As I grew older, I was nurtured by the sun, just as plants are. I was out in the sun each day. When I was a teenager, we used baby oil and iodine to help us get the tan look. (FRY-baby-fry)
I became involved in the age group of city recreation swimming and diving teams for many years. As I grew older I worked in the fields of farmers, as a lifeguard, pool manager and coach of swimming and diving during my summer. I also coached football, track, and off-duty lunch while I was a teacher.
According to the experts in the field of skin cancer, "... a lot of damage that leads to skin cancer occurring in young children and adolescents ..."
We did not know what sunscreen is Coppertone but cute commercials on TV. I guess you could say that the pious, "Sun" worshiper all my life. I have had my share of very bad sunburns throughout my life.
for the first time I went to see a dermatologist he asked me to remove my košulju.Prve word he said, "My really enjoyed the sun throughout your lifetime ."
22 November 2010, I went and had my annual dermatology ispit.Liječnik not thorough examination, and then asked if there is something I want to have checked out. I said, "If there was a very small place such as a white head on the left side of the central part of my forehead that always bothers me when I wiped the sweat off. It did not hurt or anything it was just upsetting ."
the doctor look at it and said it was nothing to be worried, but he will do the punch biopsy to make sure. He numbed the area, local anesthetic and no biopsy. He did not use any stitches, just a band-aid
.Since it is Thanksgiving week, he told me that his staff would call me next week with the results. I told him that there would be no problem.
The next week passed without a call from his office. Then next week brings, too. I had forgotten about the test and continued with his daily life running, substitute teaching, and just enjoy life since I retired from teaching areas.
During the third week, on Thursday night around 20:30, my doctor called me at home and told me that my biopsy was sent back to Boston, because pathologists here have a tough time defining and diagnosing it. They thought that the group of nerve cells that are interwoven, but are not sure. They wanted other pathologists to confirm the diagnosis.
pathologists are in Boston, has also agreed to disagree. At last they came to the exact definition and diagnosis for this group of cells. 8th December last year, a bump on my forehead was positively diagnosed as a place Desmoplastic melanoma.
I was told this type of cancer is very aggressive and destructive. This is the type of cancer that do not play by certain rules; as well as other types of cancer is not
.The doctor told me that he has already made an appointment for me with a surgeon. I was to meet with the surgeon next Tuesday morning.
After I hung up the phone, my wife asked who was calling. I told her the whole story. I was absolutely dumbfounded and šok.Više it sank that evening more concerned I became.
I am worried about it all weekend. I researched this type of skin cancer on internetu.Više I learned about it the more concerned I became. I spoke with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law in Salt Lake City, Utah. They are both in the medical field. They suggested I come down there and get the Huntsman Cancer Institute. He treats nothing but the type of melanoma tumors. I said that I will have to wait and see what we as physicians are prescribing. They told me not to wait too long, because the type of cancer it is.
After further research at the Huntsman Institute, I found that melanoma is "the deadliest form of skin cancer has reached epidemic proportions worldwide and is the fastest growing cancer in the United States."
On Tuesday morning I met with the surgeon. He started looking at this little white head hammer, and then began regarding the medical terminology of his sister. He then said that I had any questions I ask my sister, and he left the room. His sister told me she could not schedule the surgery before any third January
I told her I did not have surgery until after 10 January, because I committing some substitute teaching jobs for some dear friends. She told me that it's okay, but I needed to call the hospital and go in for pre-screening operations. She said she would send orders to the hospital.
I called the hospital that afternoon and set up an appointment for a morning of 7th January
On the morning of 7th January, I went to the hospital and told them why I was there. We went through basic records, and before the lab exam. They told me that we could not do lab tests and EKG, as there were no orders from a physician.
nurse kindly call the doctor and ask to be faxed to her. We waited about twenty minutes, but no fax stigao.Medicinska sister said she was sorry, but there was nothing could do. So, she sent me home.
When I arrived home I called the office and the receptionist said that they were all at lunch. She would call me when the nurse came back in the office.
After a two-hour nurse called me at home and told me that it was faxed orders. I asked her what I need to do now. She told me to call the second term in the hospital, but I should have it finished before I could check in for surgery.
I called the hospital and fortunately a nurse I spoke this morning answered the phone. I explained what the doctor's office said. She told me that I was down there right now, and we would then complete the exam. Thank God for her because I was not getting any help or information from my surgeon's nurse.
