This is the first email I sent out after hearing about the diagnosis.

Hi friends,

Sorry I’m not calling to tell you personally about this news, but I don’t really feel like talking too much right now. The short story is that I had a biopsy of a mole last week and the doctor called today to tell me it came back as melanoma. Hence, the not-awesomeness. Right now, we don’t know much, but I’m waiting for a call from plastic surgery to schedule a more complete removal of the area to see how far it has spread in my skin, as well as a lymph node biopsy to see if it has spread that far. Please pray/send good vibes that we’ve already gotten most of it and that it has not spread.

From the very little bit of googling I’ve allowed myself to do, I’ve found that surgery/removal of the growth is by far the most effective way to treat it, which is a good thing for me because that’s way less dangerous to the babe obviously than any kind of other medical intervention (radiation, chemo). It sounds like survival rates were unaffected by pregnancy, which is also good, since we don’t want to delay treatment, but also don’t want any unnecessary risks.

I took the afternoon off today and am taking off tomorrow, as is Peter, so hopefully we can get this taken care of quickly. Luckily, my PCP is taking this very seriously (he called me 5 times within an hour until he got a hold of me), so I think I have a good advocate in him. If nothing else, my being pregnant probably puts a little more urgency to the matter, which is not a bad thing!

I don’t think we need anything at the moment, other than good thoughts and love, and I’ve reached a sort of precarious ok-ness with it for the time being. I did a LOT of thinking, worrying and going to the what-if place earlier today, but I think that’s done for the moment, since there so much we just don’t know yet.

In an excellent stroke of timing, tomorrow is the year anniversary of Alicia’s passing, so any good thoughts you can pass along would be appreciated.

Thank you all for your love and support, I love you dearly,
Shan