Scattered Thoughts . . .

S heila and I ventured up to the University of Vermont Medical Center earlier in the past week to deal with some spots and growths on my skin.  This appointment had been delayed many months because we were more focused on more severe health problems. The primary concern with my skin was a growth on my right temple (photo at right).  This had been growing steadily for about a year and then it started growing more quickly throughout this past summer.  It had quickly grown to a concerning size when it comes to cancer so I was definitely looking forward to having this growth taken care of one way or another.   I have a history of skin cancer including a fairly large basal cell carcinoma.  I also have had all sorts of stuff removed from the surface of my skin over the years.  The one basal cell carcinoma I had removed in surgery was a large growth that went deeply into the flesh so that was actually a "surgery" requiring about 27 stitches to close-up the area after removing the ca

B ack in January, my primary care doctor referred me to the University of Vermont for some skin cancer on the side of my head.  At the time, I had all sorts of other significant medical problems including, but not limited to, an upcoming bone marrow biopsy so the skin cancer was pretty much forgotten or, at least, put on the back burner.  I had much more immediate problems including ongoing anaphylaxis and significant breathing problems so the skin cancer referral seemed insignificant at the time.   In the past month or two, we noticed that this growth of skin cancer has grown significantly so it was immediately put on the front burner again. Last week during my last medical appointment, when my primary care doctor found that I had not yet seen a doctor for the skin cancer she immediately looked to see what happened with her referral way back in January.  She noticed that the referral was indeed put into the online portal but it just sat there.  The specialist's office at UVM never

I was imaging the photosphere of the sun one morning and noticed that a sunspot eerily resembled some skin cancer that I had around that time.   The sunspot was approximately twice the length of the diameter of Earth.  My skin cancer was only about 8mm in length.  Additionally, I was seeing a shocking similarity between granules on the surface of the sun's photosphere  (each approximately 1000 miles across)  and the speckled UV damage of my skin (approximately 1-2mm each)! I've always noticed that, in many ways, the astronomical world of vast and infinite space resembles the microscopic world.  Shapes, networks and structure are comparable.  Both are equally vast but the scale is mind-bogglingly different.  When I see how vast space really is, it has always made me a little queasy and gives me the heebie-jeebies!  This incredibly vast difference in scale between space and humans is stuff I've actually had nightmares about since very early childhood.  Actually, my earliest

I've had an ongoing issue with skin cancer on my face for the past 12 years or so.  It really comes as no surprise since I grew up on an island and spent most of my time working outdoors and either at the beach or boating during my free time.  Having fair Irish skin hasn't helped.  Consequently, quickly developing a blistering sunburn on my forehead and nose was a common occurrence no matter what sort of precautions I took.  Well...  I could have avoided being outdoors but that wasn't much of an option.  I do avoid being outside as much as possible today but when I was young and very active that was not an option. During that first year of skin cancer 12 years ago, I had surgery to remove a sizable cancerous tumor in my cheek requiring twenty-seven stitches to close the area.  Since that time, I've had numerous biopsies and little spot treatments here and there.  In the past few years, my doctor has given up on trying to keep up with spot treatments because the develo

I haven't been writing much about my health or Sheila's health lately as my health recovers from an all-time low over the past two months. I simply haven't had the energy to write much. Actually, we haven't really done much of anything in the past two months because of this significantly poor health. We have, however, been continuing with our medical care and appointments and I'm beginning to feel more like myself in recent days so I figured I should write a little bit about our latest health updates.  A week or two ago, Sheila had a followup appointment with her Radiation Oncologist so we found ourselves up in Burlington at the hospital again. Thankfully, that appointment was uneventful, even pleasant! The large area of Sheila's chest where she had endured radiation treatment has healed nicely over the past 11 months. Needless to say, we left the hospital feeling pretty good about having Radiation Oncology behind us... well... for now, anyway. Sheila t

I have so many health problems that I often forget about some of them until they are thrust back into the forefront of my mind and life. Some of these temporarily forgotten health problems are incurable things like cancer, tumors, and variations of Systemic Mastocytosis symptoms which make their appearances much less frequently. My primary illness, Systemic Mastocytosis, is in the forefront most days. My spinal injuries are in the forefront at all times because these injuries affect everything I want to do, everything I attempt to do and the pain never goes away. Sometimes, however, something happens or I see something to remind me of the things which I do purposefully push to the back of my mind and would prefer to forget.  I suppose this idea of pushing things to the back of one's mind is a way of coping. I purposely try to let go of all the things I cannot control. I don't want to needlessly worry about these things because, hey, I really can't do a damn thing about