12 January I checked into a hospital. I was a basket full of nervous because I really had no idea about what will dogoditi.Prva thing I had to experience the radiation doctor injects a "white head" with lidocaine. Then injected into the north, west, south and east of a point on the spot with a radioactive element that stung like acid, even though he was intoxicated. I had to lie perfectly still for 40 minutes to travel to certain elements of the sentinel lymph nodes. My wife and radiation doctor to look at the monitor as well as radioactive elements traveling from my forehead down to my left ear and vrat.Kirurg the removal of these nodes are marked, because that is where the cancer cells are traveling in.
After this process is completed, I was directed to pre-surgery department. I had an IV hooked up to my hands. I was asked more questions for the hospital records. In fact, these same questions I answered during my first visit. I think different departments do not communicate with each other, even in this day and age of technology.
Anesthesia doctor came and talked with me as is injected IV with a mild sedative. This is good because I'm really starting to get stressed out. This doctor actually answered some of my questions and gave me some information about the procedure.
The surgeon had gotten behind on his surgery schedule so that my surgery was pushed back two hours. I think I got a mild sedative two more times before I was wheeled into surgery area.At this point all I knew, or should I say everything I said was going to remove that site. Ah, I was wrong.
During the operation this afternoon, the doctor made an incision inside my hairline to below my left eyebrow. He removed part of the round as the bottom of the yogurt my forehead and went as deep as the skull. He also removed sentinel lymph node by my left ear and two nodes from deep in my neck. I told my wife that he had to go to an inch and a half and get the knots.
node incision was closed and sašivena.Čelo opening was filled with cotton balls and compression bandages to prevent krvarenje.Zavoji actually sutured to the skin to prevent them from moving.
When I was fairly awake from anesthesia and given the OK by the doctor recovery room, I was sent home with his wife and told to return to the clinic on Tuesday morning next week.When I arrived home, I looked in the mirror and saw someone who had bandages all over his face. I had a big bandage on my forehead that looked like the beginning of Unicorn horn. I also had a bandage for my left ear and one on my neck below the ear.
pain pills that he gave his wife to help alleviate the pain before I could she fill my prescription, they are very welcome at this time. It was a very long day for my wife and I. We arrived at the hospital at 6:30 pm and returned to our house at 20:10
weekend went pretty well, except for the pounding in my head, my left ear area, and my neck. I led on a regular basis to help control swelling.
on Tuesday morning, I was allowed the luxury of finally becoming privileged to any information involving my case. My wife and I knew nothing about the information in advance.
They were to me back in hospital again the next day and this time it was going to be overnight. This is because all the maneuvering of the doctor was going to have to do it under the skin will leave me very sore, and actually very sick to my stomach. He was very exact about it!
He said they are going to loosen the skin under a very thin line about two and a half inches, and then pull it out, tuck it under and then stitch it back together, and leaving as small scar as possible. I looked in the mirror and saw cut previously napravili.Rez went from 1 / 2 inch below my eyebrows and over my head and my hairline to 1 / 2 inches.
This is basically a partial face-lift that plastic surgeons can do.
Sister packaged and re-bandaged the cut and we headed back home. While we were driving home, my wife and I question each other about knowing any of this information before today. We both reached the same conclusion. We were not given any of this information before today.
We arrived back at the hospital the next day around noon. I was checked in the pre-surgery area again. I actually had the same nurses before surgery as I did the first operation. We went through the same procedure as before with IV and questions. Today the surgeon is not behind, and it looked like we were going ahead as planned.
anesthesia, the doctor came into my cubby hole and gave me a pre-depressants. As it is I happened to look across the aisle from me. It was quite fifteen years girl and her father in a cubby hole across the aisle. As my bed was wheeled out of my cubby hole, her doctor told her that they are going to have to remove her nose and upper lip, because the place nos.Vrisak that came from it was a blood curdling scream that I only heard in movies.
is my sister later told me that the parents could not make her say about her surgery. They had just told her that her dermatologist was going to remove some acne bumps. They realized her doctor was able to let you in on a secret after she was partially sedated.
I am glad that I was being wheeled into the operating room and outside the area.
As I was going to the operating room, where my surgery was going to be done, I remember thinking, "Oh shit, what will they do it for me this time ?"
