Well crap

Charlie had a "routine" appointment with the dermatologist this morning before my class; had the kids up and out of the house at 6:00 a.m. which they were none too happy about. He's had this mole on his back since just before his 1st birthday - it's always bugged me and I ask the pediatrician to check it at every physical and he's always said it's fine. He said that again this year and I said that given what I just went through, I wanted it taken off as a precaution and he agreed. It took 3 months to get the appointment; but I wasn't worried about the darn thing - it's been there for 5 years; I just wanted it off so we never have to worry about it in the future. But (you know where this is going, right?) it turns out that we DO have to worry about it. And I pressed the dermatologist - do I really need to be worried given his age and how long he's had it. He just shook his head and said he doesn't like the way it looks and we'll have the biopsy in a week. He also said he took a little bit more than usual this time so that if it does turn out to be melanoma, hopefully he got it all.

This did not serve to make me feel better. In fact, I vacillated between abject panic and abject fury for about 2 hours. Sorry to the poor participants in my class as I'm sure they wondered whether they signed up for a class with a lunatic. I've calmed down considerably as Justin reminded me that the chances are great it will turn out fine just like mine did and that there is absolutely nothing we can do about it beyond what we did today. I'm still pretty angry though; I love our pediatrician - he was my pediatrician - but I trusted him about this and he was wrong. Charlie is very dark skinned like his dad and he is young and I think those two factors led our doctor to the wrong conclusion.

Please. Get your skin checked. It's a painless process but one that everyone should do.

Edited to add: Well I did the thing you should never do and I googled this and it turns out in this case to have been a calming effort. There is virtually no chance - like 7 in a million - this is something we need to worry about. Now we just wait for the confirmation!