Well?
September 15, 2008 04:58 PM
Ok, so this is the day I’ve been waiting for for a
long time. I finally met the melanoma specialist and
also the surgeon who will perform an operation on me.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here is what
happened...
Sylvie drove me to the UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco where we met with Dr. Kashani, a melanoma specialist. Dr. Kashani examined me, looked at my test results, and informed both of us about what we could expect in the coming months. This included two operations. One small one to remove whatever is left of the mole I had removed over my ear. Dr. Kashani said that they would like to remove a larger area around the location of the mole. Secondly, and more importantly, there would be an operation to remove the cancerous lymph node(s) in my neck.
We were then Introduced to Dr. Wang who will be performing the surgery. This guy was totally awesome and fully put me at ease. The guy exuded competence. He provided further details about the surgery. He said he would make an incision from the bottom of my right ear down the length of my neck to the collar bone. My affected lymph node(s) are in my salivary gland so part of that whole gland will be removed.
Surgery will take about five hours. I will then stay in the hospital for about three days (They better have an internet connection!). When healed, I will have a very long scar running down the side of me neck. This should look very cool when playing pirate with Oliver and Amélie.
Two months after surgery, I will begin taking a drug called interferon for about one year. This drug is the most effective treatment available to increase the odds that the melanoma does not come back. Its not a silver bullet, but it sure beats the alternative.
Right now I’m just glad to have something like a roadmap and a timeline. I’m especially fond of the timeline since time was something I wasn’t sure I had. A sobering thought, but true. But by following the recommended procedures and taking good care of myself, there is no reason I can’t beat this thing. KICK ASS!
Okay, enough med talk for now. If you want even more specifics, you can visit counteract.wordpress.com.
What’s that I hear you say? You don’t care about the med stuff, you just want to know the answers to yesterday’s questions? I know. I know. I’ll post the answers tomorrow.
Sylvie drove me to the UCSF Medical Center in San Francisco where we met with Dr. Kashani, a melanoma specialist. Dr. Kashani examined me, looked at my test results, and informed both of us about what we could expect in the coming months. This included two operations. One small one to remove whatever is left of the mole I had removed over my ear. Dr. Kashani said that they would like to remove a larger area around the location of the mole. Secondly, and more importantly, there would be an operation to remove the cancerous lymph node(s) in my neck.
We were then Introduced to Dr. Wang who will be performing the surgery. This guy was totally awesome and fully put me at ease. The guy exuded competence. He provided further details about the surgery. He said he would make an incision from the bottom of my right ear down the length of my neck to the collar bone. My affected lymph node(s) are in my salivary gland so part of that whole gland will be removed.
Surgery will take about five hours. I will then stay in the hospital for about three days (They better have an internet connection!). When healed, I will have a very long scar running down the side of me neck. This should look very cool when playing pirate with Oliver and Amélie.
Two months after surgery, I will begin taking a drug called interferon for about one year. This drug is the most effective treatment available to increase the odds that the melanoma does not come back. Its not a silver bullet, but it sure beats the alternative.
Right now I’m just glad to have something like a roadmap and a timeline. I’m especially fond of the timeline since time was something I wasn’t sure I had. A sobering thought, but true. But by following the recommended procedures and taking good care of myself, there is no reason I can’t beat this thing. KICK ASS!
Okay, enough med talk for now. If you want even more specifics, you can visit counteract.wordpress.com.
What’s that I hear you say? You don’t care about the med stuff, you just want to know the answers to yesterday’s questions? I know. I know. I’ll post the answers tomorrow.
. . . . . . . . . .