Today was my first public outing since the surgery. I had lunch with a business associate. I have to admit to being very self-conscious because my eyelid is still so swollen and I can’t wear eye make-up. Gee, I don’t even go out without eye make-up when my eyelid isn’t swollen! This isn’t the first time I’ve envied brunettes for having visible eyelashes!

Had my follow-up appointment with Dr. Opth today. He got the pathology report from the biopsy. Definitely melanoma. Rats. I didn’t realize melanoma is always malignant. I guess that makes sense because any time I’ve heard of someone having skin melanoma, they always talk about removing it.

Dr. Opth explained that the biopsy results showed no clear margins. This means that the cancer cells went right to the edge of the whole section he cut out. When he did the surgery, he removed the bump plus an area around it. The point is to try to get it all plus show that healthy cells were showing up on the edges of what was removed. Since my biopsy showed no clear margins, Dr. Opth said there was a good chance I’d have to have another surgery to try to get it all.

Before making a decision about surgery, Dr. Opth wants to speak with the pathologist to better understand the biopsy results. He said he’d like to know if the cancerous cells were only at the edges or if they were also underneath what he had cut out (meaning it went deeper than expected). However, the pathologist was out of the office that week so he needed to wait to make any decisions.

I asked him about my swollen eyelid since it was causing so many problems in trying to get back to work. He suggested using ice packs to help reduce the swelling. He checked out my eye again with the machines and felt pleased with the way it looks. I don’t have to use the patch anymore when I sleep.

I went home and started using the ice pack.