From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…
As strange as it may seem, this blog entry is about me.
Me and skin cancer.
As of two hours ago, me and skin cancer suddenly have become intimate partners. At least skin cancer and my forehead, eyebrow, and cheek.
Yep: I have skin cancer.
Nope, I don’t have to have anything but a few layers of skin removed in three places. I sent FaceBook message to my family today that read:
“So then – I'll be going in for the removal of 3 squamous cell carcinomas on my face. Dr. said we caught them early, they'll do the Mohs Micrographic Surgery (http://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/squamous-cell-carcinoma/scc-treatment-options). Truth to tell, I'm not overly worried. Dr. doesn't seem worried. The treatment doesn't have to be done fast, so I can make an appointment this summer and get it done at my leisure...Just thought I'd let you all know! Tell anyone else who needs to know -- no secret, no hassle. Simple surgery. The site below explains it to those who DON'T know about this kind of thing!”
The truth here is that I CANNOT be worried. I don’t have to have both of my breasts removed.
I don’t have to go through 16 weeks of chemotherapy.
I will not be losing my hair.
I will not have a port put in.
The doctor’s going to cut teeny, tiny chunks out of my face with the instrument above called a curette. It looks horrible, but it’s TINY (actual size relative to Human hand: http://www.adeptmedical.co.nz/images/products/NZ3431%20in%20hand.jpg). They’ll look at the chunks under the microscope until they aren’t cutting out any more cancer cells, then put on some bacitracin and let the hole heal up; then that’s it.
Nowhere in the description of the treatment is there a warning about taking something to prevent vomiting my guts out.
If I sound disparaging, please realize that I KNOW skin cancer can be serious. Googling skin melanoma images shows an uncountable number of awful pictures that clearly illustrate the seriousness of the disease.
However, in the scheme of things:
“About 39,620 women in the U.S. were expected to die in 2013 from breast cancer…(“In 2013, there were more than 2.8 million women with a history of breast cancer in the U.S. This includes women currently being treated and women who have finished treatment.”)” (http://www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/understand_bc/statistics)
“…out...of…317,500…squamous cell carcinoma patients – some 6500 people (or 2%) – died from the disease in the US in 2012.” (http://www.skincancer.org/skin-cancer-information/skin-cancer-facts)
This cancer is treatable. Using the Mohs procedure, the treatment success rate is 94-99% for what is on my face. I will not only survive, in a short period of time, the cancer scars will disappear and in a few years, I probably won’t even think about it.
That will not be the case with my wife and any number of other women (and a few men) who suffer the ravages of breast cancer. They will always remember. We will always remember them.
I will always stand by my wife.
We will always stand by those who suffer from breast cancer.
Image: http://skincancer909.com/wp-content/gallery/gallery-1/surgical-instruments-small.jpg
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