Greg Truby
MrExcel MVP
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2002
- Messages
- 10,030
I have been pondering what (if anything) to write on this subject. By both disposition and upbringing I ain't much of one to discuss personal matters out in public. Last few days I’ve been a fence-sittin’ tryin’ to decide if’n I oughtter write this or I oughtter not write this. I’m gonna go with “oughtter”, so here 'tis...
Six months ago or so I noticed a very dark mole on my forearm while shaving me mug in the mornin'. "Hmmm, don' recall seein' that before" I thought to myself. On my next trip to the doctor, I have him take a look; but he doesn't think it's anything. Fast forward to a few weeks ago: "Doc, I can't say fer sure, but seems to me this feller here's a-growin'". The mole itself was dark, darker than any other mole on me hide. Size-wise it was not that big, 'bout 3mm in diameter. Borders were not ragged, relatively symmetrical. But I'm a bit insistent about not likin' this particular mole, so Doc mollycoddles me and agrees to take it off. A week later I'm back to get it taken off and a week after that I'm back to get the stitches out and hear the pathology report. Now I was expecting him to say "the path report was negative, it was just a mole after all ya paranoid lily-livered girl, now go home." But that's not what he said. He looked me straight in the eyes and said "Melanoma, blah, blah, blah, blah". See, I didn't hear what followed "melanoma" because my ears were still ringing from Thor's Hammer having swung down out of the heavens and striking me straight in the sternum and I'm sittin’ on the edge of the examination table lookin' like a concussed troll. Eventually my vision clears and I'm back in the room and I hear him say "we caught it as early as anyone ever catches it. Your chances of a good outcome are very good, probably better'n 90%."
____"And a 'bad' outcome?" (He's supposed to say "bad" means chemo or major surgery.)
____"'Bad' would mean you die." (This is a very unsettling thing to hear, BTW.)
It is now two weeks to the day since then and I have learned that my melanoma was "in situ" or "Stage 0"; which is the very first stage. I have already been to the plastic surgeon for the initial consultation and back again for the second excision of the surrounding tissue. SOP for in situ it just let the nice lady surgeon carve off a bit of me pelt and it’s pretty much over. No chemo, no lymph nodes being dyed &/or removed. Just a 2-inch scar and nine stitches.
So, two weeks ago, after I got back in front of a computer screen I hit the internet and started readin' up on melanoma and it turns out that it can be pretty deadly if you let it. I learned that it's not the area, but the depth that matters and even the thickest skin you've got ain't but a couple of millimeters thick, folks. There are so many survival statistics and so many variables that I cannot in good conscience quote any without a page of footnotes. But I learned that if you catch melanoma at stage 0, the survival rates are high – north of 99% from everything I have read. Put it off and things get worse, and they get worse pretty quick. There are all sorts of factors but in a nutshell there are only a couple of millimeters that separate Stage 0 from Stage I & Stage I from Stage II. Stages III & IV have to do with how far it’s spread. All the melanoma cells have to do it get past the couple of mm of skin you’ve got and get into your lymph or blood vessels and you’re at Stage III or IV.
So, why am I taking the time to tell you about my last two weeks? Because maybe, just maybe, someone will read this and get his or her @ss to a doctor next week instead of putting it off.
Let me ask you this – if you walked into the kitchen and you saw that the stove was on and that a box of cereal was on the burner and smoke was just starting to come out, what would you do? You would walk over and turn the burner off. Then you’d toss the cereal in the sink and run some water over it, open a window to clear out the smoke and voilá, situation handled. You would not say, “Oh, I’ve got that report to work on, I’ll just run to the den and work on that for a while. I can address this later after it’s caught fire and the house is a-blaze.” Well, most of y’all wouldn’t, some of y’all I ain’t so sure about… Same deal with skin cancer. Take care of it right away and the damage is cosmetic. Let it go from smoldering to blazing before you call 911 and you’ve got structural damage (or worse).
So, that is why I’m going against my introverted nature and posting this. If you have a mole or a whatever-you-wanna-call-it, and you think maybe you ought to have a doctor take a look at it, get yer butt to the doctor and get it looked at! Do not put yourself in a position of saying “if only I had gotten this looked at earlier…” Millimeters count on this stuff! There ain’t a damned thing you’ve got to do next week that’s worth your life.
So, at the risk of being redundant -- I didn’t write this to garner any sympathy. You don’t need to send me well-intentioned messages of support (pray for me if’n ya wanna, won’t say no to that). I wrote this to prompt you into action if it’s warranted. Obviously, I hope that I am “preaching to the choir” and no one will need a kick in the knickers to get to his physician. But if’n ya need a boot put to yer britches ta get to the doctor consider this a size-13 motivator (size 48 for you European blokes) to get to the doctor next week.
