Well, back on November 8th he had another 6-month check-up and the doc found two spots that looked like trouble and a bunch of spots that looked like pre-trouble. The doc used the nitrogen freeze-spray on all the pre-cancerous spots and took biopsies on the two spots that looked like cancer.
This is a photo of a frozen spot on his right cheek (a week after the fact). The slightly scabrous spot in the middle of the photo is the frozen spot.
This is a photo of the two biopsied spots on RaderBob's schnoz.
There was minimal bleeding on the biopsy spots and he mostly got by with two little round spot BandAids. The spots should be healed by his birthday, but will likely be pinker than the surrounding skin.
This morning Dr. Cho called with the biopsy results. The spot on the top of his nose is Squamous Cell Carcinoma and the spot on the side of his nose is Basal Cell Carcinoma. Like before, he's got a mixed bag. Unlike before, they are not going to treat him with chemo cream. (For those following along, between the antibiotic to kill the MRSA on top of his head and the two different chemo creams over a protracted period, they made him feel icky enough that he wasn't inclined to eat and that's what got his weight down to the current level.)
So, the plan going forward is that they need to call the recommended doc who specializes in surgery of the nose and set up a plan for him to go in to have the rest of the two spots removed. The thing is that, since the skin there is so thin, they don't want to cut off his nose to spite his face. They'll cut around the spot, little by little, having the tissue checked by a pathologist immediately, until they get "clean margins." (A margin is the zone between the cancer and the healthy tissue. A "clean margin" is a certain specified distance from the known cancerous tissue and the healthy tissue. They want to get enough healthy tissue so they KNOW they got all the cancer without actually taking half his nose off.)
No appointment set up as yet, but they're working on it.
There was minimal bleeding on the biopsy spots and he mostly got by with two little round spot BandAids. The spots should be healed by his birthday, but will likely be pinker than the surrounding skin.
This morning Dr. Cho called with the biopsy results. The spot on the top of his nose is Squamous Cell Carcinoma and the spot on the side of his nose is Basal Cell Carcinoma. Like before, he's got a mixed bag. Unlike before, they are not going to treat him with chemo cream. (For those following along, between the antibiotic to kill the MRSA on top of his head and the two different chemo creams over a protracted period, they made him feel icky enough that he wasn't inclined to eat and that's what got his weight down to the current level.)
So, the plan going forward is that they need to call the recommended doc who specializes in surgery of the nose and set up a plan for him to go in to have the rest of the two spots removed. The thing is that, since the skin there is so thin, they don't want to cut off his nose to spite his face. They'll cut around the spot, little by little, having the tissue checked by a pathologist immediately, until they get "clean margins." (A margin is the zone between the cancer and the healthy tissue. A "clean margin" is a certain specified distance from the known cancerous tissue and the healthy tissue. They want to get enough healthy tissue so they KNOW they got all the cancer without actually taking half his nose off.)
No appointment set up as yet, but they're working on it.
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