I have taken a few weeks off to recover from hand surgery -- typing has been a bit of a problem. I had a mole biopsy on my right hand ring finger. About five years ago I noticed a brown stripe running from the nail bed to the tip and had a doctor back in the UK check it out. She said it was nothing -- well, she said she didn't know what it was, but it was probably nothing. She gave me some sort of liquid to brush on it.
I didn't give it a second thought, despite the fact the stripe thickened a bit over the next five years. I always thought it was just one of my many quirks. Anyway, for some unknown reason my finger began to throb a bit, so I looked online for possible causes and discovered that a nail stripe can be a pretty horrendous thing -- melanoma. Of course, as soon as I read melanoma I made an appontment with my family doctor here in Victoria. She thought, due to the uniformity of the stripe that it wasn't a melanoma, but referred me to a dermatologist, just to be sure. The dermatologist diagnosed my stripe as a mole, which had formed under the skin, right where the nail begins to grow. To be on the safe side, he wanted to biopsy the mole. He referred me to a cosmetic hand surgeon who agreed with the diagnosis.
The procedure lasted about half an hour. It would have been quicker than that, but the first anesthetic didn't take. The surgeon made two incisions and pulled back the nail to access the mole. He took a sample before reattaching part of the old nail with five stitches. My finger looked like the nail had been cut to the quick about half way up the length of the nail.
The anesthetic wore off before I made it out of the hospital doors, but long enough for the surgery, thankfully. Tylenol 3 didn't work for the first three days post surgery, but kicked in on the fourth. My Mum arrived from Scotland the day after the surgery, so she was a great help, especially with the dog walking.
We decided to change my bandage on day 5, and discovered that the first bandage had fused to the skin. Mum spent six hours slowly dabbing the bandage with warm water to loosen it. I'm not a very good patient -- terrible, in fact. I thought I would go through the roof. Anyway, we changed the bandage daily after that until on day 11 my fingertip seemed to burst and the whole nail looked really bad. I panicked a bit and made an appointment to see the surgeon's nurse the following day. She was wonderful. She took out the sticthes and showed me how to clean it. We also got the good news that it WAS NOT MALIGNANT!!!
Two weeks later and I have the finger protected with a band-aid. The old nail will have to fall off, as the new nail grows. I will probably still have the stripe, but I can live with that, knowing it won't kill me.
So now, back to the writing. I am nearing the end of my middle-reader about a heroic young girl who saves the world.
