Getting your speck, spot or splodge checked could save your life

**Warning: some pictures included in this blog post may make some
readers feel uncomfortable**

There are three ways I usually describe myself; a mother, a wife and a nurse – in that order. When one of my children are sick, I respond like a mother, not a nurse. My eldest son loves telling the story about when he needed stiches in his chin. That his mother, who has no problem watching surgeries and dressing unsightly wounds, passed out and hit the deck like a sack of potatoes while watching him get a local anaesthetic.
My husband treated me like a nagging wife when I mentioned, on Christmas Day 2009, that he had a funny looking spot on the back of his upper left arm. He told me it was ok, and he’d keep an eye on it. I had thought I would mention it since it was on the BACK of his arm where he couldn’t see it. He also discarded my mum’s concern a few months later.
Summer rolled around again and I said to him; “Remember that spot I said looked funny at Christmas? It’s gotten darker. You should get it checked”. Once again, my concern was brushed off with cries of “It’s fine. It’s just a freckle”.  Honestly, what could I do?? it wasn’t like I could chop his arm off and take it in to a Doctor’s office.
Anytime he had a Doctor’s appointment I would say, “get him to have a look at your arm”. Of course, the reply to this was the Doctor was running late, or he forgot. I even circled the darn thing with a red sharpie for one appointment, thinking if he forgot to mention it, the huge target I had drawn on it might have attention drawn to it.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, my Dad says to me, “Jeff may want to get that thingy on his arm looked at”. Hmmmm, what the one that mum and I have been pointing out for just over 2 years?? So, I relayed this information to my hubby that my Dad thinks he should get it looked at. You could have knocked me down with a feather when I found that he had made a Doctor’s appointment to have it looked at on the Tuesday.
So, off he went for his appointment and I think he was a little surprised when the Doctor said he would need to have a shave biopsy done on it and have it sent of to Pathology. The flip side of that is he came home and showed be where it had been shaved off and said “See. This is all he did”. On Friday, he was called back to the Doctors as they had his results.

That little black speck, that became an spot, then a splodge was a malignant melanoma.  The Doctor went through all the paperwork with hubby and told him that they would need to completely remove the melanoma and a margin around it.  I think he was still fairly nonchalant until the Doctor drew an outline on his arm to show him just how much skin they needed to remove.

On Monday morning, Jeff had the melanoma and surrounding skin removed.

Now, honestly you would think the size of the dressing would have given him some idea about just how much skin he had had removed. He was more concerned about the size of the freaking bruise!
By Friday, the dressing was looking a little gross so I morphed from wife to nurse and redressed his wound for him.  He asked if I could take a picture so he could see it properly.  I wish he had seen it earlier, because it was the moment he actually saw the 21 stitches in his arm, that he realised just how much skin had had to be taken and how much damaged that little splodge caused.

Like many people, Jeff had dismissed spot on his arm as a freckle or a mole. As an adult, he has always been sun-smart, so he wrongly assumed that it couldn’t be anything serious. “Melanomas can start in the skin or parts of the body that have never been exposed to the sun” (Cancer Council Victoria, 2011).
So please, if someone mentions to you that a speck, spot or splodge on your body looks a little strange or they think it might have changed shape, taking 10 minutes and visiting your Doctor to have it checked out could save your life.  I’m sure you’d rather it be checked and be told it’s nothing than having a chunk of your skin removed.
For further information head to Sunsmart where they have examples of what to watch for, a step-by-step skin self-examination and other very useful resources.

The tooth fairy for Jacob!

Last week, we had another of Jacob’s firsts - he lost his first tooth!! That little tooth had been getting wiggled and tongue bashed for just over two weeks before it decided to pop out. And just how did it finally pop out???

Well, Jacob was playing in the pool with his brothers, jumping in with a noodle. The time he forgets to completely close his mouth, the force of the water must have been just enough to free the tooth (it was hanging by a thread). It was so funny, seeing him pop up out of the water, wiping his eyes and carefully grinning.  He popped his fingers in his mouth and pulled out the tooth and said “Woo hoo, the tooth fairy’s going to come!!”

I can assure you, there was absolutely no hassle in getting him organised for bed that night. PJ’s were on, teeth brushed, hugs and kisses given out all with a gappy smile. He got his orange cup of water and placed his tooth on his bedside table, near his lamp - so the tooth fairy could find her way.

When he woke up in the morning and found a shiny gold coin where his tooth once was, he was absolutely thrilled!

And to finish up, another pic of my newly gappy mouthed child - just because I think he’s terribly cute :)

Getting Mobility Back For Zac!

In August, Zachary dislocated his ring finger at school playing kickball. It’s been a hard few months for him in hand therapy trying to get mobility back. Unfortunately, his finger was “stuck” and he couldn’t get more than 50 degrees range of motion, so off to hospital he went.

Well, blow me down if it didn’t just take ten minutes with a local anaesthetic and the plastic surgeon to get in past where it was stuck!

Zachary got back to his room where he enjoyed a nice lunch and cup of tea before we needed to go back to the hand therapist for an aggressive session while the anaesthetic was still effective.

Injured :(

Matthew has had more than his fair share of time in the emergency room, on crutches, bandaged or plastered. I was starting to think, now he is older this may not happen as much - but I was wrong. His latest, well see the pictures below……

 

That is his quite swollen purple foot after being hit by a car (no, it didn’t stop)

My little boy taking a nap waiting for his x-ray results.

Thankfully, there was no fracture to be seen on the x-ray, but as a precaution a plaster back slab was put on and he was bandaged up.

Waiting for his crutches so he can be discharged home.

Day Twenty-Seven - 30 Day Meme

Day 27 – my worst habit

Hand’s down it’s smoking. I started my quit campaign on Friday the 22nd of October.  I was really good all weekend, but since I was on a weekend away with the girls, who don’t smoke, it really wasn’t that much of a challenge. After I got home on Sunday afternoon, I lasted until Monday morning - 12:30AM to be exact.

Since that weekend, I can honestly say that I have significantly cut down. Not a non-smoker yet, but I will be.

Day Fourteen - 30 Day Meme

Day 14 – a non-fictional book 
For Mother's Day last year I received Michael J. Fox's "Always Looking Up ".

Blurb from the back of the book: "Struck with Parkinson's - a debilitating, degenerative disease - at the height of his fame, Michael J. Fox has taken what some might consider cause for depression and turned it into a beacon of hope for millions. In this continuation of his Sunday Times bestselling memoir, Lucky Man, he writes with warmth, humour and incredible honesty about the journey he has undertaken since he came to terms with his condition"

As a nurse, it was refreshing to read about his journey and experiences. It made the disease clearer to me in a personal sense  - opposed to just reading the facts in a text book or patient's progress notes. I applaud him for writing so honestly and for increasing the profile of Parkinson's Disease.

Visit the Michael J. Fox Foundation For Parkinson's Research to learn more.