Yes, you read that right, Cancer Free! In the midst of all the Christmas hullabaloo and the hand surgery, I finally got the results of a biopsy I had performed on December 1.
I was sitting here in my comfy chair the Sunday night before Christmas, talking on the phone to my mother, when a call beeped in. I looked and saw that it was my dermatologist and quickly said “mom, gotta go it’s my doctor, call ya back.” You can probably imagine that I immediately thought this is not good, calling me on a Sunday night . . . . nope not good at all. I was correct . . . the results basal cell carcinoma and I needed surgery as soon as possible.
Now here’s the thing. This bump was on my head about 2 inches back from my hair line, under my hair and protected from sun. My mother actually said one day that my horns were finally coming in . . . can you believe that? I have no other signs of skin cancer on my body. Blunt force trauma caused the cancer, not the sun. An infection had set in at the point of injury.
After a trip to work a stamp show last September 2008, I came home tired and not paying attention, I hit my head on the latch to the trunk lid on my car. I remember saying, wow that hurt, reached up and found no blood and then checked in the mirror. I had a little red mark, the skin was not broken and all was good. A few months later I was having my hair cut and my stylist asked me about the red mark on my scalp. I told her I had hit my head but didn’t bleed, etc. This summer I noticed that the area was growing and my hair had fallen out in a perfect little circle. It was also beginning to hurt sometimes when I scraped it with my hairbrush. I went to my doctor to have her look at it and she referred me to a dermatologist. It took me a couple of months to get into a dermatologist, which was by then December 1.
Tuesday this week, I went in for Mohs Surgery. After 10-11 hours and 4 trips back, I am cancer free without radiation or chemotherapy. In order to cover the area that they worked on, I got a mini facelift. I must say that my right eyebrow has not been this perky in many years. They said the skin on my scalp was too tight to do a skin graft, which I asked if that meant I had a big head . . .
I even suggested that perhaps they wanted to take a graft from my butt. I told the doctors that I could afford to lose some skin there and that I knew it was loose enough. They just laughed at me and didn’t even take me seriously.
So, here I am as I sit today . . . all cuddled up in the recliner, happily typing away while on pain meds. I haven’t missed a dose since I came home Tuesday night.
As you might notice, I have a partial Mohawk. Once the bandage comes off tomorrow, I’m planning on having my family shave the rest of the hair off. There’s so little there as it is, that it might as well all grow back in the same length. I go back next Tuesday to have the stitches removed and then see what happens from there.
I have to say that the doctors and their staff were absolutely wonderful and made me feel so comfortable and relaxed. We laughed and joked the better part of the day making my experience more tolerable than if everyone was in a grumpy mood.
I still need to take it easy for a couple of days . . . relaxing in the recliner pursuant to doctors orders . . . then I’m gonna be ready to face the new year head on and at full steam! Thanks for stopping by today and Happy New Year!
