It's certainly not the least significant digit!
Sorry, but this thread is getting heavy.
I'm not convinced Cal, not quite definitive enough. Norway has great medicare
I'm not convinced Cal, not quite definitive enough. Norway has great medicare
Yes. They used both vodka AND a hammer.
No it was local anaesthetic. Plus a little something in the tube to my arm. Party!
I lived in South Florida for the first 62 years of my life. I went to the dermatologist two to four times a year for the last 25 years I was there. I never left without him freezing, burning, or cutting something out of my skin, many of the biopsies showed basal cell, squamous cell, or both....then that guy retired.
This is a common method to deal with skin cancers, called Mohs Surgery.
The next guy, who worked in a "center for cosmetic surgery" was reluctant to cut much, and very cautious to take only the minimum skin necessary, using Mohs whenever my insurance would cover it.
I walked in there one day and complained about a lump under the skin on my forehead just above my eyebrow. He poked at it a bit and blew me off saying it was a sebaceous cyst. I would return a few weeks later complaining that it was throbbing, painful and waking me up at night. Again he tried to blow me off, so I said, "either biopsy, or I find another doctor." The biopsy said "sebaceous carcinoma." This is 50% fatal, and usually goes for the eye socket, then the brain......UGLY. So its Mohs surgery #1. Two months later, #2.......after #5 it came back again, each time closer to the eye. I got rather nasty and in his face, telling him that I was 50 some years old, had obviously missed my chance at an acting or modelling career, and would rather be ugly and alive than pretty and in a box! A discussion with their legal department ensued and I signed papers that explained probably disfigurement, that they were not responsible. They cut the grand canyon from my eyebrow to the hair line, and most of it did heal up nice, but now 15 years later that whole area is filled with black streaks. The shins on both legs have also got black streaks from cancer removal. This is dead capillaries that lost their blood supply during all the cutting.
I left Motorola in 2014 and moved 1200 miles north. The last two hospital surgeries I have had have been to remove more skin cancer from my legs......
How about we discuss DIY surgery?
The crummy health insurance afforded by the ACA cost my wife and I $1600 per month and they wouldn't cover anything. The surgeon who cut the cancer off my legs while still on COBRA insurance, couldn't fit me into his schedule once I was on the ACA plan.
I had an ugly cancer growing on my leg, so I cut it off myself with a pair of wire cutters, then attacked the remains with Imiquimod, a topical chemo agent.....Gone, never to return.
Now that I'm on Medicare, the copay for Imiquimod is $47 so I have been playing DIY cutaneous oncologist ever since. I figured is I couldn't kill a cancer, I would let a doctor cut it off, but so far I haven't had to do that. So far none of my DIY jobs have left serious scars, though one in the middle of my forehead did leave a dent.
Note that cutting into a basal or squamous cell carcinoma with sharp Amazon quality diagonal cutters is not very painful (cancer kills the nerves), but makes a bloody mess (cancer needs blood, and can cause new vascular growth).
Wow. Now that's a visceral read. Sorry you're going through it. Better than the alternative, though.
Mandingo -- you saw the movie, admit it!
After my hernia operation years ago I was very surprised to find out that it didn't hurt when a really funny joke would actually cause pain!
I am not surprised at all that @tubelab would perform DIY surgery!
I spent much of my younger years outdoors in Florida wearing minimal clothing. From age 20 to maybe 32 I was at the beach from 10 AM until about 2:30, often a mile or so offshore on a single person sailboat in the middle of a reflective surface called the Atlantic Ocean.....this was the early 70's and 80's....you know, when a tan was considered "healthy." At least in the TV commercials, but then so were cigarettes in the 50's and 60's.
Reducing my exposure has lessened the occurrence rate to near zero, but I'll probably keep getting some minor skin cancers. I have learned to recognize them early and usually they can be killed with Imiquimod......for those stubborn spots that refuse to die.....cut their heads off and place a Band-Aid drenched in Imiquimod directly on top of the open spot daily for a few days, then leave it uncovered.....the top layer will shrivel up and die. Repeat as needed until all of it is gone.
What about salicylic acid/compound w? It can be had in much higher concentrations.
Yes, if they weren’t such soft tissue, they could easily be bronzed after the siring of desired number of offspring. “Honey, whaddya need those for now?, I’m certainly done with them - thanks for the donations” Vasectomy was a breeze, but I can remember being very friendly with a bag of frozen peas for the first day or so after the local wore off.
My last surgery was Lasik lens replacement, about 3 months ago now. Still occasionally reaching to remove non existent progressive trifocals after an extended reading session.
after the siring of desired number of offspring. “Honey, whaddya need those for now?, I’m certainly done with them - thanks for the donations” Vasectomy was a breeze, but I can remember being very friendly with a bag of frozen peas for the first day or so after the local wore off. My last surgery was Lasik lens replacement, about 3 months ago now. Still occasionally reaching to remove non existent progressive trifocals after an extended reading session.
My last was in 2007, I was 61. It was to
remove about one foot of ilium. The distal
portion that sits just above the bladder.
After three years of pain that occurred
every four to three months, then the time
between episodes kept getting shorter.
A pill cam showed a narrowing of the
small intertine. Why did it narrow?
Well five years previous to that I
was diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
In 2002, a month after I retired no less.
Eight inches of sigmoid were removed
from about three inches from the anus
back. Low anterior resection with
total mesorectal excision. Lab results
came back showing that two local
limp nodes were positive. Adjuvant
therapy was highly recommened.
Seven weeks of chemo radiation.
A computer controlled dispensing
gadget hung on my belt pushed 1
drop of 5FU once every minute 24
hours a day for 5 days. Two days off
then repeat for seven weeks. Also,
every morning of those five days I
went in for a dose of external radiation.
