Battin' .500

I'm batting .500, apparently.

In the Majors, I'd get a sweet paycheck for that type of power hitting. In the world of personal health, though, .500 hitting just gets you a little less shit in your life. Since I've stumbled into a sort of unexpected health issue, I am just posting this quickly to bring the whole thing up-to-date. I'm sure it'll be a laugh riot to read back over all this years from now.

First, the good news: The lymph nodes removed from my right axillary and tested were free and clear of any cancer. So, that's some VERY sweet 411.

Second, the bad news: Unfortunately, the tissue removed from around my melanoma site showed signs of active malignancy up to the peripheral margins. This means that there was active cancer in the meat they removed from me up to the very edges of all they took. Of course, this means that the cancer extended beyond what they plucked off of my right rear shoulder. Consequently, there is still active melanoma on my bod which must be excised.

Given this, I have another surgery in my immediate future.

This time, they are going to take a more invasive hunk of meat -- so much that it cannot be simply "sewed up." They are going to have to harvest some skin off my thigh or ass to graft over the surgery site and so the Recovery will be a bit more involved.

Anyway, it's great that all scans were clear and the lymph nodes were free of disease. That's sweet, of course.

As for the other.....not so much.

I'm a little bummed that I have to go back under the knife....but....waddayagonnado? I'm told that it's good Dr. Dupont was conservative to start--taking only what he thought he needed. If it turned out more excision was required, the cutter can always go back and get it. Start by being as non-invasive as you can -- that's the protocol. Following good protocols shows you're getting A-1 care

Well.....OK. But, now that I know I gotta go back for more surgical fun, I wish they had dug around in there with an ice cream scoop and taken a shitload the first time.

But, that isn't the way it's done.

Anyway, we must let the current incision heal up and they need to knock out a little infection present there before the team can slice-and-dice anew, so I'm on some antibiotics. I am scheduled to return to see the sawbones next week and--at that time--he will tell me precisely what we are going to do and when and where.

If you would've asked me a few weeks ago if my blog was going to become some type of boring report on my "cancer situation," I would've just laughed.

I ain't laughin' much now and, anyway....this stuff is what's on my mind for the moment.

-- J.R.