Good morning to Murray and company,
Thanks so much for sharing that with us. Your situation makes me feel like a pale imitation of what I am going through. No surgeries of that type, no pain, no loss of body functions. I know it sounds pretty stupid, but to look at me you'd never know I have cancer and without seeing my arm that I'm packing a whole bunch of tumors. I think that we all tend to feel a sense of isolation when we are faced with a event like this in our lives. I know I was thinking that it was impossible for anyone to understand how I was feeling. And when you get the notice from your doctor that you need to get your things together, it really hits home. I can still vividly recall when Dr. R. told me that if the 2nd treatment I had 10 years ago didn't work that was it for me or if I didn't proceed with treatment I had maybe 6 months to live. Your experience has reminded me that overall we've got a great group of people that are working to help us and they have the ability to move lightening quick if needed.
While amputation is currently not something they feel should be pursued I was happy (odd adjective) that Dr. W. said he would be able to arrange it in a week if that was what I decided, it would not be a several month waiting period.
Your situation is much different from mine in that for the strangest of reasons, if it were not for the lumps on my arm I would never think that I even had cancer. I live my day to day life now as I was two years ago pre-melanoma. I still go for my exercise and physically do everything that I used to do before. I know that could change if the cancer were to spread into some possibly useful organ in my body but I deal with it now as almost more of an inconvenience than something that is going to possibly kill me. It makes it seem unreal for this reason. Well maybe also if I didn't have the lymphedema. Perhaps that is the one solid indication that something is wrong other than the lumps and bumps. While not something that interferes with my life for the most part, having a forearm that is more like my thigh and a hand that is swollen like a mitt is bothersome. Trivial, but I can't now wear my wrist watch on my left hand and for some reason this really bothers me.
Murray your strength of character is just beyond words to describe! If you have gained anything from my story I'm taking loads to heart from yours. Sadly it is sort of cool to know that there is another person out there who is facing a health challenge and has a love for wonderful V8 two seater cars! You have that I'll be damned if I'm going to let this slow down my ability to love my life attitude that we all need good doses of these days.
I got the call this morning about the lump they biopsied on the 10th from my inside wrist. Melanoma. The poor nurse sounded so sorry and I had to tell her it was no biggie. I've had melanoma now for about 20 months. The only thing this tells me is that is is spreading but it is still in my arm and what is one more lump to join the other 3 or 30 that are there already.
A small victory, the synthoid pills they are giving me for my ratched thyroid seems to be finally working. We started with a TSH level of 65 on 50 mg a day. Then next time the TSH level was 99 so we up'ed it to 100 mg a day. Tuesday it is now down to 45 but I asked them to bump it again so I'm getting some new 125 mg tablets. Not relevant cancer-wise but it may help me to shed the 6 kg I gained in 6 weeks recently which emotionally would put me in a much better place.
Thanks for giving me inspiration Murray. Here's one guy feeling a bit less unique thanks to your being open about your life..........................[HASHTAG]#menneedtosharemore[/HASHTAG]
Cheers,
Garry
