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Saturday 2 July 2022

Freaking Out or Waiting

I feel like the last couple of months have been spent freaking out or waiting. It's been almost a month since I last posted and still I wait for my 'urgent' surgery. 

Whitesnake and I spent an hour or so at Rotorua hospital on the 13th June having my pre op checks. My blood pressure was rather high but that's usual for me when I am anxious and stressed. Apart from that, all went well. 

Now I wait for a lymph node test to see if the melanoma has spread and a wide incision surgery. I called the hospital last Friday and I was told they would call me back with a date by Monday or Tuesday but still I wait. 

I feel like I am going through the stages of grief...shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. I am mainly flipping between anger and acceptance at the moment. Thank goodness for the support of my hubby. 

Anyway, I'll let you know when I have any news. Let the waiting continue. 



Sunday 12 June 2022

Melanoma Sucks

Five years ago, I noticed my 'big mole', as I called her, looked different. I'd had her as long as I could remember so I made a note to mention this to my Dr. Next time I saw my Dr, she took a look at my mole, photographed it and ensured me it was nothing to worry about but we would could keep an eye on it. I took her advice and checked it every once in a while. 



A few years later, I moved to a different town and therefore starting seeing a new Dr. By this time, the brown area of the mole had a small red lump in the middle of it. I mentioned this to my new Dr and he took a look and told me not to worry, it was a (I have no idea what he called it) and that it was not cancerous. 

As you know, I recently moved again and at my check up with Dr number 3, she took a look at my mole (which was now a much bigger, red lump) and ensured me it was fine.

A few months back, my mole started to bleed. I presumed I had caught it on my clothing as it's located on my shoulder and does rub on my clothing. It healed up on its own and I remebered that the Dr said it was fine and didn't think much more about it. About two months ago, I woke up to find blood on my pillow, my mole was the source and when I took a look at it, it looked like it had changed colour too. I decided to go back to my doctor because I was really worried.

Drs appointments are difficult to book due to the Covid situation so I was seeing a different Dr again. She took a look and said it's probably just caught on your clothing and started bleeding. She said her husband has the same thing so it's probably nothing to worry about. She said she'd book me in for an appointment to remove it because it looked sore and send it away for testing just in case. 

A week later, my mole was finally removed. 10 days later, the Dr who removed it phoned me and asked me if I was free for a chat. That was the moment I knew something was seriously wrong. He informed me I had melanoma, the most dangerous kind of skin cancer and I would need a wide incision surgery to remove more skin to remove the rest of the melanoma and probably a scan to see if it has spread. I don't remember much of the conversation after that. I was shocked, I have fair skin and burn easily so I always apply sunscreen, stay in the shade when possible and wear a hat if I am out and about in the summer. How could this have happened to me? 

A couple of days ago, after 3 weeks of waiting because of cancellations due to staff being ill at the hospital, I met my surgeon. She is lovely and answered all my questions without sugar coating anything, which was great.  She examined my lymph nodes in my neck and arm pits and checked my back. She took a biopsy of some skin I was concerned about too. I have a pre op check tomorrow to remove more skin around the area where my mole was to ensure all the melanoma has been removed. 

That's my journey so far. I have experience a roller coaster of emotions, the first night, I was so scared I wrote a bucket list. I'm thankful for my husband who is wonderfully supportive and looking after me as he always does. A couple of friends have come forward with their melanoma stories which has been really helpful. I'm optimistic because now we have a plan, the waiting was doing my head in. 

I'll keep you up to date

Love KB

xxx

Thursday 24 February 2022

Real Estate Highs and Lows

As I mentioned in my previous post, Whitesnake and I decided to sell our home last year. Our real estate agent organised what is know in New Zealand as a caravan, to come through our home for a visit. Basically, this means all the agents from his company come through the house at the same time for a viewing of the property, before it goes to the market for sale.

Later on the same day, our agent informed us that one of the agents would like to make an offer on the house before it went on the market and if we accepted his offer, we would not be charged marketing costs. He made us a great offer and we were happy to save a little money on costs so we accepted it. We signed an agreement and were thrilled that we sold our home without the hassle of open homes, etc. A little while later, our agent phoned us to let us know he had been fired. We were shocked and extremely concerned. Apparently, he had been warned several times not to sell a house, without showing it to the market first. His manager called to apologise and set up a meeting to explain.

A couple of days later, the manager met with us and again was very apologetic. He explained that if the house had gone to the market, we would have received a lot more money than we had sold it for. So the agent that bought the house got a bargain but we had lost a significant amount of money. Thankfully, he didn't charge us the rather large seller's fee so in the end, we actually saved about the same amount we were short on the sale. We were happy with the result.

I must say I learned a lot from the experience. My gut feeling at the time had been that something wasn't quite right but Whitesnake and I had been offered a deal we thought at the time, we would be crazy to refuse. I now rely much more on my gut feeling and am not as naïve to believe everybody is as trustworthy as I am. 

More about our journey soon.

Love KB

xxx

Sunday 20 February 2022

Time for a big change

 Hi all,

Just over a year ago, Whitesnake and I decided to sell our house and move from Auckland to The Bay of Plenty. 

It wasn't a decision we took lightly. Whitesnake's side of the family live in Australia and my parents live about a three hour drive away in The Bay of Plenty. My parents are retired now and Whitesnake and his family suffered the devastating loss of a brother. Unfortunately, due to covid, we were unable to travel to Australia to attend Whitesnake's brother's funeral or visit my parents in their retirement village. As you can image, this took quite a toll on us. 

So, out of curiosity, Whitesnake organised a house appraisal from out local real estate agent and to our surprise, the value of our house had more than doubled since we purchased it about eight years ago. That was all the encouragement we needed to put our house on the market.   

More about our journey soon.


Love KB

xxx

Tuesday 1 February 2022

It's only been two years

 Hi all,

Wow, I haven't posted for over two years!

There's been a lot happening. Obviously, Covid hit and changed the way we function in this world. Also, Whitesnake and I decided to sell our house and move to a different province. Now we're settled, I thought it was time to return to blogging on a regular basis. I have lots to blog about and heaps of photos to share. 

See you again soon,


Love KB

xxx