Skin Cancer (again) ~ România 🇷🇴Mission ~

Thursday, 1/28/21

 ~Billy's 2nd Round of Skin Cancer ~

Billy had some spots on his head that we have gotten burned off a number of times in the past.  They just seem to grow back rapidly and the last time we had them checked there seemed to be a lot more concern. We scheduled an appointment and the doctor seemed like they all needed to be removed (three were cancerous and the 4th was a cist on the crown of his head). We scheduled surgery.  This picture is the Monday before surgery where he had to get a ton of blood work done, an EKG, a Covid test and a number of other tests.  Unfortunately, it is never a one shot deal here in Romania - we had to make 4 different appointments for each thing so it was quite the long process!  Warning: GRAPHIC PICTURES AHEAD 😜!

 
They told Billy that he would need to shave his head ~ completely 😮👴😦!  So he went to the local barber and off went his locks of hair! He still looks as handsome as ever but I must say it was a bit of a SHOCKER!

We woke up to a beautiful snowy day with a bit of an overcast ~ since this is Bill's favorite kind of day we knew all would be well!

Still my Cutie Patootie with just a new "short" look for him! They took him away from me and he waited about an hour before they took him from his cubicle for surgery.  In the States we would usually get to be together during that time (at least before covid) so I didn't like not being with him to comfort him before he went in.  I think he was more than ok, but that is just the way it has been so it was just not as comforting for me. 

Surgery took 2 and a half hours then they kept him in the recovery room for another 2 hours.  During his surgery he woke-up TWICE ~ yeah, hard to believe. It doesn't give me much faith in the whole hospital system here in Romania. They look and seem competent but . . . ???  

He was told to keep his bandages on for a full week until our next check up but the big one kept coming off.  It looked pretty gruesome and seemed like they might have used a butcher's knife.  I guess we should be glad that they went deep enough and wide enough to get any and all of the cancer but boy the incision does not look pretty.

We came back for his follow-up and waited for quite awhile. There was some kind of emergency in the dermatology offices that took a bunch of the nurses and a couple doctors to set things right. After a while the patient came out not looking so good but then we were called in. 

They took off all the bandages and cleaned up the area (which hurt quite a bit as they scrubbed on his head and it was still tender from surgery). 

Well, we didn't have any kind of an emergency but it still took 3 nurses to get Bill's head wrap back on his head 😂💙😂💙😂! It was hilarious! The doctor said all went well and he took out the stitches and then the nurse(s) proceeded to bandage his head and do the wrap!

After we were home for a couple days the strangest thing took place. As Bill was looking and then feeling his scars there were a few weird little bumps.  I got out all of my surgical/medical tools and investigated. There were these white dots sticking out of his scar site. I looked closer and sure enough there were about 4 stitches that the doctor missed.  The craziest was after I removed them we looked and they were pieces of string; as in string from a ball of rope string ~ CRAZY 😧! His skin was starting to grow over them (which was causing the bumps) but I was able to get them all out.

Two months later and he is doing great and his hair is slowly growing back. He is going to try to wear his hat a lot more as we know he is prone to skin cancer.  His dad had a hole the size of a silver dollar in his head after he had skin cancer removed on his head so we are hoping we can catch anymore sooner than later! 

A little side note ~ after his EKG results came back they wanted him to go in and have further testing.  He had a sonogram and found some blockage but they need to do an angiogram and possibly put in a stent.  I would much rather come back to the States to have all this done but Bill seems ok with doing it here.  So, if you could offer up some mighty prayers on his behalf I would so appreciate it!  We'll make sure and get him a priesthood blessing before he goes in on the 30th.  I just hope he doesn't wake up during this procedure 😳😳😏.