... and they said, "That's how you can tell it's Amy."
They may have also told me it was called a "mole," or more likely a "beauty mark." But to me, it was my ID card.
After I started school, I always used my pencils down to the nubbins, so that the eraser would rub against my "Amy mole."
That was quite some time ago, but my memory tells me I believed that somehow I had "erased" my mole over time. "How will anyone know it's Amy anymore?" I lamented one day when I noticed it was totally gone.
But of course by then I was old enough to know that was just a clever thing a parent told an inquisitive little girl. And that the absence of the mole didn't erase me.
Earlier this year, God gave me a mole. It was on the left side of my face near my eye. It grew annoyingly quickly, so I called for an appointment with a dermatologist to have it checked out.
I pointed to the offending mark on my face and the doctor said, "That's probably nothing, but we'll check it out."
Then she said, "But what's that dark mole on your arm?"
I explained it was a mole I had had all my life and that it had never changed color or size or shape.
"That's coming off today," she said. And, along with the bump on my face, off it came.
Several days later I received a call from the doctor. The face mole was not harmful. The arm mole was melanoma.
You can imagine the leap my stomach took into my chest. But, she said, it is "in situ," Stage 0. Best-case scenario.
So off to the surgeon I went to have a good chunk of skin removed from my arm.
Several days later the call came that the margins were clear. No cancer.
Now I am left with a divot in my arm where my lifelong mole had been, and a new scar that I will try my best to minimize with creams and time and patience.
The mole is gone, but I am still Amy.
Thank you, God, for the spot on my face that caused me to go to the doctor.
I could be fighting a much different fight if it weren't for early detection.
And by the way, God, thanks for all the spots in my life -- all of those challenges that don't change who I am, but that remind me of who I am, moles and all.
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| Skipping stones in Door County in late June (before diagnosis)... Yes, I was wearing sunscreen! |
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| I got this outfit at a cute shop in Door County. |
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| Lunch in Little Sister Bay, Door County. |
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| Searching for cool rocks in the cold water of Lake Michigan. |
