Who's the fairest of them all?

I've always been pale, or fair skinned as I like to think of it. I've got tons of freckles and beauty marks all over my body. So, naturally, I make an annual trip to the dermatologist to get checked out. Sometimes, he finds something suspicious and needs to biopsy the area. I usually get a friendly phone call letting me know I'm totally fine a few days later. Most often visits end with a "see you in a year, stay out of the sun!"

During my last visit, my doctor noticed something unusual on my neck. So, he removed it to have it biopsied. I went about my business for the next week - waiting to hear "you're fine, it was benign." At the end of the week, that just wasn't the case. My doctor called to tell me that what they found was "neither good nor bad but looked as if it would likely turn into something bad." Once my full report came back, I would face 3 scenarios -
1, he'd see what he could do about the scar, and tell me they got all of the bad stuff;
2, he'd have to remove just a snip more of the bad stuff and I'd be free of bad stuff;
or the dreaded 3, there would be too much bad stuff left for him to remove and I'd be sent to a surgeon.

In my adult years, I've stayed away from the sun. Well, except for that one year in college when I had a subscription to Hollywood Tans.

I was still optimistic when I went in for my results but it was scenario 3 for me.

The dermatological surgeon's office was very fancy - there were biscuits and tea, big leather wing-back chairs, and hard cover copies of Vogue. I soon discovered my Fifth Avenue surgeon also does face lifts and nose jobs for upper-east-side ladies. I felt I was in good hands, literally!

A week later, I was back for my procedure. It took about 40 minutes. The anesthesia was local so I was awake for it but I felt no pain at all. And in the week following with stitches in place, I also felt no pain. No wonder all of the rich ladies go there! Don't get me wrong, it was not pleasant. There was a lot of bandage changing, wound cleaning, difficult showers, sleepless nights, and many many awkward questions about what happened to my neck (my standard response was vampire bite).

Later that week, my pathology came back 100% clear - WHAT A RELIEF!

My follow up appointment to have the stitches out was happily uneventful. And 3 weeks later, I "graduated" from the experience with only a scar on my neck and a clean bill of health. I feel very lucky.

But if anyone asks about my scar, I'm sticking to the vampire story.