I probably should have started blogging about this long ago because now it feels like I'm too far behind to catch up. I'll sum up. On June 30th I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. It was a small spot (.4 mm) on the top of my right foot. For about a week we didn't know how bad it was and that was a little scary. Skin cancer is the most easily spread cancer (according to what I read). I went to the surgeon, Dr. Burry, the next Thursday or Friday and found out it was too tiny to have spread or caused any damage. Ordinarily, I would be paranoid without further testing, but I think I believe him. I can't really afford to not believe him right now. Anyways, I had a wide margin excision to remove the remaining melanoma on July 20th. They removed a cirle around the mole that is 3 cm around. The doctor said after the surgery that if the melanoma had been .58 mm higher he would have amputated my toe. Scary. In case you haven't noticed, there's not a lot of skin on top of your foot. It's not very stretchy either. So if 3 cm is removed it won't close. So that's about the summary up to where I am now. I have a large hole in my foot. Everyday I peel off the dry dressing by putting saline solution on it. It still doesn't like to come off without a fight some days. Then I put new wet gauze in the hole and dry gauze over it. Then I wrap it with a dirty, stinky brown bandage thing that you normally use for sprains. I wish I had a new one for each day or two but I have to keep using the same one. Some times I can walk and feel fine and sometimes it's terrible. The last two days have been really good. But because it's on my right foot I can't drive. So I'm trapped at home for awhile. An interesting side note: when I went to the surgeon 2 days after the surgery to have my dressing removed for the first time, it was really gross. It was so much bigger than I expected and there is no muscle on top of the foot to hide the tendons and stuff so we saw it all. I got a little woozy. Jason went all the way and passed out. Good times. I have a skin graft surgery planned for Tuesday, August 9th. They will take some skin from my thigh to cover it. I'll stay over night and then wear some boot for awhile to keep from moving my foot. And that's what I did on my summer vacation.