Operation

Today I go to the hospital to properly talk to the doctor and the surgeon about the results of my biopsy. I misunderstood a little from the three minute talk I had on Monday. So it turns out that the cells in my nail bed weren't normal (which was kind of obvious from the growing dark brown streak on my fingernail) but they weren't able to tell whether it was just an abnormal mole or a melanoma. However, it didn't really matter which it was, since the action for either of them is to remove my fingernail and nailbed. And since they would have to remove two thirds of my fingernail and the nailbed to make sure they have all the affected cells, it would be easier to remove the whole nail and nailbed. This means that my nail will never grow back, but they would do a skin graft so it's not too gross.

Time frame wise, they want to do this before Christmas, in case it is a melanoma, they don't want to risk it spreading anywhere else, since skin cancer in nailbeds is usually fairly agressive. Now, since the surgeon is taking the second half of October and the first half of November off, I can either get this done next week, or they had a cancellation so there is time in quarter of an hour to squeeze me in, if I decide to go ahead with it. So after a call home, I decide to just get it done then, so that next week I can start getting the skin graft.

The surgery wasn't too bad, just like the biopsy, but this time, they removed my whole fingernail and nailbed, which was kind of gross and also means more bleeding and pain later. They will test these larger samples for malignancy and hopefully tell me the results when I go back again.

So yeah, I'm okay, but am missing a fingernail and have a wrapped up finger that I'm not allowed to get wet and which hurts when I put any pressure on it whatsoever.