The Ugly.

 The weather is becoming warm, you want to make sure you look good for spring break, you tan and avoid sunscreen because skin cancer can't happen to you, right? 

Wrong.

And what happens when it does? 

 You get battle wounds like these....

(Warning:

These are my pictures from the day after my surgery. 

They aren't attractive. 

But nothing about cancer is.)

This is my left neck incision. I have a matching one on my right side. 

 

This is my right armpit. I have a matching incision under left arm also.

And here is the 5th incision site:

Beautiful, huh?

Lucky for you, Mr. Spots erased the pictures of the rash that made me look even more like Frankenstein. The bruising and swelling that I have had? You can't see that. And the pain I keep mentioning? No picture can describe it.

3 weeks later and I am still struggling with the pain. Today Mr. Spots went to grab a piece of lint off of my collarbone and I cringed because it felt like my nerves were going to pop out of my skin and stab him. Or how about when he rubbed his hand down the back of my arm and it sent a burning sensation to my fingertips...Oh, don't let me forget how much it hurts when someone hugs me and puts pressure on my shoulders. I want to look over my shoulder to see if there is a car coming? Can't do it without pain shooting downwards. I want to raise my arms over my head without feeling the urge to scream? Maybe soon.

One more important thing I can't show by picture---my lymph nodes on both sides of my neck are very, very swollen tonight. Unless someone slipped rocks inside of my neck, I am sure something is not right. Is it an infection? Does it need to be drained? Who knows. But this, the swelling of lymph nodes that I would have never paid attention to before, is what made me call Mom crying tonight. 

Crying over swollen lymph nodes...definitely a first for me.