Joshua
He's had this spot on his ankle for a long time. He's been going to his dermatologist for over a year and a half, telling them about his ankle, taking pictures, documenting that he was asking about it.
They kept reassuring him it was just fine.
WRONG!
In May, it got really strange. He said it was gross the way it looked, so he told them again and FINALLY, they took a biopsy. Melanoma...an aggressive melanoma...a melanoma they should have taken out over a year and a half ago.
July 1st he had surgery.
Oh my goodness, it was so so so difficult watching him being prepped for surgery, seeing all the doctors and nurses surround him. They said the surgery would be about an hour.
After over 2 hours, this mama was starting to be nervous...
The surgeon came out, said he did well, said to him, the lymph nodes looked good. They had taken 2 out of his groin. That was so encouraging, knowing melanoma was this surgeons specialty.
But, he said, we needed to wait for the pathology report.
This is July 2...there's about a 5" incision where they cut the melanoma out. The surgeon said that since Joshua was 'so fit', he didn't have much extra skin around his ankle. Under that strip, is a hole...a hole where the skin didn't come together. He needed to keep it moist.
For the first couple of days after surgery, he was to stay off his foot as much as possible and keep it elevated above his heart. On the second day, I encouraged him to come over to get out of the house and just have a change of scenery. He did!
Back at his house, he continued to do just what the doctor ordered. Actually, this picture is the day after surgery and the day before he came over.
This is my baby boy....
We found out after 2 weeks that the cancer had not spread...not at all...
the margins around the melanoma were clear,
the lymph nodes were clear...
Thankful? Absolutely! There was a major amount of prayers going up for my baby boy...
Thankful is putting it mildly!
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