When I woke up in his hospital room, the pain began immediately. The rest of the night I tried to listen to music to block pain-no help or very little. We, my sister and I, and then tried Norco tablets every four hours .... took little ease, but when the pain wanted to scream to get his way.
nurse finally said, "that it" and gave me an injection of morphine. She told me that the pain is making my blood pressure elevate refused vidjeti.Morfin brought the pain down to a low to medium migraine. So we continue this program, Norco tablets every four hours after injection of each hour, all night until I was released the next morning at 9:30, I did not get any sleep at all that night.
When I was released from the hospital the morning, I was told that the bandages clean and dry, a doctor will see me in three days to get the stitches.
I am loading up on some Norco tablets, and finally slept like a stone when I returned home.
My wife told me that the doctor came and talked to her after the surgery. She said it was very informative and actually quite nice.
When I went to the surgeon's office that my stitches removed, I had a new nurse izvaditi.Uboda them out very easily. I looked like I had a small irrigation ditch running through my head, but I felt happy at the moment.
My doctor told me that there will be several sessions of radiation to clean any debris that is left, but that would stress about anything. He told me headaches, pain and itching under the skin will go away with time.
He set an appointment for my meeting with radiation oncologist at St. Luke Hospital in Mountain States Tumor Institute and Department of MMPI. This appointment will be scheduled in about two weeks. This will give you time to heal cuts.
When I went to my appointment to meet the radiology oncologist and chemical oncologist at Mountain States Tumor Institute, I was under the impression that I have a few rays, and that would be it.
All that I met in the MMPI, from receptionists to the doctors were very sweet and milosrdan.Suosjećanje doctors, nurses, and everyone who worked there for your patients is truly overwhelming and heartwarming.
doctors are compassionate, but the very fact when he came to this disease. The first doctor, who was a radiation oncologist, I looked at the cuts and said: "Your doctor is another very good job on the front head and neck, but I want to know something, he is a surgeon, very good, but still just a surgeon. I i Radiology oncologist and now you are mine.
I am setting up for the brain MRI, PET scan of the whole body, and meet with a doctor Chemo and Radiation Oncology tech staff ."
I met with Chemo oncologist immediately. I could tell from what he said was a very intelligent person. She asked me what I was in the process? I told her I do not know because nobody has offered me the information. She looked at my picture and said that I had stage two. I was one cell away from being in phase three. She said the difference is that the stage two do not chemotherapy, stage a three-interferon chemotherapy. She explained what would happen to me physically and mentally if I would have gone interferon therapy.
She told me that if I asked for my dermatologist to check this "white head" by this time next year, on my annual dermatology check would not be able to do anything for me. I said very, very happy.
and then was taken to a room where the radiation we are going to fit very tight plastic mask that clicked on the table. It was designed so that in the next five weeks I will be in the same position every day. They told me that my eyebrow hairs will fall out, parts of my hair would fall out, my skin will burn like a sunburn, and then blister and peel. They said I could just use the lotions that they gave me, because commercial products are too strong. He also told me that they can not use sunscreen for the first year, because of the evil that will cause the skin.
radiation tech person asked: "Have you ever been claustrophobic?" I told them no and asked why. They told me that the mask is to be found in very hot water, and then pushed over my face and clicked on the table. Then the techs to form my face with her hands. When it is finished with cold towels over it to solidify its shape.
then I would mask off, draw on my face with a Sharpie pen for future reference points, place the mask back on my face, and make some marks on the mask.
These marks on the mask to help align the labels for laser radiation. In this way the placement of markers will be accurate every treatment. I was also going to carry relief to keep my left eye and radiation will not affect my eyes.
of the radiation room, I was sent pictures department. This will make the PET scan and MRI.
The first time I got an injection of radioactive elements, placed in a dark room, and said to be as quiet as possible for forty minutes. I could not speak. When time was up, I was led to zahod.Prijavite on the outer side of the door reading "Nuclear Patients Only". I highly expecting your urine glow if I turned out the lights. Then I was taken back into the room and the images are made up of the whole body scan.
and then was taken to the MRI room, where a technician is not my brain MRI. In addition to the fuss that was the easy test. I was told my doctor to go to the results of tests on Monday and then I was sent home. I was extremely exhausted after all of this. It is little radiation to clean any debris left from the surgery that my surgeon was not stated.
