January 6, 2013
Will Our Adventure be Cancelled Because of a Big Toe?
We picked up our U-haul trailer on December 31st because they were closed on New Year’s day. Our oldest daughter was heading off for University January 1st and this was the last thing we were waiting for before the end of the holidays and heading down to our sailboat. Alyssa is going to enjoy one semester of University before joining a readied crew of sailors for the 20 to 30 day crossing to the Marquesas and the rest of the journey.
On December 31st however, my wife took a last day out with our daughter and her sister. It wasn’t until the pedicurist tried taking a sliver out of her large toe that things really started to create a snowball effect of delays. She explained that the mark in her toe was not a sliver and after trying to dig it out the pedicurist gave up and advised her to have it looked into by a doctor. My brother-in-law doctor confirmed with her that evening that this would be a good idea to have it looked at. Following another visit to a doctor it was advised that a dermatologist should look at the toe as it is similar to a deadly form of melanoma found under the toenail. We contacted our family doctor at home and forwarded her some photos of the big toe in question. Due to it being New Year’s day we were not expecting to leave the following day and to have to wait for advice on what to do next. Unfortunately the delays have been painstaking waiting one day at a time. We even drove the 2 hours to Vancouver to have another doctor and even Emergency room to look at things and try to speed up a visit to have a biopsy performed to analyze this potential melanoma mark, a dangerous form of cancer beneath the large toenail.
Fortunately all of our belongings inside of our U-haul trailer can stay in there as they have been gracious enough to give us a number of extra days before we have to return it. It is nerve-wracking however to have to wait additional days to have a biopsy performed that we are fairly certain should be done. We are just so anxious to get started on our sailing trip and know that our time to prepare is getting short.
We hope that tomorrow we will be able to get a better idea of when the medical procedure of testing can be done so that we can move forward with our trip and fly my wife back if necessary. We just want to know if we can proceed with our adventure or if we are going to have a permanent delay that will cancel the entire adventure.
Jan 8, 2013
It was a long anxious day today. We received word yesterday that an emergency appointment was made for Kirsten to see a dermatologist for this evening. We left Washington in the morning for the 4 hour drive and ferry to Victoria where we spent a few extra hours with friends and work before the appointment. We were being squeezed in after closing hours but all too happy to not have to delay our trip any longer. This past week has been agony as I have pondered a number of “what if” scenario. I have never thought about loosing my wife and raising my 7 kids alone until this past nerve-wracking week.
The doctor was very efficient and analytical. Unfortunately he had to dig a centimeter under the toe nail to pull out a skin sample. The doctor was rather surprised when my wife did not even flinch. He asked her if she could feel it… Kirsten was just so anxious to have this done that she did not want to show she felt the excruciating pain of someone digging under her toenail. The last thing she wanted was for another day to go by to have the toenail softened and then peeled back.
After pulling out a tissue sample and a bit of time and running some tests, my wife received the great news that the mark in her toe was not melanoma. The in office test concluded that it was blood under the toe, a great relief when faced with the threat of cancer. We aren’t really sure what has caused blood under the toenail for the past year but it is not growing or spreading so that was a relief to hear. This means that we don’t have to delay our trip any longer and we will start the two day drive down to the San Francisco area on January 10th. Our adventure can begin after all!