Bob's Consultation and a Movie Review - Sun., Aug. 7, 2016

On Friday, Bob met with the neck surgeon and the plastic surgeon. They prodded and poked his wound so they would have an idea of what surgery is needed next.

The neck surgeon said he will have to remove part of the muscle that controls the shrug response. They will have to carefully keep nerves out of the way.

When Bob had his surgery on Wednesday, the doctor's office did not give him any post-surgical instructions. Bob had me change his gauze dressing a couple of times, but we didn't do anything special. The wound is huge - about 4 inches across and two inches tall, plus it is over 1/2" deep. He wanted me to take a photo of it to share with family. I told him no.

Sunday morning Bob woke up telling me he had a headache. Bob NEVER gets headaches. I told him he needed to call his Mohs surgeon to make sure everything was okay. He wasn't going to call the doctor.

However, when he went to take his shower, the gauze pad was stuck in his neck wound and he couldn't get it out. I told him to take his shower and let the water run on the wound and it would probably come off. Wrong.

While he was in the shower, he asked me to cut off as much of the bandage as I could because it was waterlogged and heavy and was pulling on his wound. When I tried to cut the bandage, the scissors pulled on the bandage and he let out a scream. Apparently the bandage was stuck onto a nerve; the nerve that goes into his head and is causing the headache. I got sharper scissors and was able to cut the bandage off.

When he got out of the shower, I put another bandage over the wound. He called his doctor, but got the answering service. Thankfully his doctor called back quickly.

The doctor told him he needed to get back in the shower and soak the bandage and wound. He also reminded Bob that we should be using Vaseline in the wound and a non-stick bandage. In the shower, Bob was able to pull off the small piece of gauze that was left, but it really hurt him. 

I went to Walgreen's to buy some Vaseline. When I returned, I put Vaseline on a non-stick pad and taped it on his wound. Bob is much better now.

This afternoon, we went to see a movie called "Hunt for the Wilderpeople." What an interesting and good movie. It is about a 13-year-old boy (Ricky Baker) in New Zealand who was lost in the Child Protective Services system, being shuffled from foster home to foster home. Considered a problem child (thievery, graffiti, running away, kicking stuff, and a wannabe gangster), he didn't last long in any home. Finally a couple was willing to take him in. They lived near the bush in New Zealand, far away from a city.

Bella made him feel more at home than anywhere else he had been in his life. He started to feel loved.

When an unexpected tragedy occurred, Ricky ran away into the bush. This movie is about how he ran from Child Protective Services and survived in the bush. You will enjoy the humor and the story as it unfolds.

As we left the theater in the Wonderland of the Americas Mall, the San Antonio Model Railroad Association (SAMRA) members had their display trains running. We spent a few minutes watching the trains go around and looking at the sets they built. We enjoyed that.

Whistle Stop Cafe - SAMRA train display set

SAMRA model trains

There were even a number of camping sets!

As we were leaving the mall, Bob's doctor called back to make sure he was doing okay. That was very thoughtful of him.

Our quiet evening at home consisted of eating dinner, watching 60 Minutes, and HGTV's Beachfront Bargain Hunt, Mexico Life, and Island Hunters. Bob is still having headaches from the exposed nerve in his neck, but at least the bandage isn't sticking to it anymore.

That's all from here. Have a good week.

Bob's Home, More Surgery Required - Wed., Aug. 3, 2016

This morning Bob went to his Mohs surgeon who performed Mohs skin cancer removal surgery in the office. When the surgery was done, samples of the edges of the excision were sent to the lab to see if all the cancer cells has been removed. They had not.

His Mohs surgeon did a second surgery in the office to remove as much of the basal cell cancer as he could, but the Mohs surgeon cannot go deep on neck surgeries due to the nerves, muscles and arteries that are there.

What his Mohs surgeon did find is that the basal cell cancer is entwined around a muscle. This is going to require a neck surgeon and a plastic surgeon. Bob is now waiting to hear from the other two surgeons who are going to consult and let him know when they can do the surgery. It was originally scheduled with the plastic surgeon for tomorrow, but because this needs more complicated surgery, it looks like Bob will have to wait. It all depends on what the other two doctors decide and what their schedules look like.

The risk with the deeper surgery is that they might have to take part of a nerve which would cause some facial numbness or pins-and-needles sensations, or they may have to take part of a muscle which could cause problems with shoulder shrugging.

