granny’s name was Osa Ola (after Seminole Chief Osceola), so I presumed I was dark enough.
I made an appointment with my dermatologist and he told me the same thing my research said, “you can only diagnose it with a biopsy”.
I said, “well biopsy it”. He said, “you have to have the nail removed”. I said, “remove it then”. He said, “I don’t do that, you have to see a hand surgeon”.
They referred me to one. I called and was told “he doesn’t work in hands and referred me to another”. I called and was told the same thing.
Out came DuckDuckGo.com again and I found the Broenstein Hand Center and Dr Olivia Wang. The first words out of Dr Wang’s mouth were, “we don’t do nail bed biopsy. you need to see a dermatologist”. Dianna said, “we did”. I explained the runaround. Dr Wang had her scheduler schedule the biopsy for the next afternoon.
She removed my nail, ablated the nail bed and found only an indentation under one part. She captured a 3mm sample and sent it to a lab in Texas.
We’ll have to wait a week or two to be sure, but Dr Wang‘s first impression is that it’s NOT cancer. We’ll see, but we’re much further along this road anyway!!
I currently sport the new 6000 foil nail and will have to have the nail bed repaired, so a new nail can attach to it... but, that’s after we have a full diagnosis.
That’s what we’ve been up to lately.
Here’s a better picture, with my beautiful bride of 50 years (in March).
. From the top, there are also good views to the southwest towards Telescope Peak in Death Valley (feel free to ignore Pahrump in the foreground).
