And then there were three…

Posted on Oct 24, 2011 in health, skin cancer

I seem to have been visiting the dermatologist every couple of weeks for months now.

First – for the biopsy on my right thigh. The test results  showed the lump was a Basal Cell Carcinoma

Back two weeks later to have it excised. Had a nodule on my left collar bone which had been bugging me removed too.   Test results showed it to be a squamous cell carcinoma. This is the second most common type of skin cancer so still not something that I’m going to panic about.

Week 4  -I returned to have both sets of stitches removed. While I was there I pointed out another lesion, this time on my left thigh – an almost exact mirror image of the first one.  It was smaller than the first – but similar, and had been there for longer than I’d expect for a spot or an infected insect bite.  Slice and stitch and off I went.  This too was a Basal Layer tumour – so my identification of skin cancers is three out of three at the moment.

I may be a slow healer, the scar in an unfortunate position – whatever.  When I got home, I squatted down in front of the fridge to grab something, and as the skin on my thigh stretched the scar split open again.  There was some blood but surprisingly little pain. The clinic on Lamma won’t do stitches so I was on the next ferry back to HK, and up to the A&E at Queen Mary Hospital to have it re-stitched.  Pictures to follow

Week 6 sees me up at the hospital again. Looking at the wounds the doctor, nurse, and I all agreed it was better to leave the stitches in for a third week.

But not wanting a wasted trip I got them to look at a few more blemishes and rough patches on my skin. I’ve been researching skin cancers recently and reckoned they might be actinic keratoses which can e precursors to real skin cancers  The doc got to play with his favourite toy – a canister of liquid nitrogen, and zapped several spots on my left shoulder and thigh , back of my left hand and right shoulder blade.  Liquid nitrogen cryosurgery. Mmmmm, crunchy!

And now, the end of week eight, I’ve had the last of my stitches out, the scars are healing nicely, and I have a couple more weeks before my next appointment. Them we’ll see if the freezing treatment did it’s work.  Some of them are looking good, but a couple still seem not to be clearing up.  And then there’s this little lump on the left side of the bridge of my nose that I don’t like the look of……

the other skin cancer

Posted on Sep 22, 2011 in health, skin cancer

This is the bit I didn’t post post last time.

Back in February or March I brought a skin blemish to the attention of the doctor at one of my regular checkups. It looked like a spot that I’d scratched the top off, or a slightly infected insect bite – but nothing angry or serious. It certainly didn’t look brown, discoloured, irregular in shape and it wasn’t growing – so I was pretty sure it wasn’t a melanoma – an that was all I knew about skin cancers.  But it had been there for some months and didn’t seem to be going away.

It seemed like no big deal.  I had a rough patch of skin in my left ear as well. The doc gave me some steroid cream to rub on them and off I went.

The ear seemed to clean up OK – but 10 weeks later at my next checkup the thing on my thigh was still there. Possible slightly better, but not obviously on the way to healing.  Different doctor this time – had a look and prescribed another cream. A hydrocortisone or an anti-fungal – I forget which.

Either way the blemish was still there at my next visit in early July so this time they fixed me up with a dermatologist (and a class of 20 medical students – but that’s another story).

He/they didn’t’ like the fact that it had been around for almost a year by this time and arranged for me to have a biopsy – which had to wait until I got back from visiting the UK.

The long and short of it is that they did the biopsy, diagnosed a Basal Cell Carcinoma and I had a lumpectomy (good technical term that) last week.

While they had the knives out I pointed them at a completely different looking lump on my left shoulder. This had only been there a few weeks – but it wasn’t getting better and it hurt when pressed.  So they sliced that one out as well.

I’m left with a dent in my right thigh and half  a dozen stitches, plus a slice and 4 stitches near my left collar bone.  I’m minus one small tumour, and waiting to hear whether or not  the second one was a false alarm.

The good news is that this type of carcinoma is the most common type of cancer that there is, and is very unlikely to spread . More on that another time.

Marking the midwinter solstice

Posted on Jan 1, 2009 in gvhd, health

Time passes and the observations I use to remind myself that I am making progress become less frequent.
In the first post transplant rush I didn’t really need to mark anything. Rising blood cell counts, eating solid food, changing drug regimes, moving out of the transplant ward, a few hours without a drip plugged into my chest, even just counting the days – there were so many changes that I didn’t really need to observe that I was getting better (“Couldn’t get much worse” I hear Ringo singing in the background .

Once I was out of the hospital and settling in at home again things slowed but there were still plenty of changes. Eating a whole meal, going out in public without a mask, picking Kira up without feeling dizzy, a week without a hospital visit, a month, then two without a blood transfusion. Whenever I felt weak or frustrated I had solid ways to mark and measure and remind myself of the progress I was making.

Gradually the markers became less frequent, but they were still there. Having my Hickman catheter removed, being able to drink a glass of wine with Deb, feeling safe enough to leave HK and hospitals for
a holiday in Thailand.

Each of those was important to me, and by September I was feeling good, preparing to find work, starting an exercise regime and getting ready to move on again. But then the GVHD flared up and over the past three months I’ve sometimes times felt that I’ve stopped, and even been losing ground.? I’ve had skin rashes, sore and gummy dry eyes, followed by arthritic joints, then incredibly sore and stiff muscles. Most recently the focus has moved to my lungs and I’ve become short of breath. I’ve had to give up my training sessions and make sure I give myself an extra few minutes for the walk to the ferry – because I know I can’t run the last hundred metres if I’m late.? The first few symptoms each lasted some weeks – so I’m hopeful that my lungs will clear up too in due course. This is however ‘chronic’ GVHD – which means that I could be facing months or years of low level conflict between my two sets of DNA. I shall practice patience until I find out.It’s not all doom and gloom though. The Doc’s have increased my drug levels and given me some new steroids to inhale which has helped a lot. After a couple of weekly trips I’m back to visiting the hospital every three weeks which means that they’re not particularly worried.? This too will pass.In the middle of all my self absorbed introspection we had Christmas.? Or Yule, Midwinter, Saturnalia, Sun Return, midwinter solstice, Modranacht, Alban Arthan – whatever you choose to call it. For thousands of years people have celebrated the the shortest day and longest night of the year and have come up with many different reasons for doing so.? And this morning I realised that I have a special reason to be cheerful this particular mid winter.? As you can see from the chart below I’ve passed the 50 percent line!? It’s not a cheerful graph – showing the survival (or mortality) rate for adult bone marrow transplantees. But I’m still here, and still pretty healthy, and I’m off the steep scary part of the slope.? Since I first found this picture my (probably irrational) feeling has been that if/when I got past the year/50% point without major problems I’d be if not home free, then at least on the? home straight.??? So here I am.? Getting better, the sun’s shining, and it’s a bright shiny new year, Hooray!And for some photos – try this link

Oh yes – about the leukaemia…

Posted on Jun 1, 2008 in Main Page

face=Arial size=2>“…the reason I was in last week was that I have a rash
around my belly and back.  Could be heat rash, could be mild href="http://www.google.com/search?q=define%3AGVHD">GVHD. Though GVHD is
usually on face, neck, palms, soles, arms – almost anywhere other than the
trunk – so we're not sure.”