Bad day yesterday...
 

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!

Ouch man, that sucks. I hope everything's fine ans you can get back in time for golf.

That sounds painfull

~Joseph~
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Best wishes, bigdaddy.

That's quite a story man. All the best, and here's hoping Thursday brings you very good news.

Godspeed my man. Here's to a speedy recovery and a clean future.

Man, scary stuff there BD, but sounds like things are looking good so far. Good luck to you man!

Thoughts and prayers man, I couldn't begin to imagine the pain of that. Hopefully everything will come back clean and you can play.

I hope this just turns out to be an infection and nothing more!!

Hope everything is OK this time around.

Just for a PSA, I am curious as to how you got the original cancer, whether it was from chewing or smoking, or just something that popped up.

Just asking as I used to chew (been off for going on 4 years I think - - - I never saved the date!) but I know a lot of people who still do, and I know quite a few people on the forum chew.

Good luck man! My dad went through throat cancer and the "treatment" was worse than the disease. He was miserable.

Hope you can mend quickly and can put this behind you and move forward man.
Sorry to hear about your Club Championship. Sounds like you put a lot of hard work into getting ready for this.

Man that's too bad, but hopefully it's just an infection. Treat yourself when you feel better!

That's what was so scary about my initial bout. I never smoked or chewed (I actually dipped for like a week in high school baseball, but effectively hated it and it I am sure wasn't enough) They think it was some sort of mutation at the cell level

I hope for the best for you man, hope it was just an infection and everything works out fine for you!

I can't even imagine what that felt like or what you went through. Here's hoping and praying for good news but it already sounds like everything is ok.

Big "C" is nothing to mess with; you did the right thing. hoping it is just a scare and nothing more. Be well. There will be more club championships.

Will be praying all turns out well for you bigdaddy. You definitely have your priorities right.

Thanks for all the well wishes all. One of my sons (they are 9) kicked his mom out of the bed last night so he could watch me all night. While he slept a lot, occasionally I would feel him reach over and pat me on the head. Nothing can be more reassuring than that. I know he is worried, but I need to keep my head up and move forward. I beat it once, I will kick it in the butt again.

That is awesome.

I am sorry that you had to go through that painful experience and really hope everything turns out okay.

Those of us who have had it impact our lives understand that cancer is a MFer.

Maybe this can be a lesson to the younger crowd on this forum to take the inevitable health issues seriously. Don't just do the guy thing and delay, thinking it will get better on its own. Have your annual physicals. Listen to your body.