The REAL Cure for Cancer

I've just finished treatment for Melanoma...as a 40 something year old, non-sun-seeking male, who covers up and heads for the shade given the merest hint of sun...it was a bit of a shock.

The thing is, I wasn't even I'll...only way I found out was when I was servicing my mountain bike at my mom's house in the garage on a really hot day with my top off as I was under shelter.

Went into the kitchen to wash my hands, my mum happened to see a dark spot, I went to the doctor, they sent me to a dermatologist, who sent me for a day surgery for the taking of a sample.

Cue extra surgery to remove more of the flesh around the melanoma and a couple of sentinel lymph nodes at the top of my legs...followed by 18x3 weekly treatments using immunotherapy.

Let me tell you, immunotherapy is a cake walk in comparison to chemo...only, they treat you cheek by jowl with chemo patients...the feeling of imposter syndrome is REAL!

It's not entirely without it's drawbacks though.  In my case, it turned up my immune system to rocket ship levels of reactivness.  This has resulted in inflammatory arthritis as my body goes ape-shizz against itself.

Funnily enough, the treatment for this is a drug which, in higher doses, is used to treat cancer but that which has the opposite effect: methotrexate.

Oh, and during initial screening, they also using the (Spectrum 128k with 48k basic loading screen sounding) MRI scanner to take pictures of my head, they also found a non-advancing brain lesion towards the back of my skull.

As at the time, they were not sure what it was, the only way to tell was to wait and see.  This meant a rather worrisome 6 weeks of waiting for them to see if it had grown at all.

Thankfully it didn't, and, I got through treatment and am hopefully rod of it.  I say hopefully as there's no 1 test that would enable them to know for sure.

So, that's me undergoing close monitoring for the next 5 years.

Oh, and did I mention that this all happened during the pandemic?

This meant HAVING to isolate as there are doctors and nurses and a whole other bunch of patients that just could not become infected with COVID...I mean, would you want to have the death of a critically ill cancer patient on your hands?

Looking at the state of healthcare in the US though...I'm SOOOO glad I'm in the UK...I can now return to work without the burden of crippling debt on my mind.