I think I got a rainbow for my Christmas gift

Not many of you can claim you received a rainbow for Christmas, but I think I did.

Let me explain.

My late wife, who passed in May, always dreaded the idea of cancer; thinking about it or hearing about someone suffering cancer would send her into a full-blown clinical panic attack. It was so consuming that she couldn’t be convinced to do regular screenings such as mammograms and pap smears. It worried me, but I eventually resigned myself to her fear.

Shortly after she died, I developed what I eventually began referring to as a booger on my noogin. I’d had a scab appear then heal and go away previously and no one ever said much about it. Then I got that nasty head cut this summer on a river tubing episode that I shouldn’t have done.

Months later that place on my head still hadn’t fully healed. My first clue that it might be something else was when a pair of older ladies at church asked about it and suggested I should get it seen about.

My mother and other family members began urging medical advice, but I was pretty sure I just hadn’t let it heal. I would pick at it, scratch it or rub it with a towel and make it bleed.

I vowed to be extra careful with the scab and take care of it on my own. That wasn’t going so well and finally on a routine doctor’s visit for pain management my primary care physician noticed it and almost didn’t finish the regular exam. He said he was going to refer me out to a dermatologist.

I finally got that appointment set up with a wonderful doctor in Roswell just before Christmas. I had really begun to suspect by this time that it was skin cancer and I was pretty certain when the doctor’s assistant glanced at my head and said “Oh she’ll want to take a specimen of that.”

She numbed it and took the sample and then burned off a few pre-cancerous spots on my face and head. She ended the appointment by telling me she was “really, really glad” I came in about this.

I really hadn’t been too anxious about the whole deal and after I got out of the doctor’s office I went and had a late lunch at mine and my wife’s favorite Mexican food place. As I sat there remembering her and the times we’d gone there, I reflected that I was really glad she hadn’t had to go through this even as simple as it will hopefully be.

It began to thunder and lightning while I was there and this was December. By the time I had run an errand we had seen a really good 10-15 minute downpour.

I was also facing the need to put down the big old dog we’d had for 15 years, so with the clouds things were a bit melancholy as I left Roswell.

As soon as I hit the city limits and turned east the sky was lit up with a beautiful full rainbow. It had to be my sweetie telling me she was alright and I would be too. I later told my mother it felt like Carol had given me a hug.

I have a surgical procedure scheduled this month. I’ll take you along in future columns. I think everyone living in the high desert needs to know as much as possible about skin cancer. Prayers are appreciated.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:

[email protected]