Posted 6/19/2015 1:35 AM (GMT 0)
Yesterday, went to the dermatologist office to have them look at the suspicious growth on the top of my scalp. Way too much like the two porocarcinoma lesions I had years ago. My oncologist did the referral.
When I met the doctor, had never seen this particular one before, I was surprised he was carrying in a file that had to be an inch or more thick on me. Come to find out, its the same outfit that dealt with some of my previous cancer bouts dating back to year 2000. Just under a different name and mostly different doctors.
So them having all that data on me about such a rare cancer made me feel better.
He agreed with my oncologist and my VA PCP, that this had to be investigated.
I got brave and agreed to have the biopsy done with a local, right then and there. I should add, the area on my scalp with this new lesion, is in the grafted area from the previous plastic surgery. So there is nothing but a layer of skin right over the skull, its sunken down on my head, below the level of the normal part of my scalp.
To my surprise, it really didn't hurt when he started injection lydacaine into the area with needles. He said not to worry, because the grafted skin doesn't really have any nerve endings. Felt pressure, but no pain.
However, when he began to scrape for the biopsy samples, I about came out of my chair. You could actually feel him scraping against the bone of my skull, its that thin. It was hard to endure, but toughed it out for the team.
He thought it was more likely cancer than not, and was sending it with special instructions to specifically look for porocarcinoma. So it will take 10-12 days to get the pathology results. Will be a long wait.
I asked him, assuming it was cancer, what would the options be. He hesitated, then said it would be complicated, and lets just wait to get the results. Didn't like the sounds of that.
I do know it would involve extensive scalp surgery again, but being that if it is cancer, being in the grafted area this time, it would be difficult. And like every other doctor so far, he said that any additional treatment other than surgery was out of the question, especially follow up radiation. I already knew that in advance.
So hoping I can dodge still another bullet. Still waiting for the CT scan results from last week. And I am now 4 days away from my face surgery. Then there is the matter of the growth in my right eye socket, but I don't see the eye doctor/surgeon until mid-July.
I can only handle one issue at the time. And my oncologist office told me the wrong PSA number recently by telephone. I was told it raised to 50. In fact, it rose to 52, but hey, who's squabbling.
The dermatologist told me that in his entire long career, he had never ever seen another patient with porocarcinoma. According to his research, there's only been 7 or 10 confirmed cases of having it in scalp in the entire world's medical history. How did I end up with it? We will never know. Got better odds of winning the Power Ball 3x in a row then getting this cancer.