Cancer has a new face. The deadly world of skin cancer.  My first looked like a Bindi worn by women from India. It was on my forehead between my eyebrows,  a basel cancer.  Easily removed.

 Next were two biopsies on my back. The one that pinched had to be sent to a national lab. That one turned out to be a melanoma.

That is where I learned that all skin cancers are not the same. My melanoma was deep. A bad sign. Melanoma moves through the local lymph tissue and it moves through the blood stream. Once it moves away from its initial site, it continues to move through the body setting up home in distant sites.  It becomes very difficult to remove.

It becomes a fatal cancer. It is scary. To this point I have felt lucky. Stage three thyroid cancer, breast cancer, and a rare uterine cancer caused by the aromatase inhibitor that I took for the breast cancer. After a list of treatments for each. I survived. I wonder if I will survive this time. Maybe my number is up.

Before surgery, I will have the sentinel node, lymph node nearest the cancer site, mapped and marked with needles. Sounds painful. I was told that I can apply a lidocaine cream before the procedure.  We will see how adept the tech is with  this procedure. Will this be another painful ordeal? And then surgery is next. The big unknown.

I suppose this is where a cancer plodder has an advantage.  One step at a time. Head down. Do as I am told. Survive and hopefully be done with this.