Mary Elizabeth Williams, from Salon:
It started with a bump, a little scab on my head that wouldn't go away. I can't remember the exact day I first noticed it, but it was early summer. It was on the part of my hair, right near a scar from a childhood injury. I just figured I'd dinged myself up somehow and all my sun and swimming and hair care products were preventing it from healing properly. I hypochondriacally Googled "infected cuts," never guessing for a moment I was chasing the wrong search term.
Then last week I went to the dermatologist. I figured I'd get some antibiotics and ointment. Instead, when she looked at my scalp, she gave a little involuntary sucking-in of air and said quietly, "That looks like cancer."
That's how your life changes, in four words.
Even then, however, I didn't fret. The doctor scraped my head to run a biopsy, and I assumed I'd come back in a few days for a minor melanoma procedure. My Facebook status update was "Best summer ever." And then, at 10:15 Wednesday morning, my phone rang. "I'm sorry," the doctor said. "It's malignant."
