Biopsy?

When I walked into the dermatologists office yesterday morning, I would have thought I walked into a Beverly Hills spa like you see on t.v.  I wish I would have had the balls to take a picture, but the waiting room was chandeliers, leather furniture, and the staff all had monogrammed shirts with their names on them and all of them sported Rolex watches.  Not kidding.

Since this office doesn’t have any paper files (all electronic!) I had already filled out my medical history over the phone, so once I paid my co-pay of $40, they called my name.

The tech asked me why I was there and I literally said “my Mom was concerned about a spot on my face.”  She took a look at it.  You can see it in the picture below – its just to the right of my nose in that picture.  This was taken in May, and the spot was almost twice that size yesterday.

Long time readers have seen me get burnt – bad.  Remember Hannah’s high school graduation in 2010?

I’ve been severely burnt in my teens and early 20’s.  It hasn’t been until the above incident that I now put an spf 50 lotion on when I get out of the shower, and I try to wear a baseball hat if I know I am going to be outside for any length of time.

The physicians assistant came in.  She starts to look at my face when she asks “does your head itch?”  Um, yes, sometimes.  I just thought I had a dry scalp or dandruff.  Nope – I have psoriasis of the scalp!  I’ve used Tea Tree shampoo for years, but she said only prescription shampoo will get rid of it.  Good to know!

Then she looks at the “spot” and decides that she wants to shave off the top layer to biopsy.  It could be pre-skin cancer.  I’ll know in a week.  They actually numbed my cheek with lidocane (sp?) and I could feel the liquid underneath my eye and next to my nose – gross.

It didn’t hurt at all – the tech handed me some gauze and when I asked her what it was for she said “some faces bleed a lot.”  What?  But all I needed was a band aid.

I went to work and sported a lovely band aid on my face for the rest of the day – sexy!  I am sure it will be fine, but to be on the safe side, when I go back in a month for my scalp, I plan on having a full body scan.

In my haste to get out the door, I realized I never packed a breakfast – so Subway it was.  This is their steak and cheese egg muffin – it says its 180 calories and when I say “steak” I use that word loosely – it was kind of like loose meat.

So they gave me this after I left the doctors office:

One of the rules: no exercise for 24 hours and no swimming until the wound is healed.  So I took this as a rest day.

More chili mac leftovers for lunch, except this time I added some water to thin it out and added Tabasco sauce to it – doesn’t look pretty but it was yummy!

Since Tony did the grocery shopping for our dinner with his family Saturday night, I didn’t want to have him do a whole weeks worth of grocery shopping on top of that.  Plus I knew this would force me to use up some of the food we already have in the house, so I vowed no extra grocery shopping this week.

I defrosted some pork chops.  I had mashed potatoes on the side and grilled me up some broccoli.  I needed something to tie it all together so I made a lemon pepper gravy – so good!

Lemon Pepper Gravy

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups (1 can) chicken broth
• juice of 1/4 of a lemon
• lemon zest
• cracked pepper to taste

Melt butter in sauce pan.  Add flour and stir and cook for 1 minute.  Slowly add in the can of chicken broth.  Stir until thick, about 5-7 minutes.  Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, zest and cracked pepper.

I took one picture inside and one outside, couldn’t decide which one to post, so you get them both, you’re welcome!

This was super yummy and really quick – perfect for a week night dinner.

So no swimming for a few days, but I am hitting the gym today – maybe even lift some weights?  Crazy!

I have my homemade Panera broccoli soup for lunch today – yum!  What are you having for lunch today?  Make it a great day!