Right now, this is what Bob's neck looks like.

Bob is tired, but we went to lunch at Olive Garden because he hadn't had anything to eat since last night. Now he's just exhausted and wants to sleep.

Thank you to everyone who sent love, hugs and prayers. We appreciate it. As soon as we know more, we'll update everyone.

Surgery for Bob - Wed., Aug. 3, 2016

Caution: Graphic photo below.

On February 24, 2015, Bob had Mohs surgery on his neck to remove a large basal cell carcinoma (the non-malignant kind). The cancer was deep into his neck and was close to a nerve that could affect the feeling in his face.

Because it was a large wound, he had to have plastic surgery to close it up on March 11, 2015.  

Bob's scar from plastic surgery reconstruction

For months after that surgery, he had pins-and-needles sensation on the lower left side of his face. The scar healed up nicely and you could barely see where he had the surgery.

Fast forward to early 2016. Bob started feeling a hard lump in the exact same place he had his last basal cell carcinoma removed. When he went to his dermatologist in June 2016, they did a biopsy and found the basal cell carcinoma had returned.

Today is the day Bob is going in for outpatient repeat Mohs surgery in the dermatologist's office. The lump that needs to be removed is the size of a quarter. We're hoping this hasn't gone down into the nerve and that they will be able to remove it all.

If the wound is large, he will have to go back in for another plastic surgery reconstruction. We'll keep you posted.

It Does not Compute, Random Beer Garden, and Basal Cell Carcinoma - Week of February 22, 2015

Hans and Lisa (of Metamorphosis Road blog), Bob and I wanted to hike on Sunday, Feb. 22. However, the cold weather put a damper on that.

Instead, Hans came over to help fix my computer. It was massively sluggish, giving odd error messages, and wouldn't let me play Scrabble.

Oh, no! Please don't take my Scrabble away. I hadn't been able to play Scrabble on my computer for two weeks. Bob let me play on his computer when he wasn't using it.

Hans generously slogged through my registry, hard drive, and files to delete excessively large files and threats to my system. The upshot is: I need a newer, faster computer. On speedtest.net, my system performed terribly.

The other problem seems to be our AT&T air card. Hans had me run updates on the air card and that helped considerably.

By the time he had worked on my laptop for a couple of hours, I could play Scrabble and we were able to back up my computer onto an external hard drive. Thank you, Hans, for helping fix my ailing laptop. My laptop is three years "old." I guess that's ancient for a computer anymore.

We took off for Random Beer Garden in the afternoon where we treated Hans and Lisa to craft beers on tap at Random and Z's Wood-fired Pizzas. Lisa had her laptop with her and showed me Windows 8.1. She can edit her photos easily on her computer screen with flicks and swoops of her fingers. I see Windows 8.1 in my future when I buy a new laptop. Lisa did a great blog on San Antonio hikes and Random, and even took photos, which I forgot to do. You can click here to read her blog.

Here are some of my older photos of Random...

The old farmhouse

Inside the old farmhouse, now an events center.

Outside seating and beer garden

Over 80 craft beers on tap

After Random, we came back to Travelers World. Hans and Lisa invited us to their 5th wheel for a nice, warm, comfort-food dinner of sausage stew, rice with quinoa, and green salad. Good stuff! We sat and chatted for another hour and a half, said our good-byes as they were leaving in the morning, and headed home. 

With Bob and I working so much, we were happy to spend as much time with Hans and Lisa as we could. They will be in Austin for five weeks, then in Fredericksburg, Texas, and South Llano State Park. We plan to see them at least one more time while they're in Texas, maybe more.

Tuesday, February 24: Today Bob went to a Mohs surgery specialist to have basal cell carcinoma removed from his neck. He had a previous skin cancer removal site scar that had been bleeding for a few months. Mohs surgery entails removing cancer cells from the edges and depths of the wound. After each excision of cells, the skin pieces are sectioned, put under an electron microscope and the edges checked for cancer cells. They keep removing skin and checking the edges of the sections until no more cancer cells are found. Bob had to have three rounds of surgery today to remove more cancer cells. During his surgeries they were able to avoid the nerve in his neck that controls shrugging your shoulders. We were in the outpatient clinic for five hours!

