A Simple trip to the Doctor's office

The raised bump wasn't getting any better and with each day I grew more concern over the prospects that this was a skin cancer that should be looked at.  After our loss it was easy to grow gun shy being around doctors, clinics or accepting what they had to say.about my health..After all our daughter died the first night home from the hospital and in the overall scheme of things it wasn't suppose to happen this way.

My wife shared with me very recently about another young girl at the same school as our kids who had a foot that would turn inward.  Her parents had the same type of surgery planned for her, but when Maria died they canceled their daughter's surgery. Death and loss will do that to people as hopelessness and grief settles in.

I learned in my grief recovery that I must not h old the medical community hostage to all of my anger, blame and hatred for her death.  We must continue to place our trust in these professionals whenever there is a need to seek their services.

The first doctor I saw said it looked like a suspicious basil cell cancer, but he wanted me to watch it over the next week and for me see my regular primary physician.  Each day I waited and watch.  It seemed to stop growing and yet it wasn't going away on it's own. My wife was growing concerned and encouraged me to keep the follow up appointment. I waited and watched all the way to the morning of my appointment. Fortunately, my appointment was over labor day weekend which meant the waiting times were minimal. I heard my name called and the nurse  lead me back to the examining room where she asked me some questions before stepping out. Wasn't long before my doctor stepped in.

He looked at my chart  and then at the raised bump before decisively telling me that it needs to come off. He reassured me that it was probably only a basil cell carcinogen, the less dangerous form of skin cancer. He came back in with the tools he needed to do the excision. He gave me the needed pain deadening shot.

 I was impressed with the skills of this doctor.His ability to maintain the composure of his patient, reassure the patient as he did the procedure and giving his patient hope throughout the procedure.I remember his words about how healthy the tissue looked underneath the excision looked which reassured me further his initial impressions.

For every death that occurs following a medical procedure there are 100's more that are helped and go on and lead productive lives. I was impressed by this doctors skill level and it did remind me of the skill level of our daughter's Orthopedic specialist.On the eve of a service honoring young patients who had died the previous year he would had been there for us if he hadn't been called in to perform emergency surgery on another young patient when no other doctor was available.  That was the kind of doctor he was and continues to be to this day.