Another spot, another squamous cell

I had been trying for about a week to get in touch with my dermatologist's office in Boston because she had frozen a spot that popped up to a little ball on my neck. The same thing happened on the other side of my neck, although the "ball" was smaller.

I felt a little like Frankenstein, with an "electrode" on each side of my neck.

When I was in the ER on Tuesday, the doctor looked at the larger spot and said, "You really need to get that biopsied, and if you can't get into the doctors' office in Boston, you should get it done here."

"I know, I'm trying," I said. I wanted to go to Boston, because Dr. Lin knows what she's been doing with me, and I was relieved when I got a call saying that she could squeeze me in at 1 on Friday while she was at Dana-Farber. I called Melissa and arranged to see her afterwards to check in and get a prescription for more physical therapy on my balance and leg strength.

I played tennis Friday morning and then drove into Boston. Tennis was good, and I felt fine, although Melissa told me later in the day that I had probably suffered a minor concussion.

When I saw Dr. Lin, she said that the larger spot is probably another squamous cell cancer, and the smaller one might be too. She numbed me up and removed each one, sending them for biopsies. She told me not to drive home that day, both because I might bleed if I moved my head around and also because I was a little woozy. Lucky for me that I have Diane nearby; otherwise I'm not sure what people do.

I stayed at Diane's and drove home Saturday morning, still feeling OK. Then I hit the couch. Ben had come for the weekend, and we had planned to go to the tennis courts and "hit a few." I was suddenly dizzy and queasy. He looked up "concussion" and read that the effects can be delayed. Joe was gone for the day, so it was me, Katie and Ben for lunch. I wasn't hungry, even though I had only had some fruit hours earlier for breakfast.

I did one of the old tricks from my chemo and post-chemo days when I was too nauseated to eat: I took half an Ativan and waited for it to kick in. Katie and Ben went to Tailgate for sandwiches, and I managed to eat half of a BLT.

Then I fell asleep for hours. I got up and did a few things around the house, got back on the couch with a book, and fell asleep again. I woke up long enough to eat a little Chinese food and watch part of the Red Sox game with Ben...and then fell asleep again until Ben woke me up long enough so I could go to bed.

And so I slept the day away.

Today I still wasn't 100 percent, but I got up early to go to Newport with Ben for our third annual trip to the Hall of Fame tennis tournament. More on that coming soon after Ben sends me the photos.