But that’s hard to do, coming up on scans and a visit with Robert’s oncologist in two weeks. I’ve written before about scanxiety, so I won’t repeat that here – nothing has changed, and from reading posts by others on the Melanoma Patients Information Page sponsored by the Melanoma Research Foundation, we are far from alone in this.

This month, though, we had another reason to be anxious. Robert’s dermatologist last week removed a “freckle” from the back of his leg that I’ve been eyeing for more than six months. He did a shave biopsy of it, and today the results came back: it was a benign keratosis. Whew!

The spot Dr. Giannelli removed was a small but very dark area I asked Dr. Wang, the Hopkins derm, about in January. He told me at that time it didn’t look very different from Robert’s other dark spots (freckles?), and therefore he wasn’t worried about it – but he said that if it changed or grew, it should be removed. I haven’t seen any changes in it, so I wasn’t worried about it – until the local dermatologist took it off and sent it to the lab.

I didn’t go to the dermatologist with Robert because I don’t much like him – he brushed me off when I asked him to show me what kinds of spots on Robert’s body I should worry about. I suppose, in retrospect, that it was an unreasonable request – it may have seemed to him like I wanted him to impart all his wisdom from medical school and years of practice in one office visit. But Dr. Wang did take time when I asked him a few months later, so apparently not everyone sees such requests the same way ...

I suppose if I had known the spot was going to be removed I would have said goodbye. Anyway, I won’t have to watch it anymore and am glad it’s gone. Soon the other spots Dr. Giannelli froze will disappear, too. But really, nothing has changed ...

Scans on August 20. Will try to write again before we leave on vacation. Otherwise, watch this space for photos from Yellowstone!!