How We Got Here – Part 1

In my first post I mentioned that I would take some time to catch everyone up on what has been going on. In the moment, there was really only time to say “I have cancer”. Well two metastatic cancers. But, either way, not enough time to explain. So this will be the first of a few posts to fill everyone in on the past few months and a little beyond.

I Kissed a Toad
And the damn thing didn’t even turn into a prince. Well, there was actually no toad and no kiss. But what there was was a wart. Or what I thought was a wart. It was on my left thumb. I described it as “on the base of my thumb”. All the medical people said “dorsal thumb”. Which we know is just dumb (hey, that rhymes!). Because “dorsal” describes the top fin on a dolphin. And my thumb ain’t no fin nor is it on top. Guess you can’t learn everything in med school.

Elsa Was of Little Help
I’ve had warts on my fingers before. I didn’t think this one would be any different. I just buy something off of Amazon to freeze the wart and voila. It disappears. But freezing it didn’t work this time. It was a stubborn little thing and I thought perhaps the cold didn’t reach deep enought. Either way, freezing didn’t work so it was off to the doctor to lop it off.

Good Doctors and Good Food
My doctor is kind of like a fine dining establishment. Great service. Nice atmosphere. But hard to get into. Plus I guess fine dining places don’t weigh you before you are seated, but I digress. And since my normal doctor wasn’t available, I did the thing you might still do in our dining scenario and found the first available option. I saw that doctor all ready to get my wart off, but he paused after feeling the bump for a little bit. He said “I’m not going to cut this off today as I think this could be cancer. Now cancer can be a scary word….” And that’s where I interjected. Because he didn’t know my history and I wanted to let him know I was ok with that diagnosis. I mean, doc, I’ve already had cancer. Twice. And not the “we’ll just cut it out during an outpatient visit” kind of cancer. But the “we’ll beat you down and then help you get better so we can just beat you down again” kind of cancer. So I wasn’t worried. Off to derm(atology) I went.

The Skin Doctor
As far as timelines go, I first noticed the wart in mid to late 2023. The derm visit occured in 2024. It was another one of those first available situations. I got the biopsy as quickly as I could. They confirmed it was cancer. And then they cut it out. I also applied some cream called fluorouracil. it doesn’t harm healthy cells but kills remaining cancer cells. And killed those cells it did. Just not in enough numbers because the cancer was still there.

Scrape and Burn then Scrape and Burn Some More
So when cutting it out doesn’t work, things get a little more serious. A little more smokey. And smell a lot more like burned skin. After the requisite shots of lidocaine the doctor proceeded to perfrom a Curettage and Electrodesiccation. Basically scrape away my skin. Burn a layer down. Then scrape away that skin. Do that a few times and the hope is the cancer will finally be gone. Except much like last time, it came back. Just not the very next day.

MOHS
And that brought us to MOHS. And not the place for steaks Moes. Or the Moe Szylak kind of Moes. No, this MOHS is named after Dr. Frederic E. Mohs who developed the specialized surgery. Basically they cut off thin layers of skin. And go layer by layer until they remove all the cancer. This helps them be very precise in what they remove but also very effecive. The doctor looks at each thin slice under a microscope and then keeps cutting deeper only in the spots where the cancer remains. It’s super effective. Some say 99% effective. But it wasn’t for me. The cancer came back yet again.

To Be Continued…
And that is where we will stop for today. What I thought was a wart was actually cancer. And a rather stubborn form of cancer at that. I still didn’t think much of it. Skin cancer rarely spreads. So I figured we’d just dig it out again. Little did I realize how far that digging would go.

Oh ya, and the whole base of the thumb not being the dorsal of the thumb was a joke in case you were still wondering.