What happened next...

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update my blog. Lots has happened and at the time I just didn't have enough energy to write about it. 

So, after that operation in July last year, my leg started to heal up okay. But in October, just when it seemed like it might look alright and the cancer was all caught, I started to experience really acute pain behind my knee, where the graft was. I tried to ignore it, telling myself it was normal, but then a lump appeared in the graft. I thought maybe it was an infection and left it a few days but the lump got bigger. I went to a GP at my surgery, who told me it needed steroid injections to flatten it. She referred me to the district nurse who couldn't help me. The pain got worse and it started to bleed and ooze, so I went to our local walk-in centre. They didn't like the look of it so sent me to A&E. The doctors in A&E thought it was an infection so gave me a different set of antibiotics which also did nothing. By now, the lump was massive, bright yellow and the pain was phenomenal. Easy to see why it looked infected.

A week and many antibiotics later, and the lump was about the size of a golf ball, hard, hot and very painful. By now, November 2017, I was walking with a pronounced limp, finding it hard to drive and couldn't straighten my leg. Even working was difficult as my brain could barely focus on anything but the pain. Sleep was increasingly difficult. I went back to my GP surgery and saw a different doctor who said she thought it was a granuloma. She thought it wasn't infected since my skin wasn't red but she gave me another set of antibiotics anyway which, unsurprisingly, did nothing. By now, I had an appointment coming up with my dermatologist, Dr Stewart. 

23rd November and my appointment came. I rolled up my trouser leg and showed Dr S, who immediately confirmed my worst fear - the cancer had returned. She immediately signed me off work, which was a big relief given how much pain I was in, and asked how I wanted to proceed. I said that I wanted it removed asap, meaning another operation and another skin graft. 

By now, I had noticed a couple of small red lumps on my lower leg but I was so focused on this big lump that I wasn't really paying attention to them. I was hoping that the cat had fleas and they were simple bites - something nice and simple. So I didn't bother mentioning them to Dr S, even though they were only on my cancer leg. That should have been my first big red flag...