Preliminary Biopsy Results

I went to the cancer center on Thursday and Friday. Thursday was for a pre-operating visit and Friday for was a biopsy of a lump that appeared on the side of my face about 2 weeks ago. They made me comfortable with 5 doses of Versed and Fentanyl in the operating room, but I was fully awake. I talked coherently to the doctor and nurse throughout the procedure. They said most people are asleep by dose 2 or 3. Oh well, no complaints. They used ultrasound to guide the needle biopsy. I watched the whole thing on a 25 inch monitor. This is the same monitor the doctor used to perform the biopsy and guide the needle. This spot is about the size of a dime and has the thickness of about two to three dimes. The preliminary pathologist’s finding is suspicion of cancer. That’s bad news on a few fronts. The good news though is that I switched to GEICO and saved 15% on my car insurance. Kidding aside. I have to wait until next week sometime to get the final biopsy results and talk to my doctors about next steps. The actual good news is that it seems to be pretty superficial. So, I’m thinking it may be easily removed without too much surgery and scaring. The bad news is, this was missed on my CT scan and it was only that my doctor went back to the radiologist and asked about this spot that they even did the biopsy. That means, there may be other spots. Plus, this spot just popped up on my face about 9 days after my last chemo cycle. Other than this, I’m fine. I’m regaining strength, attitude, and the will to fight this after being off chemo now for about 4 weeks. The last two years of treatment have been a blur in some ways. I’m not sure what has been worse… chemo, surgery, or radiation. Regardless, the result is that I’m still here to write about all this, so they continue to be the lesser of the evils.

Take care everyone.