The words no one wants to hear

Being less than 2 1/2 years shy of turning 50 and overweight, concerns about my health — especially the risk of heart attack and stroke — are to be expected, especially since I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation in July 2017.

However, one of my biggest health scares had little to do with my cardiovascular system, but another word that begins with C: cancer.

For quite some time, I had a weird-looking mole on my upper back, between my spine and my right shoulder blade. And while I meant to get it looked at, I kept putting it off for various reasons — though inheriting my grandmother’s dislike of going to the doctor might have had something to do with it.

Ironically, it was an abscessed tooth when I lived in Powell, Wyoming, in August 2018 that caused me to get it checked out.

Like I said, going to the doctor is not one of my favorite activities, so for me to break down and go to the doctor over an aching tooth should tell you how much it hurt. And for some reason, I decided while I was there, it was time to get that weird-looking mole checked out. When the nurse saw it, she told me to come back in two weeks to have it removed.

Two weeks later, I did just that. I walked from work up the street and had an area the size of my thumb tip cut off of my back. When it was done, I walked back to the office and then headed to the Powell High School gymnasium to visit with the PHS volleyball coach, since I was covering the Lady Panthers volleyball team this fall.

I wish I could say that was the end of it. But not quite.

Six days after having that “weird-looking mole” cut off of my back, I received a call letting me know my results from the biopsy of the weird-looking mole were back. Since I was quite busy with work that day and the next one, I chose the morning of Friday, Aug. 24, 2018, to get my results.

I don’t remember what all the doctor told me, but I do remember the two words that counted: malignant melanoma. Needless to say, I was upset — while skin cancer is one of the most survivable forms of cancer, melanoma is the most dangerous kind of skin cancer. Adding to that was that melanoma took the life of a friend at a relatively young age.

Suddenly, I felt scared and alone, partially because my family and closest friends were more than 1,000 miles in the Midwest. When I was offered the opportunity to take the rest of the day off, I accepted it.

The next step in dealing with my melanoma involved going to Billings, Montana, on Sept. 11, 2018 — not only to have a larger area of my back cut on to make sure that all of the cancer was gone, but also to biopsy lymph nodes under my right arm to make sure the cancer had not spread. Needless to say, I was not excited, especially because I have a phobia of general anesthesia. However, the procedure went well, and I was back at work two days later.

Thankfully, I got some good news the week after my trip to Billings. My surgeon called me and told me that the lymph nodes were negative for cancer and they got all of the melanoma out of my back. I was very happy, to say the least.

In closing, if I can offer some advice, if you find a “weird-looking mole” or something similar on your skin, get it checked out. It might just save your life.

Mike Buhler is a staff writer for the Daily American Republic. Contact him at mbuhler.dar@gmail.com.