Troublesome Mole

At the beginning of the summer, when I shaved all the boys's hair off, I noticed a tiny black mole on the crown of Josh's head.  I didn't remember seeing it there before, but I had never cut his hair as short before either, so I didn't know how long it had been there.  When I took Josh in for his 12 year check up at the pediatrician, I asked him to look at the mole.  He told me I should get it checked out with a dermatologist.

So off to the dermatologist we went.  She examined it, and said, "You aren't supposed to grow anything black on your head.  It needs to come off."  We got an appointment the very next week to get it cut off.  Josh was really scared about the whole thing.  He doesn't do well with even vaccines, so he was worried.  The morning of the removal came, and he was a nervous wreck.

 
When it came time for her to numb Josh's head, he freaked out just a little bit.  She showed him how small the needle was, but he still did not want any needle pokes in the back of his head.  I had to sit right next to him and hold his hand while she numbed it.  He was so scared about what was going to happen, he just could not relax.

But, he survived the mole removal and the stitches, and only shed a few tears in the process.

As soon as we got out to the car, he had me take a picture so he could see it.  It wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.  And for the next week, he got to sport some cool blue hair strands.

He did pretty good with the recovery.  The only problem was on the first day, when he was leaning the back of his head against the couch, and when he went to sit up, the couch tugged on the back of his head just a bit.  It made one of the stitches pull a little bit.  He was much more careful the rest of the week, and didn't have any problems.

When it came time to get the stitches out, Josh learned that is a much easier process.  But we also learned that his pathology results came back "moderately abnormal" and he has to go back in October to have more cut away (just to make sure they get it all).  I told Josh it won't be as bad the next time, because he knows what to expect.  I'm hoping I'm right.