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Re: Keep our moderator in your thoughts and prayers

for

From: Jared Smith
Date: Jul 15, 2010 9:33AM

Thanks kindly for your thoughts and words. I head off to the doctor
shortly, a bit unsure of what will transpire.

It's quite interesting how this all transpired. My sister is a nurse
and got a job working for a dermatologist that specializes in skin
cancer. A few weeks into her work, she noticed an odd-colored spot
between her toes. She immediately asked her boss to check it and they
found it to be melanoma. Gratefully she was in this position otherwise
she would likely have not noticed or done anything if she did. The
doctor indicated that she would have likely been dead within the year.
She had a very large portion of two toes and the surrounding area
removed and they were, as near as we are able to tell, able to get all
of the cancer. She will be recovering and hobbling for several more
months.

At her advisement, I checked myself thoroughly and found a small spot
at almost the exact same spot on the same toe as my sister. Call it
coincidence, intervention, or whatever, I'm just grateful that my
sister is OK and that her situation caused me to investigate something
I'd never have given a second thought to otherwise.

Considering the genetic disposition for melanoma, the doctor removed
the spot a few weeks ago, but the biopsy tests came back mixed. So,
off I go today to either get a larger sample removed or to just have
them go to town on it and hopefully remove any potential melanoma.
Considering the significance and speed at which melanoma kills, I
think we will opt for a more aggressive treatment.

The moral is to check yourself often and have any suspicious moles,
spots, etc., especially in odd places like between your toes, checked
by a doctor.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. I hope you'll forgive this
important divergence in topic. Now back to our regularly scheduled
programming.

Jared