My observations on this subject just make me shake my head that we manage to live to an advanced age.
I had what I thought was a blackhead in the crease between my nose and cheek. like an idiot I squeezed it as most people do with blackheads of my generation.
Anyone old enough to remember when tweezers came with a open hole on the top to remove a blackhead.??
It took a few months for me to realise that a bump was growing where the blackhead had been, because of its location it was not noticeable. For 18 months nothing happend, it did not grow, discolor, just sat there out of sight.
I went to my PC to have her check a mole on my back, normal she said and for some reason I asked about the very small bump on my face. A week later I was in the office of a dermatologist and a week later she had removed the bump for biopsy leaving me with 12 stitches. She did such a fine job that when the stitches came out the scar could not be seen.
While in her waiting room both times I noticed the number of Mothers with their teenage kids who needed to be treated for a pimple on their nose,---oh the horror for the kids. I also noticed a rack with all kinds of products for 101 kinds of skin care--cost was breath taking.
2 weeks later I got a call from that doctor with bad news, she was sending me to another doctor as my biopsy had pulled up Cancer cells.
Off I went to see this new doctor that followed a treatment that required him to reopen the scar and pull out tissue from the surrounding area to see how far the Cancer had spread.
Office procedure, Hubby was allowed to sit in the room and watch. So we went in to a mini-operating room and was numbed up like at the dentist and this doctor poked about and took tissue from the area and sent me home to wait for the new biopsy. Just a bandage on my face, he had cauterised the wound and no blood.
2 hours later as I sat at home in semi shock, the doctor called me back as he had found the Cancer had spread so back we went and the doctor poked about even further from the original site. At one point he left the room to put a rush order on this new biopsy and came back to tell me he had to go further a field.
Finally after a third biopsy he decided he had taken out all the tissue counting Cancer cells and sewed me up. He told me to come back in a week to have the stitches removed, gave me a bag with antibiotic cream and dressings to be changed every 12 hours.
Home we went, surprisingly no pain, me in deeper shock . I slept for the 12 hours and when I got up to change the dressing liked to have fainted dead away, the Doctor had used black thread to sew me up and that side of my face looked like train tracks all over my left cheek from nose to ear.
The very next day was when I was standing in one spot and my left leg caved in and I broke my ankle. This all led to being diagnosed with severe nerve damage in that leg.
All this within 5-6 weeks, Cancer and looking like Frankenstein, now I had Nuropathy, could not work, walk and had been told it would be 18 months before I fully healed from the scars on my face.
When you mention the amount of time it takes to get in to see a dermatologist I think back to both doctors with waiting rooms full of frantic mothers worried about their children's self image for having a pimple here or there and the people that may be developing Cancer that have to wait to get it looked at.
I lucked out on this one, I was seen and treated, very fast. Also the fact that I was self conscious about the huge bandage on my face kept me at home and not driving my car and having my ankle break in heavy traffic.
I try to look at life as it was a blessing I did get Cancer and need to go through all the trauma just so I would have that big awful bandage on my face that kept me home and not out on the road where I could have caused the death of innocent people when my ankle broke. I used to drive 5 speed stick, could have taken out more then just a few people.-
Never thought I would ever thank God for getting Cancer but we do know that God works in mysterious ways.
