No more neck model dreams

12/29/2008
Hi everyone,

Recently I have been getting questions of ‘Are you alright? Anything I can do?’ My classmates last semester, along with my family and my Cub Scouts got used to seeing me with a bandage on all the time.

I have told this tale to many people in the last week and a half and I don’t remember who knows or does not know, Cryptic? Yes. So my apologies to everyone for telling my story via email and post.

Since late August 2008 I have had a sore on my neck that acted like a yucky pimple. You know one of those teenage ones we would get that just didn’t want to go away. By mid to late September I went to the doctor and he put me on antibiotics, he thought it was a staph infection. Well the yucky went away but the lump stayed. So three weeks after the first visit I went back. No infection now, just a lump. He put me more antibiotics and took a culture. The culture came back negative but the antibiotics did not make the lump go away. I went back 2 or three weeks later, on December 11. This time the doctor took a biopsy and extracted a big piece of whatever it is living in my neck. On December 18 he called me with the results, Squamous Carcinoma the second most common skin cancer.

Yep I said the ‘C’ word, cancer. But don’t panic anyone, the doctors (my primary and my dermatologist) both say it is not dangerous unless it is in my lymph nodes, which neither of them feel it is. It simply needs to be removed with extreme prejudice (John’s words). So I go back to the Dermatologist on January 9 and have it cut out in an in office surgery appointment. It should take about 30 minutes to get it all out and done. And when I heal I will have a 2-3 inch scar on my neck, hence my dreams of turning into a professional neck model are now dashed.

I found out from my Dad that he (which I knew about) and his Grandfather (which I did not know about) both had skin cancer and had it surgically removed. Probably the same as mine since it was not melanoma. My Dad’s father was periodically being tested and checked for it, but it was never confirmed in his case. This is nothing new to my genetics it seems. By the way my Grandpa lived to be 92.

I was really afraid to tell my family. Why? I have a cousin who is only 20 and she is fighting Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The last thing I wanted to do to my mom’s side of the family is tell them about this, which is in no way as serious as what Megan is dealing with. Plus I have an Aunt (one of Mom’s sisters) that is a breast cancer survivor and just this past November had more surgery due to another threat of cancer. This last surgery was a very aggressive preventative surgery.

So if I have not told you, or my Mom has not told you, this is the story of my neck.
Happy New Year with wishes of Love and Prosperity and Great Health to everyone!
Angie