time for annual update

I wanted to drop by and say hi. Say– I’m still alive, and actually doing well.

I promised myself I’d do this each year, because this is such a nasty disease, and deserves to be assassinated, so we can live.

As some of the older people— if you’re still around– know, I am a stage 4 metastatic melanoma cancer survivor.

I had my first signs of mm in the summer of 1987. A mole I’d grown up with turned black, and started showing all the classic signs.

By 1990, I was a few weeks out from getting married, and realized– gosh! I guess I better do the responsible thing, and get this thing checked out. So… I did.

What I thought for sure was metastatic by then, the dermatologist told me– it’s benign, go have a great life. To which I excitedly said— thank you! I will.

A couple of weeks later, I got married to the woman I am still married to today. Yes, she stuck through it all with me, and I’ve stuck with her, through all her stuff too.

So, about a year and a half later, I had a pain show up in my left groin, along with a lump, probably about the size of a quarter. I told my wife, and she encoruaged me to go see the doctor. I did, and he handed me a bottle of antibiotics, and said—

if it doesn’t go away, let me know.

So, I left, the pain went away, but the lump remained. As the pain was really my only concern, I was good. We left sunny southern california, and moved here to nothern Nevada, and the mountains…. PS— a thinner atmosphere is not good for melanoma. I.e., I now live under 85% of the atmosphere I lived under at the beach. This means that 15% of the atmosphere that I’m missing, is the thickest/densest part.

By 1995 I saw a local surgeon, and talked with him about the lump. IT didn’t hurt, but it was growing…. ever so slowly. It had gotten to the size of a golf-ball by then.

So… another year and a half, late 96, I was working up at Lake Tahoe, on my “cat’s meow” project. I was so excited…. this project had been talked about for a couple of years, by local craftsmen, and contractors.

My former mole, which had been removed, and unbeknownst to me had metasticized, and become a tumor in my groin, had grown enough to start causing my thigh to start getting numb. IT was weird.

So, I went to the local doctor, and he passed it off as wearing too many layers of clothing (turned out to be one seriously hellacious winter, so I’m thinking— no shi8 sherlock! Of course I’m wearing too many layers of clothes).

So, I decided to wait until the spring. It had gotten sufficiently deep into my nerves, and thigh by then that my thigh ceased being numb, and felt like shingles (for the uninitiated, think a gallon of gas, and light it…. the pain is excruciating). By June 1997, I finally got into see a surgeon. My golfball sized lump was by then a twinky-sized lump

the nurse thought I had a hernia. I ripped into the doctor— albeit ever so politely (no swear words, or cussing, but definitely terse).

He did a needle biopsy (with the old bbq lighter looking “needle”). 3 vials of novacaine. I’d left for another project up in Redding, CA that night after the appt. So, by midnight, I was in agony.

I barely got any sleep that night. I worked all week, and was in agony. I finally got some vicodine (wanna good joke…. it’s not vicodine. that’s a waste of money).

I came home that following weekend, and my dad was there. I knew then it was a problem– he lived 250 miles away, and was not one to travel.

That was the weekend following June 20th, 1997. the surgeon actually ate humble pie. He gave me every single phone number he had available. Pager, back office, home, you name it.

Following a whirlwind journey, I left work July 3rd, and never returned. July 11th, 1997, I had what was the first of 6 surgeries.

I got secondary lympedema from that. LE sucks! Don’t let anyone EVER tell you otherwise. I still live with it today.

I’m going to stop here, because this is now a 33-1/2 year story, and I don’t have that much energy.

I do however want to say– I am presently NED. My last scans as of August 2019, are clear.

So, I’ll be back tomorrow for the next leg of the journey.