It took a while to get to this point.
16 years ago I had a mole removed from my left eyebrow after I sensed some irritation and it began flaking. My GP sent me to get it removed. My wife took a phone call a month later from the hospital to say that I had a malignant melanoma and to book an appointment for a wider excision of tissue around the mole site. This was done successfully and after 5 years of regular monitoring I was discharged with no further recurrence.
18 months ago I sensed the same kind of irritation around the original site and was sent to hospital for a punch biopsy. I really felt for the doctor doing this as she was looking for a needle in a haystack as the original melanoma had only been 1.4mm breslow thickness. It came as no surprise therefore that no sign of cancer could be found.
10 months ago my health was declining rapidly and I was losing weight through lack of appetite. Weariness became overwhelming and I struggled with my return to work as a teacher last September. My GP had put me on the non-specific track for cancer investigation. Endoscopy, Gastroscopy and a CT scan were to follow. The specialist nurses were a great support at this time.
I could sense an air of importance to our nurse wanting a separate room for my wife and I to tell us that I had metastatic cancer. I was in between procedures for endoscopy and gastroscopy at the time. I was booked for a more invasive lung biopsy the following week.
As I waited for the lung biopsy, a nurse came to see me to explain why the procedure had been cancelled. That morning the biopsy done on the stomach had established that the cancer was melanoma in origin and that there was no need to undergo the more invasive lung biopsy on the 30mm mass that had been seen there.
The whirlwind of tests were over and I might begin to see the wood for the trees as I was being referred to a specialist unit that dealt with my type of cancer so that treatment could be planned.
