The dentist noticed a couple of black spots on my palate and asked me to come back in a week to see if it had disappeared. I didn't bother going in for him to see them again. After a week passed, I called and asked for a referral to an oral surgeon.

I had to drive 60 miles to find an OS in network. I was pleased to get a "consultation" two days after calling. He looked at it and said that since I had driven so far and because he had no other appointments that afternoon, he would do a biopsy right away.

I was thrilled. I'm a 20+ year smoker and a 4-6 drink a night lush and my mom is a cancer survivor and her two brothers died from cancer (melanoma and pancreatic). I had a red streak on my palate and my throat had been sore for a week. There was every reason to believe this was going to be cancerous.

The doc did a bone x-ray of my mouth and said nothing looked abnormal. He took photos of the spots and emailed them to the pathologist to get any feedback. She didn't respond while I was there.

I asked for nitrous oxide, which was an excellent decision and probably the best $42 I've ever spent.

The anesthesia shots were fairly painful. It made the cut the chunk of flesh out pain seem trivial.

I asked to look at the plucked flesh and I took a pic of it. I was surprised how small it was and how I couldn't identify any black on it.

I was prescribed an antibiotic and 30 lortabs I am scheduled to return in 12 days to get the results. As I was leaving, I asked what he thought based on other spots he's seen and the results of those. He said he was leaning towards benign and I appreciated his optimism.

I am worrying far less than I thought I would. The thought that I have no control over the consequences helps as well as klonopin and martinis and lortabs.

My wife knows about this but I haven't shared it with family and friends but I needed to go over it so I've decided to post about it here.