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Show CHRYSALIS PAGE 24 or he'll tell me something else to cheer me up. He explains he had seen no necessity for the skin graft, but performed a 6-inch "Z-plasty" instead, drawing me pictures, explaining that they have experimented and have fastened me together with tongue-depressors! When he is ready to leave, as an afterthought, he adds, "By the way, the lab tests showed nothing residual!" My heart leaps. "Then is it over?" He is cautious. "I don't know. We'll have to just wait and see." "But will it come back?" "With this type of malignancy recurrances are common." "How common?" I persist. He hesitates, clearly wondering how candid he ought to be with me. He says "Of the 5,000 people who develop malignant melanoma each year, 4,000 of them will die, most of them very quickly - although some slower growing tumors will go into remission, reappearing as long as twenty years after the initial lesion." I wish I hadn't asked. The lump of fear in my stomach rises into my throat. I wish he had said, Yes, it is over. Go home, live long, and be happy. I wish I was someplace else, anywhere else. I feel helpless and alone, given this statistical |