Our doodles need us to be healthy, too!

[Deanna & Desi & Cori]

Next month I’ll be turning 59 – my that sounds OLD!  More importantly, my 59^th birthday will mark the 20^th anniversary of my thyroid surgery.  The week before my birthday, AT MY ROUTINE OB / GYN VISIT, my doctor found a thyroid lump.  Even though he assured me that most thyroid lumps are benign, he sent me to a surgeon for a biopsy.  The results came back “inconclusive”, so we decided to do the prudent thing and remove it.  Thank God we did as the post-operative pathology report confirmed that the lump was, indeed, malignant and just ready to “break out of its confines”.  Why am I telling you this?  I want to remind you all – my doodle friends – of the importance of regular checkups!  I was 39, healthy, and very busy.  It was very tempting to cancel that routine exam, but I’m here today because I kept that appointment!

 

Fast forward twenty years to this week.  My belief in the importance of regular checkups has just doubled.  For years, my dermatologist has been watching a spot (a lentigo or “age spot”) on my cheek.  We’ve tried a number of treatments to get rid of it, but each time it would come back.  A few years ago, she recommended that we biopsy it – the results showed it to be benign.  Well, last week, she recommended a repeat of the biopsy – AGAIN AT A ROUTINE CHECKUP.  This time, the pathology report showed that it is now a melanoma.  Fortunately, it is “Stage 0” at this point.  Next Monday, I will have it removed (along with a fairly large chunk of my cheek), but because we caught it early, my prognosis is great!

 

As doodle lovers, we make sure that our pups are appropriately vaccinated and are seen by their vets on a regular basis.  And that’s important.  But our doodles need us to be healthy too.  We’re all busy and with healthcare costs skyrocketing, it’s tempting to ignore our own routine checkups.  Don’t do it!!  That routine visit may prove to be anything but routine.

Here's to good health and happiness...  

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

Your very right - I am guilty of forgetting myself, I am so overdue a check up, yet Cooper never misses one! Glad you have a good prognosis, I wish you the best of luck for your surgery and recovery