Never in a million years did I figure on being a patient. At least, not with this diagnosis. It really puts everything else I have experienced as a patient in perspective.
As a Nurse for 37 years, I have been very healthy, never smoked, never did illegal drugs, ate well, kept in shape (if you don't count the last 5 years! ), didn't gain excess weight (until the last 5 years of more sedentary type nursing - but I think now it might be quite useful when I go through treatment) , always ate healthy - not much in the way of sugars, fats, fast foods or alcohol.
What got me? The good ol' soleil.
It started out about 4 years ago as what I thought was 3 little black heads in a zig zag arrangement. As anyone would do, I picked at them to get rid of the head. They wouldn't go away so I left them alone.
After a couple more years, a little bump started forming right next to them, and since I had had a similar bump on the outside of the nostril part of my nose that I had had removed 2 times already in the last 20 years - biopsied negative - so I didn't think much of it.
I started becoming self conscious of it in the past 1 1/2 years and so when I finally got a family MD in my community (hard to get - we need more MDs!) I asked right away if by looking at it, did she think it was something to worry about? She said no. That was February 2014.
As I mentioned in my previous post, My folks had a couple of disasters happen so they came to live with me for almost a month, so everything to do with me, was put on the back burner.
Finally got around to having it biopsied June 16, 2014. It took 17 days from bx to the phone call from the MD office to tell me to come in to see the MD. I could only get in on Friday, July 4 2014 - just before the weekend.
The news was devastating.
I didn't think of how hard it would hit after the first shock. I have only told my nursing friends, because they will just "get it" a little bit more than my other friends and family. I am keeping family out of the loop for now - especially my mom. She is assuming it's basal cell, just like she and dad have....and I will continue to let her think that. I am not going to be the reason she doubles her ativan dose.
Over this past weekend, I have slipped into my usual coping mode: Not eating very much and losing weight - 5 lbs over 3 days....which kind of worries me a bit because I want to keep some of that weight on reserve for the treatment part - because I know how sick one gets on interferon, if that is the course they choose for me.
Having worked (oh so briefly) in the prison system where 1/2 the population has Hep C - I have seen the results of what can happen in the course of taking Interferon. It's not pretty. And you usually take it over the course of a full year.
That means the rest of this year and possibly part of the next will be a crappy one if that's the direction I am going.
Good side of it all - I am old enough not to worry about saving face.
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