It’s been over six months. I was past due for my first “check back” on the skin cancer surgery. The boarders of the map once stitched boldly to my face have mostly faded away along with the shock of hosting a third cancer.
The dermatologist was pleased with the healing, but decided to remove several “pre-cancerous” growths. I’m happy to report pre-cancerous is not as certain as pre-approved or pre-disposed.
Actually yes, it did feel like cigarette burns
It’s approaching two years since my stem cell transplant. I know I sound like a broken record commenting on the speed of the ticking clock, so I won’t say it (do people still know what broken record means?). I’ll just continue to enjoy every day of this remission.
Leave Request Archives
It occurred to me that my growing stack of leave requests from work is a weight contender for the Greater Yamhill County phone book. Some pages represent more than one day, and not every page is for medical leave, but they continue to collect at a steady rate.
My face is healing where the cancer was removed, but if you look closely you can see a map of Nevada, or maybe its Florida.
Many have complimented the doctor’s work on my face (his specialty is breast reconstruction). When he finished removing the stitches he said, “You can walk out of here cancer free.” I replied, “Well – actually, there is no cure yet for my Multiple Myeloma.”
He looked quickly at the floor and muttered something quietly. I just should have just said thank you. I’m never sure, sometimes maybe I should keep my thoughts to myself.
Recently while in a hardware store, there was a young man having a very bad day. A clerk was trying to help him find something he needed – quickly. I saw him when I passed the end of his isle; I was looking at fire extinguishers in the next row.
I heard him say loud and clearly, “Everything that could possibly go wrong today has gone wrong!” I was tempted for just a moment to step around the corner and ask him if he has incurable cancer. “No? Then you do not realize what an absolutely wonderful day you are having.”
Should I have barged in with my unsolicited observation? Would it have been a welcome point of view not previously considered? Or would it be just one more annoyance in his near recordbad day?
Doing the fire repair on my car has been like doing multiple, interconnected story problems associated with replacing fuel lines, vacuum lines, coil wires, starter wires, spark plug wires, distributor cap, and finally reconnecting the battery.
Before you touch cable to post you mentally add up the scores from all the story problems for a tally landing you somewhere on the scale of: instantly bursting into flames, wires glowing, plastic melting, or – cranking over and starting the engine.
Story Problem Example: a large red wire left the alternator heading west, to the starter solenoid. Midway along its journey it was joined by a medium gauge red wire that arrived at the starter at the same time. What was the origin of the second red wire, and to which of three terminals should it be connected?
Answer: take more pictures and make more diagrams before starting a project like this. I connected the battery, poured some gasoline in the carburetor and (with a fresh extinguisher standing by) hit the key. It started right up. That car sounds good, and it was nice to hear it running again.
I had a small spot on my face, near my eye. It wouldn’t go away. With this year’s insurance deductibles paid, I thought it would be a good time to see my wife’s dermatologist and have the bump frozen off. Instead, they took a biopsy.
They soon called to tell me that it is cancerous, Basil Cell Carcinoma, the most common and low risk of skin cancer. Low risk is good, but I never thought I would be host to three cancers. Two might be the start of a collection, but I think three really is. I will see the dermatologist soon to discuss the next step.
