Neither Bruce nor I got any sleep last night. He got up at about 8 am which is very early for him as he is a night owl but it takes him forever to wake up. be functional and get ready. With his anxiety it is so hard for him to get out the door. he retches, he hyperventilates and he panics. I was pretty scared myself, but I can only imagine what the morning felt like for him. We did get out the door and to the Dr's office. It wasn't very crowded so he had less stress. I was grateful. I went into the examining room with him. The medical assistant, Elizabeth, was very nice and helpful. We saw a PA that a friend tells me is good, but unfriendly. She barely looked at Bruce but she did say it looked like a keratosis to her, but that if we would come back at 1:30 there would be a dermatologist who would look at it and probably burn it off. WE came back. There was a lot of confusion but finally we got to see Dr Fawson. My friend Annie was researching him and texting me and it was all good stuff. He looked at this growth and sort of at one one Bruce's head, He said he thought they were keratoses also but that the one on his back especially had characteristics of melanoma so he proposed excising it and sending it for a biopsy which made me want to cheer. And that's what they did. There was a medical student from Las Vegas there and so I got to hear a pretty thorough explanation of what was happening. They gave Bruce an injection of lidocaine and he cut around, with the skin lines about 1/8" margin around the growth. He said if it turned out to be melanoma they would have to remove more tissue. He went deep, not into the muscle but just above it and it took two layers of stitches to close. Bruce says he didn't have any pain during the procedure, but he's starting to now. The Dr gave him care instructions and made another appointment for next Monday at 2 pm. This appoint cost us $10 (Dr's Free Clinic) and the lab for the biopsy will be $75. Next time we should get results and he plans to "scrape and cauterize" at least one on Bruce's head. I plan to shave his head so we have a clear view of what's up there. Anyway, I think we were both feeling very relieved at the probability that this is not melanoma. It sure made me take a look and see how truly grateful I am for Bruce and I think he felt a new lease on life. May it work out this way. We are both very very drained and we didn't get home till after 4 pm.