At about the fourth week I reported
a sun burn like spot that was over
the area of the bladder. I've researched
medical journals and read a report of
radiation treatment causing adhestions.
My surgeon that removed the section of
ilium said it had an adhesion that cork
screwed around it. A few years later
a yearly cat scan showed bladder wall
thickening. That was also noted in the
jounal report.
I've had 19 chest to pelvis cat scans, two
which were with radio active tagged
glucose to high light any posible cancer.
I still have four or five episodes of
abdominal pain a year, due to constipation.
I was on a med, I forget the name, but
that didn't work out. This year I've been
trying to manage with Miralax.
Thanks for letting me tell my Story.
remove about one foot of ilium. The distal
portion that sits just above the bladder.
After three years of pain that occurred
every four to three months, then the time
between episodes kept getting shorter.
A pill cam showed a narrowing of the
small intertine. Why did it narrow?
Well five years previous to that I
was diagnosed with colorectal cancer.
In 2002, a month after I retired no less.
Eight inches of sigmoid were removed
from about three inches from the anus
back. Low anterior resection with
total mesorectal excision. Lab results
came back showing that two local
limp nodes were positive. Adjuvant
therapy was highly recommened.
Seven weeks of chemo radiation.
A computer controlled dispensing
gadget hung on my belt pushed 1
drop of 5FU once every minute 24
hours a day for 5 days. Two days off
then repeat for seven weeks. Also,
every morning of those five days I
went in for a dose of external radiation.
At about the fourth week I reported
a sun burn like spot that was over
the area of the bladder. I've researched
medical journals and read a report of
radiation treatment causing adhestions.
My surgeon that removed the section of
ilium said it had an adhesion that cork
screwed around it. A few years later
a yearly cat scan showed bladder wall
thickening. That was also noted in the
jounal report.
I've had 19 chest to pelvis cat scans, two
which were with radio active tagged
glucose to high light any posible cancer.
I still have four or five episodes of
abdominal pain a year, due to constipation.
I was on a med, I forget the name, but
that didn't work out. This year I've been
trying to manage with Miralax.
Thanks for letting me tell my Story.
That's a rough sequence to endure... my CA is chemo resistant, so I just got the 7 weeks (64 Grays) high dose adjuvant XRAY after they carved up my arm. GI/abdominal illness really consumes all of your bodily resources just to trudge thru the day. Add chemo related side effects, that sucks. Here's to your resilience surviving and accommodating as best one can, given the circumstances.
I tried most everything available over the counter, and several prescription medications made for skin cancer. The OTC stuff doesn't work well at all, or causes too much collateral damage, as does some of the prescription stuff like Efudex.
There are all designed to kill or destroy tissue, or keep it from growing / reproducing. They usually target a specific tissue type, but can destroy surrounding skin.
Efudex was developed for pancreatic cancer, but found effective on some skin cancers.....If you have ever used it, you know how much pain and ugliness is involved. It prevents the cancers from growing and will make them die and peel off, but can make all your surrounding skin turn red and peel as if you had a severe sunburn. I haven't used that stuff since Imiquimod / Zyclara / Aldara came out.
Imiquimod is a different class of medication. It is an immune response modifier. It rev's up your body's own immune system making it able to kill cancer. It however is a topical cream which is not readily absorbed into the blood stream, so it only works where you put it. You can't use it on large areas of skin as to avoid absorption of a significant amount, nor do you want to use it over a long period of time, since some downregulation of the immune response will occur.
Anything bigger than a dime should be treated by a competent dermatologist, but the object is to catch these spots early and kill them.
Smaller spots that are not significantly raised can be treated with Imiquimod alone. Rough up the spot with Scotch Brite, then apply daily for 3 or 4 days, then 3 or 4 days off....repeat until gone. Something raised like a half of a pencil eraser size gets decapitated with the diagonal cutters, then treated as above.
ichiban, I have a very nearly identical story. Stage 3-4 colorectal cancer, 8 weeks of chemo (5FU) with radiation, ~8 weeks off, then another 20 weeks of 5FU. That's rough stuff, but it does it's job well. July 2018, affected colon was removed with a low anterior resection ~ 5cm from the end, fortunately, there was enough sphincter left to save it. Diverted by ileostomy for 6 months to allow the anastamosis to fully heal and finally, a reversal procedure in March to get everything working again.
For me, the initial diagnosis was little over two years ago, age 51. At this point, except a bit of bladder wall thickening near the radiation site, all scans and lab work are normal and I still have my very gray hair.
Yours was 17 years ago and you're still chugging? Fantastic, thanks for sharing!
Speaking of skin cancer -- about 10 years ago a friend founded a company which developed a method for using the quantum cascade laser for analyzing moles. Turns out that dermatologists, at least for now, have much higher confidence in biopsy. One of the problems for Af Americans is that it is often difficult to visually analyze how suspicious a skin growth might be...but we ran out of money before it could get to the next stage.
QC Laser is its own little spectrograph --
QC Laser is its own little spectrograph --
I respect and admire your will to fight and your strength! I, too, was diagnosed with melanoma in my 40s - it started as a cosmetic surgery with 1cm scar .. but then after biopsy - 8cm scar on my back + 2 scars in the armpits (lymph node test) + 1.5 years of interferon therapy (which I carry easily). it will be three years soon - but there is still a lot of stress before the regular tests ... and the results.
When it comes to diy surgery - it has been that the fishing hook cut out of the finger.. a little shoot of vodka and go forward its not reason to ruin fishing day 
When it comes to diy surgery - it has been that the fishing hook cut out of the finger.. a little shoot of vodka and go forward
its not reason to ruin fishing day - Status
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