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Been an interesting couple of weeks… (long)
The weekend before school started (Aug. 14, to be exact) I went to get a haircut so I looked all nice a teacher-like for school. The haircut lady mentioned something about the birthmark on my head. I've NEVER had a birthmark on my head, so we got a couple of mirrors out and I took a look. It was a large, irregular, spot ranging in color from dark red to a purplish-brown. I thought to myself, "That doesn't look like a birthmark, that looks like melanoma." The next week I went to see a dermatologist. She took a plug biopsy and measured the spot at 2.5 cm in diameter. I told her I knew she couldn't answer definitively with out the pathology report, so I asked her what her gut said. She looked me in the eye and said, "Oh, it's melanoma. I'm so sorry."
Fast forward to this past Monday, when she called me with the lab results. She told me the labs were inconclusive, and wanted me to see an associate, a dermatologic surgeon. Yesterday I went to see the surgeon and her two munchkins (dermatology residents; both female—is every dermatologist a woman?), who promptly took out the whole spot and sent it off to the lab.
Again I asked what her gut said, and she said, "I'm 99% sure it's melanoma. I'd bet money on it."
Right now I'm sitting at home with a 3.5 cm open wound in my head. She didn't want to sew me up until the path report came back, in case she and the munchkins have to biopsy a sentinel node. So, I get to spend the next week with a gaping hole in my head (LOML says I've always needed my head examined) waiting for another pathology report.
What happens next depends on how deep the melanoma is. If it's superficial, the munchkins will sew up the hole and I'll be monitored for the rest of my life. If the melanoma got deep enough, it's more surgery and chemo. Right now I have about a half mile of gauze wrapping my head—I look like a crazed knight from Holy Grail!
I'll probably stay home tomorrow, too. I'm not in much pain, but I'm pretty tired. I really need to get back in the classroom; teaching gives me energy and lets me concentrate on something else.
I'm not asking for sympathy—I just wanted to give the news to my BT3 buds. I have a good attitude and I refuse to worry until I have something definite to worry about. Even if the news is really bad, my conscience is clear.
Thanks for reading!
Update
LOML and I met with Dr. T. and the Munchkins yesterday. The lab test came back positive for melanoma, which we all expected. What we didn't expect was the extent of the cancer: melanoma in situ, meaning that the tumor was on the top layer of skin and had not become invasive at all. According to Dr. T., (insert "I pity the fool… joke here) the size of the tumor and the fact that the middle of the tumor was regressing (meaning that my immune system had managed to control some of the cancer cells; meaning that the tumor had been there quite a while) usually indicate a much more serious cancer, usually Stage 3 or 4. To quote the doc, "I've seen some pretty wacky things, and this is right up there. You dodged a HUGE bullet."
Then she and the munchkins took another 5mm of tissue from around the current hole and sent that off to the lab to make sure that they got it all. Assuming that test comes back negative, next week I go back one more time and have one of the munchkins sew up the gaping hole in my head.
So, to drag out a long story a bit further, if I had to have a potentially deadly cancer, this was the best possible way to do it. Either I have really wimpy cancer cells, or a ninja immune system. I do have to go back to my regular dermatologist every three months for the next year, then every six months for a year, then once a year for the rest of my life. I think I can live with that!
Phew!!!!
g.
Fast forward to this past Monday, when she called me with the lab results. She told me the labs were inconclusive, and wanted me to see an associate, a dermatologic surgeon. Yesterday I went to see the surgeon and her two munchkins (dermatology residents; both female—is every dermatologist a woman?), who promptly took out the whole spot and sent it off to the lab.
Again I asked what her gut said, and she said, "I'm 99% sure it's melanoma. I'd bet money on it."
Right now I'm sitting at home with a 3.5 cm open wound in my head. She didn't want to sew me up until the path report came back, in case she and the munchkins have to biopsy a sentinel node. So, I get to spend the next week with a gaping hole in my head (LOML says I've always needed my head examined) waiting for another pathology report.
What happens next depends on how deep the melanoma is. If it's superficial, the munchkins will sew up the hole and I'll be monitored for the rest of my life. If the melanoma got deep enough, it's more surgery and chemo. Right now I have about a half mile of gauze wrapping my head—I look like a crazed knight from Holy Grail!
I'll probably stay home tomorrow, too. I'm not in much pain, but I'm pretty tired. I really need to get back in the classroom; teaching gives me energy and lets me concentrate on something else.
I'm not asking for sympathy—I just wanted to give the news to my BT3 buds. I have a good attitude and I refuse to worry until I have something definite to worry about. Even if the news is really bad, my conscience is clear.
Thanks for reading!
Update
LOML and I met with Dr. T. and the Munchkins yesterday. The lab test came back positive for melanoma, which we all expected. What we didn't expect was the extent of the cancer: melanoma in situ, meaning that the tumor was on the top layer of skin and had not become invasive at all. According to Dr. T., (insert "I pity the fool… joke here) the size of the tumor and the fact that the middle of the tumor was regressing (meaning that my immune system had managed to control some of the cancer cells; meaning that the tumor had been there quite a while) usually indicate a much more serious cancer, usually Stage 3 or 4. To quote the doc, "I've seen some pretty wacky things, and this is right up there. You dodged a HUGE bullet."
Then she and the munchkins took another 5mm of tissue from around the current hole and sent that off to the lab to make sure that they got it all. Assuming that test comes back negative, next week I go back one more time and have one of the munchkins sew up the gaping hole in my head.
So, to drag out a long story a bit further, if I had to have a potentially deadly cancer, this was the best possible way to do it. Either I have really wimpy cancer cells, or a ninja immune system. I do have to go back to my regular dermatologist every three months for the next year, then every six months for a year, then once a year for the rest of my life. I think I can live with that!
Phew!!!!
g.
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