I wouldn’t miss this anniversary for the world so I joined in but I will not be able to visit you all back… my ‘desk’ gives you a hint of what’s going on

WOYWW #600

Last month, it remained deafeningly silent on my blog and facebook page and there was a reason for that.  I kept my mouth shut because I was in uncertainty myself – life did to me what life does sometimes: turn the world upside down.  Here’s the story:

At the end of October, when it got colder and I put on a camisole, I fell a birthmark on my back that rubbed the edge of the fabric, very irritating! I’d never seen it or had problems with it, so I went to the doctor to have that little bastard removed. Such things are of course sent to a lab to be  examined and – you guessed – I received the message that it was a ‘melanoma’ (an aggressive form of skin cancer). * Gulp!*

Before I knew it I sat in the hospital and spoke with a surgeon – and instantly I got labeled from ‘a woman with a nuisance spot’ to ‘cancer patient’. I tell you: that’s a shock! The hospital mill started to turn quickly and in mid-November (after some more examinations in which I was injected with radioactive liquid and scanned – the so-called ‘gatekeeper procedure’) I had surgery – more skin around the ‘melanoma spot’ was removed and lymph nodes were removed from my armpit that had to be examined for cancer cells to see if the cancer had spread. A week later the biopsy had shown that the cancer was NOT spread – HOORAY, I AM “CLEAN”

However, I had an internal bleeding under my armpit afterwards, that resulted in bruising all over my body – bruises from elbow to hip – can you imagine? I’ll spare you the photos 😉 and this left me with a big swelling under my armpit. So there I was… all clean but with my arm in the air, I felt like a cormorant …

Because the swelling kept ‘leaking’ and the risk of getting an infection grew, the surgeon cut open the swelling last week and now the deep wound is flushed and bandaged twice a day by a nurse from home care. Our bathroom is full of bandages and all kinds of attributes!

Anyway, it could all have been a lot worse – this will pass and I don’t need chemotherapy so I’m happy and optimistic. Although I can’t do much with my arm yet. I can type a bit but need to rest my arm a lot – visiting all of you is just too much for me but I appreciate you stopping by.

Have a wonderful day/week and enjoy every moment (for that’s some lesson I got reminded of/learned over the past weeks!)