The doctor was able to remove all the cancer cells from the edges of his wound, but the cancer had deepened into his neck muscle. The wound in Bob's neck is four inches by two inches and about 1/4" deep. The Mohs surgeon did not feel comfortable removing the cancer from Bob's neck muscle, so Bob has been referred to consult with both a head/neck surgeon and a plastic surgeon. He will have that consultation on Tuesday, March 3, at 1:00 p.m. Before the consultation he will have a computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan.

Bob will have a new surgery under general anesthetic, date to be determined. Because his wound is so big, the plastic surgeon is needed to consult as to whether a skin flap from another portion of his neck can be used to close the wound, or if a skin graft will be needed from another part of his body. The way I see it, his wound is way too big for a skin flap. He will most likely need a skin graft. We'll know on Tuesday, March 3.

That's the news from this "neck" of the woods. More reports to follow.

Travel Bug out.

Alive and Kickin' It - Thursday, February 19, 2015

Yes, we're here. Busy as all get out.

Plus, I've been having computer issues. Seems as though some type of malware attacked my computer. It is now excruciatingly slow, I'm getting strange error messages: "rejected handshakes...error_inappropriate_fallback_alert," etc. Norton Antivirus originally caught the nasty bug. I've used Malwarebytes which has found and corrected some bad stuff after Norton found and quarantined the malware, Spybot Search & Destroy, CCleaner, but still having trouble.

Then I got bogged down on one blog. I forgot my camera and took photos with my cell phone. Had to transfer all those photos to my computer. [Faye and Dave, I haven't forgotten about our walk together, but I finally have all your photos and mine loaded into my computer.] As soon as we are not so busy, I will write that blog which is next on my list.

A great big THANK YOU to my mom, who made a charm necklace for me. She knows how much I love Volksmarching so she put on the following charms: camera, hiking boots with walking stick, water bottle, roadrunner (I'm in the Randolph Roadrunners Volksmarch Club), a backpack, and one that says "never, never give up!" She saw a photo of a charm necklace made by one of our Volksmarchers, Susan Ives, and thought I'd love one too. Yep, I love it!

"Charm"ing necklace

Since I have your attention, here's an update on our jobs and health. The travel blogs will continue in a few days.

Bob has a new job as Controller with the third largest electrical contractor in San Antonio. He is on the Board of Directors. Bob couldn't be happier. The job is challenging and he loves it. When he was hired on a Friday, he was supposed to be part time. He planned his life around that and had another employer for whom he was working 20 hours per week, and a few accounting clients as well.

When he went into work the next Monday at his new job, the General Manager called him into his office. Bob was told they wanted him full time and he would need to leave the other company, and give up his accounting clients. Bob likes the new company very much, but he needed time to think about it.

We talked it over Friday night and over the weekend. Monday, he agreed to the full-time position. Since then, he has felt part of the team and likes the corporate culture. He has health, dental and vision insurance through his new company, and will be eligible for 401(k) after he's been there a year.

As you know, I started full-time at the RV park late last year. This week, our company rolled out benefits. Starting March 1, I have health, vision and dental insurance. My contribution to the insurance is half of what I was paying on my own. In addition, I am contributing to a 401(k) that has a 4% match and I signed up already. It starts March 1 and I'm fully invested at that time!! Woo hoo.

Tuesday of next week, Bob will have Mohs' surgery for basal cell carcinoma in his neck. He had had an area frozen in Hawaii about five years ago. In the past few months, one of the areas he had treated started bleeding and would not heal. His dermatologist said the skin cancer was too deep for him to treat and referred him to a specialist who does Mohs' surgery.

In Mohs' surgery, the area that has cancer is expanded outward and down with small cuts. Each section of skin that is taken is then sectioned, put under a microscope to look for cancer cells. If any cancer cells are found, those sections are noted and more tissue is taken from those areas until the edges are clear of cancer cells. With this procedure, there is a 95% success rate getting rid of cancer in the area. The procedure will take a minimum of four hours. One complication in Bob's case is a nerve that runs next to his surgical area. The nerve controls your ability to shrug your shoulders. Is that specific or what?

Other than that, all is well. We've been taking day trips in Texas, hiking, birding and meeting friends. Watch for more about our activities soon.

Just for the "awwww" factor, here are the fur-kids, Sunnie and Bowie...

"Oh how we love lying in the sun!" Bowie and Sunnie

Safe travels to you all, especially those of you in the grips of the "Siberian air" hitting the East Coast and Southeast parts of our country.

Travel Bug out.