January 8th, 2004
My last surviving grandparent, in Devonshire, England, celebrated her 90th birthday earlier this year. Most of the rest of my family managed to attend, and I'd have liked to go as well, but we're too flat broke.
A couple of months back now, she had a fall and hurt her arm and side. Her side cleared up quickly, but her arm continued to pain her ever since the fall. A couple of weeks ago now, they decided to X-ray her arm again to see if they'd missed something. They found bone cancer, removed the identifiable tumor, and put a steel rod in her arm.
The biopsy results came back today. It's bone melanoma. She's in Exeter now being tested and scanned and testedagain ... brain scan, CAT scan, full-body bone scan, marrow biopsies, the works, to find out the extent of it.
I have this very nasty feeling I'm not going to see her again.
Time to call my doctor's office again (not Dr. Ciccinelli directly, unfortunately; he's out of town in Arizona). I've been noticing oddities about my toe last night and this morning, and developed some concern that I have an abscess in my toe. I just confirmed this supposition by lancing the suspect spot with a needle and getting about half a teaspoon of dark, bloody pus out of it.
UPDATE:
I just got off the phone with Anne, the nurse at at East Carolina Foot & Ankle. I now have an appointment at 0930 tomorrow (with Dr. Roman, as Dr. Ciccinelli is -- as noted above -- out of town). I've done what I can for now, basically consisting of topical antibiotic and a gauze dressing. The implication, of course, is that whatever's in my toe is resistant to the azithromycin they already gave me.
