Today was the first day that I made an appearance in the office. The doctor recommended that I not go into the office until the wound was healed and not infected anymore. I finally got the OK and it was really weird to be back among other people again. Especially since no one (except one person) knows the real reason why I’ve been working from home. Fortunately, my office is a place where people routinely are on the road, or work from home – so it’s not something totally unusual where people would ask a thousand questions about where I’ve been.
Thinking about it, the last day in the office for me was December 18, the day before the excision. So it had been almost a month since I had seen the guy I share an office with. David and I are pretty good friends. I joke that he’s the brother I never wanted. I was more happy to see him than I expected this morning. It’s was like seeing your college roommate again after Winter Break (assuming you lived on campus and actually liked your roommate).
We chatted, catching up on how his recent cruise was and all the random stuff, when he asked me, “where’ve you been? You’ve been around working, were you just working from home?” And suddenly, I found myself at a crossroads. Do I blow it off? Do I tell him? He’s one of my friends. I’m not going to lie to him but was it something I was ready to share?
I rolled up my pant leg to show him my scar. “I was healing from this”. He knew it wasn’t a knee surgery scar but he didn’t know what it was from. “I had to get an amelanotic nodular melanoma lesion removed”. He stared at me for a second, and then I saw it. Tears in his eyes. “Are you going to be OK?” Yeah, of course, I’m sitting right here in front of you, aren’t I? I don’t look any different, do I?
And then we had the conversation, what it was, how it was caught. He mentioned that his cousin is a dermatologist and he has had a bunch of stuff taken off, but fortunately, none have come back malignant. He admitted that he gets mad when his wife doesn’t wear sunscreen. I told him that I could be the example he can point to why it’s so important to be consistent with SPF usage.
And then, we both smiled at each other and said, “I gotta jump on a call in a minute” at the same time. (We both really did have conference calls.) And it was normal me-and-David “officemate” banter the rest of the day. I was glad to let him know, but only because it didn’t create any weirdness that lingered the rest of the day.
It was also super nice to catch up with people here. I missed my dysfunctional work family and the fun random comments I overhear throughout the day. And it was really nice for people to say, “Hey, you’re back. I missed you.” It’s nice to be missed…