Happy and Not-So-Happy Surprises

The photo is of a packet of 7 fat quarters of batik fabrics that come each month from Don's daughter Shara. When the parcel arrived last month from the online quilt shop, eQuilter, I was truly surprised and delighted. When I read the fine print on the packing slip and understood I would get one of these parcels each month, I was ecstatic. Aren't they gorgeous? The greeny ones are from last month and the peachy-purply more springlike ones arrived today.

That was the happy surprise. The not-so-happy one came yesterday. Next Monday morning I'll be going into Ninewells Hospital in Dundee for what is called a Sentinel Node Biopsy because of a malignant melanoma on my forehead (a tiny pink bump on a larger freckle) has just been diagnosed. Because the melanoma is not very thick and we've acted very quickly—and treatment continues to move speedily—the odds are very good. To be certain the cancer cells have not spread to my lymph system, they've set me up for this overnight hospital procedure.

For those of you who don't know, I grew up in Florida and like all teenage girls, tried to get a tan. With my English-Irish-Scots heritage, you can pretty much figure out what happened. I burned and I blistered a few times. Back then, who knew? In the early 1980s, shortly after the start of Ronald Reagan's presidency, he had a skin cancer removed from his elegant Hollywood profile nose. When they reported the story, there was an extensive sidebar article in the Washington Post about skin damage from sun and its potential dangers. It so happened I had a few spots that sounded a lot like the benign ones described in that article, so I took myself off to the nearest dermatologist and have been faithfully following up ever since. (As far as I can tell, this is the only good thing Ronald Reagan ever did for me!) In addition to staying out of direct sun as much as possible, using sunscreen on my face every day of the year, and covering up when I'm exposed to the sun, I still see a dermatologist on a routine basis.

I first saw my local doctor on the 18th of January about two "sun spots" that seemingly sprang up very quickly. Dr Payne referered me to the dermatologist in Perth, whom I saw on February 15th. Dr Fleming thought they were most likely benign like all the others I've had over the past 25 or so years, but wanted to biopsy them to be certain. Fortunately, I was able to have them done that afternoon because of a cancellation. Then there was the wait for the biopsy reports. I was not concerned until I received notice last Thursday that an appointment had been made for me with Dr Fleming for yesterday morning at Ninewells Hospital.

The result of the biopsies showed that the spot on my arm was like all the rest but the one on my forehead was a malignant melanoma. Dr Fleming told Don and me that he was actually quite surprised as he really had thought both spots were benign. We are all glad he took a cautious approach. He explained the routine procedure, the aforementioned Sentinel Node Biopsy. He had spoken with the plastic surgeon who would meet with us next. My surgery had already been scheduled. So from the dermatology department, we were escorted by the staff nurse down to plastic surgery where we met the surgeon, Mr Malloch.

Here is the procedure: next Monday morning I start out in Ninewell's nuclear medicine unit with small injections of radioactive liquid around the area of the wee bump. Pictures will be taken with what they call a gamma camera/scanner. This procedure will last for between one and two hours.

In the afternoon, I go into the plastic surgery operating theatre under a general anesthetic. A blue dye will be injected around the same area and is supposed to travel to the sentinel lymph node and turn it blue so it can be clearly identified and then removed by the plastic surgeon. At the same time, they will remove more of the melanoma. The node will then be sent to the lab and results should be back after 10 to 14 days. I will stay in hospital overnight and go home Tuesday morning.

If the result is positive, i.e., the melanoma has spread, all the lymph nodes on that side of my head/neck will need to be surgically removed in a second op called a bloc dissection. Obviously this is to try to remove all affected cells and prevent them from spreading to other parts of my body. If the results are negative, I will just have regular follow-ups with the dermatologist every three months.

Dr Fleming had thought the size of what they'd remove from the melanoma would be large enough to require a skin graft (from my upper chest) but Mr Malloch felt he could take a small enough piece away that no skin graft would be necessary. The incision to remove the sentinel lymph node will be in front of my ear and fairly small. I am thankful that there will only be two "wounds" to heal.

Naturally, we are a bit edgy about this but buoyed by the news that the odds are very good, that things are moving along rapidly, and that all the people we've dealt with all along the way have seemed highly competent and have been very kind but honest. We aren't panicked. In fact, I slept very well last night. We just wanted you to know and ask for your kind thoughts. We will keep you posted.

Meanwhile, we are continuing with our lives as usual, which means we are in utter chaos. At least we were this morning. We woke up to light snow on the ground and knew that we weren't likely to see any workmen today so we were having a leisurely morning. I was sitting at the computer and Don was making breakfast when I heard "drip, drip, drip" and thought, "Gee, it's thawing fast outside." All of a sudden, water started dripping from the hatch door that leads to our loft (attic) and onto the hall carpet. I am getting very good at grabbing buckets. Don went up to have a look and it didn't appear that water was dripping onto anything we had stored up there, just in the area where the hatch was located. We phoned our contractor who phoned Stuart, the fellow who's been working on our roof. Stuart came right over and took a look in the loft and then went outside, got a ladder, and went up on the old roof to do what he could to protect the area from future water. After he left, Bill came over and did what he could inside. We think that latest crisis if over.

Don is now away to the St Fillans Music Circle and I'm about to do some work on the quilt in progress. I'm doing some experimenting with transferring text onto some of the border fabric.