So, good night, God bless and I’ll see you back in the Questions forums.
Six months ago or so I noticed a very dark mole on my forearm while shaving me mug in the mornin'. "Hmmm, don' recall seein' that before" I thought to myself. On my next trip to the doctor, I have him take a look; but he doesn't think it's anything. Fast forward to a few weeks ago: "Doc, I can't say fer sure, but seems to me this feller here's a-growin'". The mole itself was dark, darker than any other mole on me hide. Size-wise it was not that big, 'bout 3mm in diameter. Borders were not ragged, relatively symmetrical. But I'm a bit insistent about not likin' this particular mole, so Doc mollycoddles me and agrees to take it off. A week later I'm back to get it taken off and a week after that I'm back to get the stitches out and hear the pathology report. Now I was expecting him to say "the path report was negative, it was just a mole after all ya paranoid lily-livered girl, now go home." But that's not what he said. He looked me straight in the eyes and said "Melanoma, blah, blah, blah, blah". See, I didn't hear what followed "melanoma" because my ears were still ringing from Thor's Hammer having swung down out of the heavens and striking me straight in the sternum and I'm sittin’ on the edge of the examination table lookin' like a concussed troll. Eventually my vision clears and I'm back in the room and I hear him say "we caught it as early as anyone ever catches it. Your chances of a good outcome are very good, probably better'n 90%."
____"And a 'bad' outcome?" (He's supposed to say "bad" means chemo or major surgery.)
____"'Bad' would mean you die." (This is a very unsettling thing to hear, BTW.)
It is now two weeks to the day since then and I have learned that my melanoma was "in situ" or "Stage 0"; which is the very first stage. I have already been to the plastic surgeon for the initial consultation and back again for the second excision of the surrounding tissue. SOP for in situ it just let the nice lady surgeon carve off a bit of me pelt and it’s pretty much over. No chemo, no lymph nodes being dyed &/or removed. Just a 2-inch scar and nine stitches.
So, two weeks ago, after I got back in front of a computer screen I hit the internet and started readin' up on melanoma and it turns out that it can be pretty deadly if you let it. I learned that it's not the area, but the depth that matters and even the thickest skin you've got ain't but a couple of millimeters thick, folks. There are so many survival statistics and so many variables that I cannot in good conscience quote any without a page of footnotes. But I learned that if you catch melanoma at stage 0, the survival rates are high – north of 99% from everything I have read. Put it off and things get worse, and they get worse pretty quick. There are all sorts of factors but in a nutshell there are only a couple of millimeters that separate Stage 0 from Stage I & Stage I from Stage II. Stages III & IV have to do with how far it’s spread. All the melanoma cells have to do it get past the couple of mm of skin you’ve got and get into your lymph or blood vessels and you’re at Stage III or IV.
So, why am I taking the time to tell you about my last two weeks? Because maybe, just maybe, someone will read this and get his or her @ss to a doctor next week instead of putting it off.
Let me ask you this – if you walked into the kitchen and you saw that the stove was on and that a box of cereal was on the burner and smoke was just starting to come out, what would you do? You would walk over and turn the burner off. Then you’d toss the cereal in the sink and run some water over it, open a window to clear out the smoke and voilá, situation handled. You would not say, “Oh, I’ve got that report to work on, I’ll just run to the den and work on that for a while. I can address this later after it’s caught fire and the house is a-blaze.” Well, most of y’all wouldn’t, some of y’all I ain’t so sure about… Same deal with skin cancer. Take care of it right away and the damage is cosmetic. Let it go from smoldering to blazing before you call 911 and you’ve got structural damage (or worse).
So, that is why I’m going against my introverted nature and posting this. If you have a mole or a whatever-you-wanna-call-it, and you think maybe you ought to have a doctor take a look at it, get yer butt to the doctor and get it looked at! Do not put yourself in a position of saying “if only I had gotten this looked at earlier…” Millimeters count on this stuff! There ain’t a damned thing you’ve got to do next week that’s worth your life.
So, at the risk of being redundant -- I didn’t write this to garner any sympathy. You don’t need to send me well-intentioned messages of support (pray for me if’n ya wanna, won’t say no to that). I wrote this to prompt you into action if it’s warranted. Obviously, I hope that I am “preaching to the choir” and no one will need a kick in the knickers to get to his physician. But if’n ya need a boot put to yer britches ta get to the doctor consider this a size-13 motivator (size 48 for you European blokes) to get to the doctor next week.
So, good night, God bless and I’ll see you back in the Questions forums.
Therefore, I would like to take this chance to thank Anne for simply being such a good soul.
