I had Cancer?!?! Really?!?!?!

It has been 5 days sense having the hunk removed from my back and close to two weeks sense I was called by Dr. "Silent T" Tsang telling me I had Melanoma In Situs.  I made the choice to be proactive and had the recommended eye and mouth exams within a week (both came up clear).

What is still not sticking, both with me and friends and family, is that a Melanoma is cancer.  Even one caught at the earliest point like this one.  It might be hard to comprehend because I'm not going through treatment beyond having skin removed and the exam schedule.  I'm not having cemo or radiation.  That might be the thing, cause that's what comes to mind when one thinks of cancer treatment.  No baldness or overwhelming fatigue.  My family has been told to get full body exams as there is a genetic component to melanoma.  They don't seem to be taking it all the seriously.  Mom is at least going to ask for a referral from her regular doc. for a dermatologist visit.  Dad, who had a benign mole removed 15 or so years go, and Tim don't seem as fully serious about it.  I don't sit down and have heart to heart talks with them like Tia does with here sister and mom, we're just not those types; yet it seems that might have to be what happens.  They need to understand that had I waited even a month longer, I would been in more serious treatment, and that this IS potentially FATAL.  The high survival rate is for this stage, the higher the stage, the less the chances you'll make it.  Especially for Tim as Melanoma is in the top 5 of killers in our age range.          

Above is what is on my back right now.  It's not as bad as just before they removed the piece. 

Be safe. 

-John

Stage Zero

Well, my adventures in medicine continue.  Turns out the biopsy results have come in and the mole was melanoma intuits. Not sure if the last word is right, but it is Latin for "in place".  The other term is Stage Zero.  Meaning that the melanoma was at the start and only in the first layer of skin.  The earliest that this can be caught.  Everything won't be known until after my surgery tomorrow.  As it stands right now I'm O.K.  97% survival rate.

On a lighter note: Vilification Tennis Presents: Beyond ThunderCageDome DeathMatch at Bryant Lake Bowl.  10pm $12.00.  This Friday!!! Be there!!!!

-John 

So This Happened....

Went in for a physical a couple weeks ago.  In addition to the normal "need to lose weight and control cholesterol better" stuff, a mole on my back was proclaimed "too dark" and a dermatology appointment was set up.  So last Saturday I go in with the wife, they give me a quick look over, then scrap (that's right SCRAP) the mole off and send it in for testing saying it will be 7-14 days.  4 days later I get a call from Dr. Sang, he said he saw enough under the microscope to justify going ahead like I had melanoma (It sounds like it was caught as early as they could catch it this close to Stage 1.) He told me not to panic, not to look stuff up online cause it would only freak me out, that this isn't Izzy on Grey's Anatomy.  This Wednesday I'm getting an all over extra throe body exam (including the naughty bits) followed on Thursday by removal of a 5mm area around the original spot that also goes down through all the layers of skin.  This hunk will be looked at and tested.  I've already had my mouth given an all clear as far as this stuff goes and my eyes are getting checked soon as well.  I guess there are types of blemishes that can show up in both spots.   

Tia was not a happy Panda about all this.  Her being exhausted from work didn't help.  I'm nervous more then worried.  I actually have a positive outlook on this which is a first for me.  It's going to be alright.  I've never thought that about anything before; a glass half empty type.  Only time will tell if I'm right or in denial.  Based on Sang's reaction I think I'm right.  If it was serious, I'd have been in the hospital that day if not the next; the hunk already removed and my body being kemo'd.  The fact they said this week would be OK. for procedures and exams  gets me upbeat.

That being said,  I'll still be at Beyond ThunderCageDome Death Match at Bryant Lake Bowl this Friday at 10pm.  $12.00
(I love shameless self promotion. :-) 

Stay frosty,
-John

Post Rapture Wrap Up/ Rant #1

Well, we're all still here.  The will of Oprah to have her last show has over powered the will of the cosmos to squish us like bugs.  Many believers spent as much as $135 a pop to have their pets looked after.  Law suits are pending. (and sense it was mainly atheists who started the pet sitting up it will get even more heated).  As far as I know there were no mass suicides or the like,(though the writer of the song "You Light Up My Life" was found dead with his heard wrapped in a bag)http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/05/22/police-songwriter-for-you-light-up-my-life-found-dead-in-suicide/
  the NBA/NHL playoffs continue unabated, and tornado season has started in Minnesota. 

By the way, vote "NO" on the amendment to ban gay marriage in the state.  One, it violates basic human rights.  Second, it's a smoke screen to distract us from the fact that the Government hasn't kept their promise to create jobs.  Every tea party candidate campaigned on jobs, jobs, jobs, economy, fiscal responsibility, small gov., etc.  This amendment won't do any of that, nor will it fix the economy or pay off the 5 BILLION dollar state debt. 

I need a break....

Armageddon Bored

Armageddon is not just a movie from the '90's with unbelievable loudness that looks like it was edited by a chimpanzee on Red Bull.  It is another name for the end of the world (or the world as we know it). Ragnarok, Apocalypse, Judgement Day.  As we speak there is a wave going around that this will be happening on Saturday, and will continue for the next five months.  All of this is based on numerology using info from various Bible passages.

Ok, first, you'd think Evangelicals would remember the same book says that only "The Chief" will know the time and day of the big blowout.  Apparently Jesus will be just as shocked as the rest of us.  

I was raised Methodist.  What that means is that I look at the Bible as metaphorical.  Maybe these events happened, maybe they didn't.  And if they did they probable were very different then described.  What matters is the moral of the story, what it is trying to say.(this is based on Jesus' method of using fables in his teaching)  Meaning, that it ain't a history book people.   And when you look at historical texts on the era in which the various books were written, Revelations can be viewed as a metaphorical chronicle of the first 100 years of Christianity as well as a dyer Doomsday prediction.  You make the call!

Then there's the whole Mayan 2012 thing, which any of the Mayan people still around will tell you is being misread.  And the guy who wrote the Left Behind books says it won't be this weekend.  All and all, I doubt they'll be zombies, earthquakes, or anything of the like tomorrow.

See ya Sunday!   





 

   

Here we go again.

Well, after an absence of I don't know how long, I  have returned to the blogsphere.  The grand plan is to us this for shameless self promotion of things I'm doing (Vilification Tennis presents: Beyond ThunderCageDome Death Match. Friday May 27th, Bryant Lake Bowl, 10:00 pm $12.00) Testing out written things, what I do every day, getting healthy (including the return of weekly weight loss entries), and, the life blood of blogsphere, thoughts and opinions.  

It might be daily or every other; who knows.  I just need to start writing more.

-John