I am a 75-year-old male now living in Nova Scotia. Prior to moving to Nova Scotia, I spent decades uncovered in the sun growing up in central California, years on the Pacific Ocean’s equator in Southeast Asia, and decades since 1970 gardening and hiking in the sun of Vancouver Island.
In 2015 while living in my new home province of Nova Scotia, a cyst-type sore presented itself above my right eyebrow. It took two months to get an appointment with a dermatologist for a biopsy, and another two months for that to be processed in the US since there were not enough pathologists available in Nova Scotia.
It was a stage 3b Merkel Cell Carcinoma, and a PET scan indicated the lymph nodes in my neck were infected, too. The 4cm cyst and 32 lymph glands were surgically removed, and I then received some 30+ radiation sessions to my head and neck. Initially daunted by the C word being dropped on me, I decided to find out more about Merkel Cell Carcinoma (MCC), which led me to one of the top research projects at the University of Washington.
They had developed a blood test they were utilizing as a benchmark to monitor a patient with the disease, but I had progressed too far to benefit from this. Yet Dr Nghiem and his staff at the University of Washington were in full support of the radiation therapy I was receiving here in NS which boosted my confidence, and I’ve been MCC-free since.
The key to my recovery was accepting responsibility for my health and attempting to better my diet, exercise, and spiritual/mental routines. Fast diagnosis is a key to keeping the spread of this monster stopped and so important. With regular scans for the first 5 years and semi-annual checkups with the dermatologists at Dalhousie Medical School, my serious cancer days are over.
