Thanks Jimmy & everyone else..
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Its been a bit of a roller coaster ride the last 5-6 months, or so.. and first let me explain that in no way was I ever in danger of anything other than looking less attractive than I already do.. there's been people on the board in much more dire situations and my heart goes out to them because all I had was only a very little taste of serious stuff they were going through..
So, to keep a long story short - oh to heck with that.. I never do that:
I knew there was a problem as much as two years ago - small injury on the bridge of my nose that wouldn't heal.. I have been expecting this since summer 1986 when I played volleyball outdoors for 5 hours, without sunscreen, and got my nose SO sunburned that it actually scabbed up.. So, this was never a surprise to me as I've been expecting it since then.. So, maybe in May I finally decide to get this issue, that was getting much worse, checked out.. turned out to be a basal cell carcinoma and the dermatologist, in considering how long I'd had it already, wanted me to get MOH surgery as soon as possible.. MOH surgery is a surgery where they take a layer of skin, biopsy it while you wait, determine if there are still cancer sells and where they are, then take another layer of skin, if necessary.. then rinse and repeat as often as cancer cells are present.. Then have a plastic surgeon close it all up..
I didn't wanna do it.. not with this mess of a face..
So, I studied up on stuff and bought a $144 vial of, over the counter, stuff called Curaderm that's supposed to kill the cancer, then repair the wound.. I figured it was worth a try.. they said 12 weeks max on the treatment, so I decided it was worth the gamble.. So,, I administered the stuff 4 times a day.. after a 2 weeks, I had a half inch diameter hole in my nose! Holy sh*t! But, that was good because that told me it was killing the basal cell cancer.. the hole started slowly closing up, but after 2.5 months, the hole was an 1/8th of an inch and stuck there - it wouldn't close up all the way..
I decided to go to a local plastic surgeon, who said that the Curaderm wasn't working and that he'd remove the entire lesion and do a "rotation flap" to cover up the HUGE hole he'd leave by cutting out the lesion..
I didn't wanna do it.. this face needs plastic surgery, but not that kind..
So, I kept using the Curaderm for another 1.5 months.. the hole never completely closed.. I finally gave up and made an appointment with a MOH surgeon and a plastic surgeon about 100 miles from here in Denton.. the appointment was for last week.. by appointment time I was having second thoughts, because the hole had close up and everything looked pretty dang good.. However, I had been told even if it closed up, it could just close up over the cancer, which would still be there.. At the appointment, they refused to do the surgery because my blood pressure was 196/124.. they told me to "get it down or we're canceling your appointment" and they wouldn't give me anything to get it down.. So, they cancelled the appointment because the best I got it to was 140/99.. I told my wife, "there's my sign - I'm not coming back."... but she talked me into rescheduling on the 20th.. partly because they accidentally charged me for the surgery last week and couldn't reverse the charges..
So, I kept my appointment yesterday (20th).. I got my BP down by taking a wad of xanax 30 miles out from the facility.. got it down to 120/88..! Viva la Xanax! So, they did the first stage of the treatment and sent me to the waiting room to wait for the results of the biopsy.. They called me back in and told me they couldn't find ANY cancer cells in the first layer of skin and sent in the plastic surgeon to close me up.. the Curaderm HAD worked! 100%.... there were NO cancer cells anywhere... amazing.. I was kind of pissed that I had the procedure done, but at least I know now that I'm 100% cancer free..
So, I dunno what I'm gonna find when I remove this huge honkin' bandage.. I'm hoping they did a full blown nose job, but I'm kind of doubting it..
So, I dunno if Curaderm works 100% for everyone, but holy cow it worked for me.. it took amazing patience, tho, but I think it was worth it to not have to have multiple layers of skin removed and an all day plastic surgery procedure with skin grafts and rotation flaps and all that..
Thank you all for you kind words - I'm assuming most of you are asleep, by now, if you've gotten anywhere near this far..
Friendship is like peeing your pants.. Everybody can see it, but only you can feel the warmth..
So, to keep a long story short - oh to heck with that.. I never do that:
I knew there was a problem as much as two years ago - small injury on the bridge of my nose that wouldn't heal.. I have been expecting this since summer 1986 when I played volleyball outdoors for 5 hours, without sunscreen, and got my nose SO sunburned that it actually scabbed up.. So, this was never a surprise to me as I've been expecting it since then.. So, maybe in May I finally decide to get this issue, that was getting much worse, checked out.. turned out to be a basal cell carcinoma and the dermatologist, in considering how long I'd had it already, wanted me to get MOH surgery as soon as possible.. MOH surgery is a surgery where they take a layer of skin, biopsy it while you wait, determine if there are still cancer sells and where they are, then take another layer of skin, if necessary.. then rinse and repeat as often as cancer cells are present.. Then have a plastic surgeon close it all up..
I didn't wanna do it.. not with this mess of a face..
So, I studied up on stuff and bought a $144 vial of, over the counter, stuff called Curaderm that's supposed to kill the cancer, then repair the wound.. I figured it was worth a try.. they said 12 weeks max on the treatment, so I decided it was worth the gamble.. So,, I administered the stuff 4 times a day.. after a 2 weeks, I had a half inch diameter hole in my nose! Holy sh*t! But, that was good because that told me it was killing the basal cell cancer.. the hole started slowly closing up, but after 2.5 months, the hole was an 1/8th of an inch and stuck there - it wouldn't close up all the way..
I decided to go to a local plastic surgeon, who said that the Curaderm wasn't working and that he'd remove the entire lesion and do a "rotation flap" to cover up the HUGE hole he'd leave by cutting out the lesion..
I didn't wanna do it.. this face needs plastic surgery, but not that kind..
So, I kept using the Curaderm for another 1.5 months.. the hole never completely closed.. I finally gave up and made an appointment with a MOH surgeon and a plastic surgeon about 100 miles from here in Denton.. the appointment was for last week.. by appointment time I was having second thoughts, because the hole had close up and everything looked pretty dang good.. However, I had been told even if it closed up, it could just close up over the cancer, which would still be there.. At the appointment, they refused to do the surgery because my blood pressure was 196/124.. they told me to "get it down or we're canceling your appointment" and they wouldn't give me anything to get it down.. So, they cancelled the appointment because the best I got it to was 140/99.. I told my wife, "there's my sign - I'm not coming back."... but she talked me into rescheduling on the 20th.. partly because they accidentally charged me for the surgery last week and couldn't reverse the charges..
So, I kept my appointment yesterday (20th).. I got my BP down by taking a wad of xanax 30 miles out from the facility.. got it down to 120/88..! Viva la Xanax! So, they did the first stage of the treatment and sent me to the waiting room to wait for the results of the biopsy.. They called me back in and told me they couldn't find ANY cancer cells in the first layer of skin and sent in the plastic surgeon to close me up.. the Curaderm HAD worked! 100%.... there were NO cancer cells anywhere... amazing.. I was kind of pissed that I had the procedure done, but at least I know now that I'm 100% cancer free..
So, I dunno what I'm gonna find when I remove this huge honkin' bandage.. I'm hoping they did a full blown nose job, but I'm kind of doubting it..
So, I dunno if Curaderm works 100% for everyone, but holy cow it worked for me.. it took amazing patience, tho, but I think it was worth it to not have to have multiple layers of skin removed and an all day plastic surgery procedure with skin grafts and rotation flaps and all that..
Thank you all for you kind words - I'm assuming most of you are asleep, by now, if you've gotten anywhere near this far..
Friendship is like peeing your pants.. Everybody can see it, but only you can feel the warmth..
