[EnubreBense]

Yesterday I had my bi-annual checkup for monitoring of my oral cancer that I had 2 years ago. During the exam, my oral surgeon noticed an irritated area that the surgeon thought looked suspicious. She asked if i would rather wait 6 months and see if it goes away or have it biopsied.

2 years ago, I went through a MAJOR cancer surgery to remove a stage 3 mucoid melanoma. During the surgery, they severed the nerves in order to remove it leaving me with limited feeling in the mouth. The cancer had gotten large very quickly and thankfully, they got it in time before it hit the Lymph Nodes, etc.

So I opted for the biopsy almost immediately. They put me in the chair and I proceeded to have the most hellish 10 minutes I ever expected. I had a biopsy last time, but it was shot up with Novacaine, etc and didn't feel anything. This time, they gave me a topical analgesic as the Novacaine wouldn't work anymore (as they didn't think the nerves were active anymore since most were excised last time).

They started the incision and all was fine and then about 20 seconds in, I felt everything. I couldn't move or talk (obviously since they had my mouth clamped open) and the only way that they knew I was feeling it was that I was sweating profusely and tearing up badly. Once they noticed that, she stopped and asked if I could feel it. At this point, she was almost done, so rather than take the novacaine, I told her to just finish it. About 2 more minutes of cutting and she was done. Just an awful lot of pain.

The good news is that it is done and they think it likely is nothing as there was a puss like substance coming out so they think it is likely an infection of some sort. I am no longer willing to take any chances with it. I will know the results by Thursday night and hopefully the prognosis is good. If not, I likely will have to have surgery again and chemo to eradicate it.

To bring it back to golf, I likely will miss my club championship as a result of yesterday and am bummed out a bit as I have busted my butt to get my swing to where I am today. I actually am the No. 1 seed in our championship which means I get a bye in the first round. I do realize that golf doesn't mean squat in the scheme of things, but it still has me bummed a bit. If it turns out to be just an infection, I may be able to tough it out, but if surgery and chemo are needed, my season will be over (and I won't care a bit as i will have bigger issues to worry about). Keep me in your thoughts this week!