Thank you for reading my blog. I've done this as there is so little information out there about BCC written by someone who's been through it. I've searched what feels like the entire internet but the information is mainly by healthcare professionals (very useful info). I really needed to read about this condition from someone who'd had dealt with it personally.
I'm a Pharmacy person. And i work in the NHS. I've looked at many lesions over the years and i always suggested the patient consulted their doctor without hesitation but i did not follow my own advice.
In 2010 i suddenly noticed a small scab on the left side (top) of my scalp. The scab didn't heal. One of my colleagues also noticed and i said i'd go to my GP if there was no improvement. I'm blonde with many years of time spent outdoors and i grew up in the 70's when sunscreen and sun safety was in it's infancy. I didn't go to my GP till my colleague nagged me and at the beginning of 2011 i went. I was misdiagnosed with Acitinic Keratosis. And so began over three years of trying various lotions and creams and being constantly fobbed off. In the meantime, my scab turned into a lump and we named him Lumpy.
He grew and grew and at the end of 2014 and many visits to three different GP's, Lumpy began to change into something very painful, crusty, weepy, itchy and bled spontaneously. Sometimes he would just spurt blood and turn the left side of my head pink. I made an appointment with another GP at the beginning of 2015. As soon as he took a look at Lumpy, he referred me. By this time Lumpy was about the size of a 50p piece maybe a bit larger as he was made up of three distinct sections with a dip in the middle. I went to see a dermatologist 2 months later which weirdly was in the department opposite mine at my place of work ( no....NHS staff never get preferential treatment). As soon as the consultant cast his eyes on Lumpy i could tell it wasn't good. Most people who i allowed to look at Lumpy used to step back in horror.
The consultant booked me in for biopsies which took a few weeks for the appointment to come through. The biopsies were painful despite a few local injections. Lumpy was NOT pleased. I warned the nurse that Lumpy would bite back. He didn't believe me. I could hear the blood spurting onto his apron. Both nurses were shocked. I just felt like saying "told you so"!!!!
The samples were sent to a pathology lab outside of our hospital and it took three months for me to finally get the results. Lumpy was confirmed as being Nodular Basal Cell Carcinoma. Those few months were an anxious wait not helped by me spending every lunch time in our staff medical library researching skin lesions. A little knowledge can be a very worrying thing.
Because of Lumpy's impressive girth i was referred to Stoke Mandeville plastic surgery department. I was obviously hugely upset at all of this. The diagnosis, my research scaring myself, the mention of the words "plastic surgery" etc. It occurred to me that had i been referred a couple of years ago, then i might have got away with a simple minor op.
Anyway, off we went to face the music at Stoke Mandeville. It's quite a journey for us but there was no other option. My husband drove me as i can't drive and after contending with the awful parking over there we went to queue up to see the consultant. I won't name the consultants. But they were lovely. After we waited ages we saw a doctor who was very impressed with the size of lumpy and asked if they could take photos. Apparently being female, under the age of 50 with such a large BCC on the scalp is quite unusual. We were in for a while and the doctor consulted her colleague who was also impressed with Lumpy. Lumpy was loving all this attention. I was given the options of what sort of surgery was available. But to be honest i'd got a bit p***** off by this point and didn't really take it in. Luckily Hubby is the sort of person who remembers all this sort of thing and we discussed it on the long drive home.
Part 2 coming up soon.....