When we started radiation, I was met with a doctor every Monday. On the first Monday she told me that the results of MRI and PET scans are back and that I have nodules in the lungs. A big some more good news!
She said most people have them from the air we breathe, but she ordered a CAT scan Dedicated lungs. This is a scan will be held the next morning. This examination will look at the nodules to a greater extent.
My doctor then headed back into the radiation room. They gave me a schedule for the next five weeks. I was going to have radiation every weekday at 15:00 for the next five weeks.
technicians are now laid on the table skinny. They put a pillow under your knees to relieve any back pressure. Then the masks were made for me, was put on my face, she pushed against the table until I heard about four clicks. This is the mask by clicking on its proper position. They placed a shield of water over my left eye.
then, technicians told me that they are ready and that they were going to leave the room. They told me not to move. I had my eyes closed, but when the machine came on I could see the white light passes over my face. I asked the technician about it and she told me that there was no white light. This could be a radiation playing with my optic nerve.
As the weeks passed I developed a sun burn on my head before I lost my hair with my left eyebrow, and up into my hair about an inch and a half. During the third week of treatment, when the radiation came from, I could feel the sensation of bubbles just beneath kože.Tehničari said this phenomenon and to make sure I used the lotion they gave to me.
If you ever wanted your life fully scheduled out, this is one way to do this. Do you have radiation treatments every day at 15:00, doctors appointments every Monday at 11 am, and then was scheduled tests between the two. I saw patients in the MMPI to spend the whole day there. Their first Chemo treatment and then go and have their own radiation.
One day while I was sitting in the waiting room of radiation and a young man about 22 years walked and sat down. I knew it just had Chemo treatment because of the bandage on his hand.
As we sat there, he began to cry. He insisted that he will fail. I was just about to talk to him when the nurse called me back for my treatment. I told her about him, what he said, and suggested that he needed to talk to someone. After my treatment is completed, the nurse came up to me and thanked me saying something. This young man was in a very depressed state, and they can check into a hospital.
When I went in for my first CAT scan they told me they were going to use a warm solution of iodine as a contrast material. I am allergic to jod.Zračenja technician gave me some medicine to prevent any allergic reactions.
technician told me when they injected hot Iodine to make you feel as if you were getting hot all over, and then suddenly it would feel like to urinate in his pants .... She did not lie. This is exactly how I felt. She told me to warn some of her older patients feeling that will happen, but they still would grab their crotch when it happens.
bump results were fine, but as we walked outside the tech told me that he will probably have two CAT scans, about six months apart. About this time, my nose and upper lip has become itchy. It is a mild reaction. I had to sit for ten minutes with my sister and IV in my arm so I could be traced to multiple responses.
another cat scan went as planned without any changes in the nodules, and no reaction of iodine.
third CAT scan results were okay but sister is behind schedule and decided the best way to put a needle by a vertical-vertical method over the parallel-horizontal method. It was supposed to be my last CAT scan, but the doctors found a new lump. So, now I have one more to make sure this does not change.
Just about the time I feel like everything comes to an end a new surprise hits the fan.
I finished radiation and I am still in the process of recovery, both physically and mentally. Doctors have two years to recover from surgery and radiation. My head is still sore where the surgery took place. I had several conversations with the MMPI social workers to vent some anxiety. What a wonderful and caring person she is and will always be a dear friend
When my radiation is over, radiation tech gave me a mask and told me that I could paint a Halloween scare children away from my door or I could paint in the orange and blue and wear it on Boise state football home games. He was a great man during this period.
So, I have another CAT scan in August, and now I have 15 months clean, with a dermatologist, oncologist and radiation, etc. Doctor appointments set every three months, hopefully not all on the same day. I do not want anymore surprises, although the last review I dermatology doctor asked me if there was something I wanted to check. I mentioned the area in the back of my left hand, in the middle of the tricep area.
He looked at it, no biopsy, and then called me two days later. He told me he had squamous cell carcinoma, which should be removed.
Luckily, the office visit, which is very little time. It did not cause me some stress because I do not like needles and hear him cutting and scraping with a scalpel, not a cure. So I went for a run to relieve this feeling and to get my head back in my zone, which occurs during the "runners high ".
These types of phenomena really stop my running schedule, my family schedule, and my daily schedule.
but because I had my dermatologist to check the small white head I'm still here, fighting back, and enjoy life.
Steve McCain
"Hug a life like your favorite teddy bear"
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar