>From the response I've received in just the past few hours, it would appear that cancer of one type or another is encountered in many different branches of the Breedlove family. I don't know if this is genetic or not. The doctors always ask about history of heart problems in the family (none on my line) but never ask about cancer. Mine was a squamous cell carcinoma, which is a little worse than basal carcinoma and much better than the third type of skin cancer, melinoma. As I sit here trying to get my reading glasses to stay over my ear than is all bandaged up, I recall reading that skin cancers are also caused by areas of skin that are under constant irritations, such as from bra straps or glasses or jewelry. The surgeaon says they got it all and scrapped the cranium for samples to be sure. They've sutured pads to my ear to cover the skin graft that will come out next Friday. That's the part that hurts, my neck where they took the skin from is very itchy and tight. He says they caught it well in time which is important in skin cancers, but I won't get into the long bunch of foulups I had getting it done at the VA Hospital, two months after I was originally scheduled for this surgery. I'll get close followups on it from Dermitology forever so I'll be just fine. Thanks for all of your kind thoughts. Tom _____NetZero Free Internet Access and Email______ http://www.netzero.net/download/index.html