I was admitted at exactly 11am and for the first time since visiting the dermatology department of St George’s hospital, there was no delay. No chance for me to even open that barely read the magazine! Despite the department being the busiest I have even seen it. Throngs of people were waiting and queueing up for whatever reasons.
I was met by a lovely surgical nurse and a very good looking Chinese origin surgeon, a Dr Gin. They confirmed my name and date of birth a few times and checked that the site of the mole is the correct one as in the various medical notes. Dr Gin explained to me in detail what he was going to do and what I could be expecting. The operating theatre was really small and consisted of the bed and some basic medical equipment. I guess this being a room specifically meant for skin surgery, there wasn’t much ‘fancy’ equipment needed.
I was prepared for the skin to be exposed on my shoulder blade so had my cross back sports bra on and was told to just wear the hospital robe too. I asked if my husband could be allowed in the surgery room and he had to confirm he wasn’t squeamish or was likely to faint before the affirmative was given. Of course, lovely husband didn’t really want to see his wife being ‘cut open’ though so he sat in a corner of the room quietly with a book and pretended he wasn’t even there. LOL..
Dr Gin injected me with a local anaesthetic right by the mole area. I noticed that he was taking a while to finish injecting. When I asked him, he said ‘I’m making sure you get a little extra so you get the numbing effect a little longer’. He must have remembered I told him I have 4 kids and that the younger ones are like monkeys who love to climb all over my back and hang on my neck!
While waiting for the anaesthetic to take effect, the nurse and he got busy with preparing the things needed for the small operation. As I was lying face down on the bed, I tried to get comfortable and decided to cross my arm under my forehead as the best position to prepare.
Dr. Gin was very communicative and talked me through whatever he was doing. I tried to close my eyes and not imagine what was happening but unfortunately, my imagination is very active- I peeked through during the surgery and saw lots of gauges with blood and decided, maybe I really shouldn’t be seeing it!!
I can feel Dr Gin patting my shoulder, I heard spray can being used (“are you spraying my hair Dr Gin??”) and then I felt the tugging on my skin. It kinda reminded me of the time I was giving birth and had to be sutured after the tearing. It wasn’t painful of course buy you just felt this buzzing feeling and a dull pulling. Dr Gin was indeed suturing the site of the surgery and happily chirped “We are almost done!”
In actually tried making light conversations with him and asked him about his work throughout this whole thing. I understood that this is indeed the beginning of the busiest period for skin surgery as most people only started noticing their growing moles when the clothing gets shed for summer. Just like me, I got worried that in the summer, the mole on my arm, which turned out to be a freckle, was going to get bigger and that’s when I made the appointment with the GP.
With the NHS being as stretched as it is and the Skin Clinic surgeries only open a few days a week, maybe it is best if we start noticing our suspicious moles throughout the year and not just in the lead up to summer. This way the surgeries can be spread nicely throughout the year and everyone can get the best possible attention necessary from every professional involved.
By now, Dr Gin was done with me. I got up slowly and looked at the ‘mess’ my shoulder blade has made. I asked to see the mole that was taken out. It was sitting in a sterile bottle and sealed, ready to be taken to the lab to confirm it isn’t melanoma. (This is me being positive here guys). I noticed and mentioned to Dr. Gin how deep it is and he confirmed that when he’s gone into the fatty layer (subcutaneous) that he knows he’s gone deep enough to be safe. I guess in most cases, if there’s melanoma, you want to make sure you get as much of it out in the first stance.
I was given a set of instructions from him on how to look after my op site and the nurse gave me extra gauze. As the stitches had to be removed in 10 days and can be done at the local GP, I asked him for a letter of explanation. In 10 days I’ll be soaking up music in Glastonbury and would probably be making my way to the onsite mobile clinic to have it done.
I left the hospital almost euphoric. And I’m sure it wasn’t the anaesthetic talking here! I felt literally a weight lifted off my shoulders. Even though in my heart I am pretty sure it wasn’t something worrying, I didn’t even want that 1% chance of it being otherwise.
Our skin is the body’s biggest living and growing organ and we don’t get the chance to have it as easily replaced as say the kidney or liver. I have always been very careful about looking after it (Thanks Mum for instilling the love for my skin at such a young age!) but now I’m going to be even more conscious.
It reminded me of a very talented young man who had a mole on his big toe. He was asked to have it removed. He reluctantly had his toenail removed. But then the medical professionals found out after that sample, it was indeed melanoma and that he needed to have his big toe amputated to stop it from growing. Said young man refused as he thought it’ll interfere with his love of music and football. He said he had faith that God will take care of him. Within months, he died of something small that could have been prevented. His story popped up on my screen just days before my surgery and it only confirmed to me I’m doing the right thing.
Said young man gone too soon, at the age of 36, was the amazing Bob Marley. The world lost a great talent to melanoma. I hope you and I won’t be the next.
Much love,