Yesterday was the appointment with the plastic surgeon. He said the skin doctor did a good job detecting the small melanomas before they spread. He will excise the tissue surrounding the moles and leave a 5 mm margin all around where the mole was. Then he will make the incision look like a football or an eye, tapered on the ends. This way the circle excised can be covered by stretching the skin and stitching it internally so there is no real scar. He said that there is one chance with melanomas to get all the cancer cells out, if they miss some then that causes the problems. There percentages are with us, online it has a 99% cure rate for stage 0 or in situ melanomas removed properly with margins. They will send the tissue to a pathologist who only does skin to detect any possible cancer cells. If the tissue is clear then all is well, if there is more cancer in the tissue then they go back and create wider margins. The surgery is scheduled for next Wed at 7AM, it will take 2 hours and Holly will be awake.

The doc says this is a warning that Holly has to change her lifestyle. She has to protect herself from the sun, she should not seek to be tan. Proactive preventative measures include not being in the sun between 11 and 3 when 85% of the radiation is coming down, wear UV protective clothing and wear sun screen. Interesting he said SPF is a 1980's scam, that is only designed to reduce UV-B, it is actually UV-A that causes more cancer. So the old SPF 30 sun screen is not actually blocking the cancer causing UV. He said only titanium and zinc oxides block UV-A, these are those white creams on lifegaurds noses. He said that is equivalent to covering yourself in aluminum foil because all the bad stuff is reflected off the metal in the cream. Interesting. He said he understood you cannot live in FL and never be in the sun, but to be smart about her exposure and keep out of direct mid-day sun as much as possible. She can still go to the beach and the pool but the days of baking to get as tan as possible should not occur any longer. If she goes to the beach, lube up with sun screen, stay in the shade during the peak sun hours, and wear UV protective clothes.

Please pray for Holly and her faith, these events of the past two months have been huge tests of her/our faith. Please pray for all the cancer cells to be already gone and for the margins to be clear. Praise God for leading Holly to Dr. Ottusso to find these when they were very small. Praise God for learning about preventative measures to help keep the cancer from coming back and for us to better informed so we can protect our kids.