So, I have had little annoying places on my arms and legs for about 2 years. I never gave them much thought until I went in for my VA annual physical this year. The VA doctor recommended that I see a dermatologist, which I must say startled me just a little. Since we still have good private insurance I called my dermatologist and scheduled an appointment.
So, on Monday April 11, 2011 I went to my dermatologist. I showed her the spot my VA doctor told me to have looked at and she immediately said that it was harmless and called it, for lack of a better term, an old age spot....me 44, old age spot??? Then she started looking at the annoying places on my arms and asked if I had spent a lot of time in the sun as a kid. Of course, having grown up on a farm having to work outside throughout the day most of the summer I got burnt and tanned every year. She told me the places on my are were actinic keratosis, which are pre cancerous cells. As she checked both arms she came to a spot on my right shoulder and immediately asked if I knew about that particular spot. I had seen it in the mirror and thought it was a pimple....she took out her marker, circled it, and said "we are going to test that one".... in a very calm, matter of fact tone. She then moved to my legs and found another spot that she circled.... Now, I am getting worried! The other spots on my legs were deemed to be pre cancerous as well but she was going to treat them with a medicated gel. The worst spots on my arm were frozen off before the biopsy procedure.
The two spots were subjected to a "shave biopsy" and she gave me a prescription for a Solaraze for the spots on my legs, 16 weeks worth of treatments. I was told that the biopsy results would take about a week but she (my dermatologist) was 99.9% certain the spot on my shoulder was cancer. So I went back to work.
The next afternoon, at around 4:15 pm my phone rang and it was the doctor's office....I answered the phone and was told that I had skin cancer!!! That had to be the hardest thing to hear since I got the call that I had lost my Mom to cancer (we'll save that story for later as I have never really recovered from that day). The only positive to take from this phone call was that the skin cancer I have is basal cell carcinoma.
This is the most common and easiest to treat of the skin cancers. The doctor scheduled me for a "d and c" which is dilation and curettage for the place on my shoulder...basically cut and scrape the location until all of the cancer cells are believed to be removed. I picked up the prescription for the Solaraze and started using it on Thursday....that will have to be a separate post as well.
So, this blog will now chronicle my journey with skin cancer. I have subsequently found two more places on my right leg that look just like the place on my right shoulder. I will have them examined next Thursday when I am scheduled for the d&c procedure.
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