Over a year ago Mom told me she had a knot on her side. I asked her if she had told the dr, and she said no, she was just watching it. It never went away, but it never grew any, either. Until 2 weeks ago, when in the span of 3 days it grew from a small knot on the side to a small bulge on her stomach, and then grew again the next day. Her general dr saw her immediately, said he did not think it was a hernia and scheduled an appt with a general surgeon the next week. I was not overly thrilled that he did not order any other tests (and I don't think the surgeon was either) but we were all impressed that the surgeon had actually skimmed some of her charts, asked quite a few questions about her previous bouts with melanoma and had her set up for tests at the local (Mom's local...not the the dr's local!) hospital the next morning. We were all pondering the different possibilities (and there were many) and at the same time, trying not to think about it. Meanwhile we (more like ...