Day: June 22, 2008

Appointments Galore

My Dermatologist made me an appointment with a MOHS surgeon that following Monday.  SM basically insisted that she come with me.  I thought I didn’t need it, but boy was I glad she was there.

This whole period was full of accelerated learning, and radical changes in my own self image.  From fit to sick.

February 25th, 2008

I went to the dr just now. Just consultation. I go back thurs for a Narrow Margin Excision, where he will remove the remaining bits of The growth. Next Tuesday I go up to Columbia to a different Dr, for a consultation about next steps.  My understanding is he will probably recommend a Wide Margin Excision and a Sentinel Lymph Node biopsy. They will both happen in the same procedure. Not sure when that will happen.

Will know more next Tuesday.  In the meantime, I’m feeling okay.  The new info doesn’t really calm me down that much, but it doesn’t freak me out further.

The other thing I learned today is that Lymph Node biopsy is a euphemism for extraction. Because they are so small, they basically have to remove it to get a sample.  They used to remove all of them, but b/c of some side effects, they now only remove the sentinel node (the first one)

The key is still whether it has spread to the lymph nodes.  The dr said that all things considered, he doesn’t expect it there, but he thinks the dr at Columbia will recommend checking just to be sure.

Weekend 1, new side effects

Last night I discovered two new side effects: a rash on my arms and a swollen tonsil.  Only my right tonsil.  Swollen like a little ball.

Apparently the rash is common.  There is another woman who is doing the same Interferon sequence as I am and apparently she developed it on her arms and her legs on Friday; I was unaware, as I was asleep.  I got it Saturday.  Right as I was going to sleep.  I mentioned something about itchy arms, and my mom sprang into motion.  We went searching for the benedryl cream.  It turns out mom loaned it to the neighbors the day before.  So my dad went over to ask the neighbors to borrow it back, but they couldn’t find it.  So then he goes off to the closest 24hr pharmacy (oh, for this I miss New York.)  And about three minutes after he leaves the phone rings and it is the neighbors saying they found it.  I tell my mother, who calls my dad on the cell phone.  The last thing I hear before the Ambien drags me under is the sound of my Father’s cell phone ringing in my parents room, and my mother quietly cursing.

I spent almost the entire day in bed, and ate very little.

In the evening, I rallied and went with my parents to a marriage reception for a family friend. There were a couple of people there who I wanted to see, a ton of people I didn’t know, and almost no one in-between. I made it an hour.  i was fine and then all of a sudden I knew I had passed my threshold and had to go.  When I arrived I had a little jump in my step; I was alert and ready to handle whatever social stuff might come at me.  By the time I left I was shuffling my feet, and had my arms wrapped around my torso in self-comfort/self-defense.

I was proud that I made it at all.