What’s Next? Don’t go There

Just when we thought things couldn’t get any worse, the Professor went to the dermatologist last week. If you’ve been following our posts, you know that he had a rough go with COVID-19 last month. You all prayed and thankfully, he recovered. After that, I thought we’d met our quota of bad juju, but no. At least not initially.

He was almost through his exam when the doc said with alarm, “What’s that?” And in an instant, the Professor’s bacon went back on the front burner. Mine too.

He’d developed a bruise under his index fingernail. He didn’t pay much attention to it – he later said it had been there for about six months. In that time the bruise/bump had deformed his nail from cuticle to tip. So the doc anesthetized his finger (after four or five deep probing sticks), she reemed out a tissue sample in short order, and Fed Exed it off to UCSF for testing.

“We should have the results back inside of a week,” she promised. A week?

She didn’t share her concerns, but I know how to use Google. The chief contender was Melanoma. Great, what’s next? I asked rhetorically. I didn’t really want an answer.

I couldn’t believe it. He just got over COVID-19. The guy still gasps for air like a fish out of water when he overexerts. Having Melanoma on top of that would add insult to already considerable injury.

Apparently getting Melanoma under the nails of hands and feet is a relatively common thing for dark-skinned people in the sun a lot, as is the Professor. I also learned that if the Melanoma is deeper than 4mm, the prognosis is pretty grim and life expectancy is short.

And how about a public service announcement, ladies? Those little UV lights they put us under to set gel nails are a no-no too. Who knew? I should have. I’ll never do that again.

Needless to say, I’ve been on pins and needles all week, imagining the worst, but yesterday we got the call. Benign. Well, praise God!

Yesterday morning I pictured all the prayers from his COVID-adventure last month filling a golden bowl in Heaven, spilling over its brim, and running down to meet the need we had no idea we’d have this week. So thank you for depositing all that love and those prayers in our account. Given we’ve got more 2020 to go I hope there’s plenty left where those came from.

This year may be half over, but I’ve stopped asking what’s next. Don’t go there.