Our friend, Joan, is here from New York City, spending a week and we are doing quiet things.

We drove around a lot today, sort of keeping Ed company while he ran some errands and got home around 4 p.m. and there was a message from the dermatologist’s office. I called back and learned that the biopsy on a brown spot on my leg that was removed three weeks ago was positive for an early melanoma. In 1961, Mary, my best friend in New York, died at 30 of an unchecked melanoma on her leg. It was she who introduced me to my first ballet class. I have never forgotten her.

The thing is, I hadn’t gone in for that. A polyp like growth on my back that was annoying was what I had gone in for. That turned out to be nothing. Doctor checked my skin generally and asked about the spot that just looked like a large freckle with an uneven white edge on one side and that, apparently, was the suspicious part so it was decided to remove it.

They had an opening for surgery tomorrow and I took it. So surrounding tissue will be removed, I will get a few stitches, a local anesthetic, done in an hour or so. Now that they know what it was, they aren’t taking any chances.

I feel remarkably lucky to have a routine visit be so timely.

xx, Teal