You know how sometimes people say you should escape to a happy place in your head … sounds a bit weird but actually it does work.
Last week I mentioned that my friend Ginny needed an op for a melanoma on her arm.
So … what is a melanoma?
It’s the most serious type of skin cancer and it develops in the cells (melanocytes) that produce melanin — that is the pigment that gives your skin its colour.
You get different stages with 0 and 1 being early stages and relatively easy to treat.
This is what she had.
Funny thing was, with so much information on the internet, she could not find much that actually walked one through the process of the operation.
Cutting out a piece of skin 2cm x 6cm is simple enough – that’s not rocket science – it’s just a large chunk of flesh being removed.
But the exact process of the nuclear medicine bit and the tests involving the lymph node stuff were a bit baffling.
She’s one of those people who like to know how things work.
Then the process is understandable and not so scary.
The day before the op she found a video which graphically described how they grovel around in the lymph node with a gamma probe.
Never, never do this, people.
Very stupid move!
She was even more terrified and was just grateful that she’d be fast asleep during the whole process.
I’m not going to pass on all the grizzly details – but I did want to share how one’s mind is a powerful thing.
The nuclear medicine bit involved firstly being injected near where the melanoma was (remember most of it had been removed in the biopsy).
Then she was positioned under a gamma camera (high tech equipment that does not hurt a bit but can look scary) for 30 minutes without moving.
The meds attach themselves to various bits inside your body and make it easier for the surgeon to find what he’s looking for.
A piece of the machine gets lowered to just a few centimetres away from your face and if you had any claustrophobic tendencies it’s around then that you’d start to feel really uncomfortable.
Ginny thought about panicking.
Then gave herself a quick pep talk.
Quite a strict one too.
She closed her eyes… but that made it worse, so she concentrated on a spot on the machine and just zoned out.
Went to her happy place, a recent Chris de Bergh concert with her lovely husband, and replayed all the songs in her head.
It worked. The time passed and she did not get the screaming heebies.
She asked the radiologist how on earth did they manage to do this procedure on children.
The answer came back that this was not used for children. Sjoe!
Stay well people.
Sibo
