2025 & 2026: Finishing and Starting With A Bang!

Caution: Gnarly Photos Below.

This is new, a post on me! I’m not suggesting for a minute that I might be interesting, but for a potential 2x great-grandchild in the future, it might be a different story.

I realised there isn’t much content on here about me, so I’m going to try and share a bit more this year. (Maybe)

So long story shortened. I went to the doctor’s (thanks to Alex for making the booking for me) after an absence of about 3 years. COVID really spoiled the fun of a visit for me.

I presented with what I thought was going to be a bad case of eczema on my face, only to hear the words, “…I’m not going to sugar coat it for you, it is all cancerous, and some spots are quite aggressive looking and will need to come out soon.” OK, not at all what I was expecting.

The doctor took some photos and did some biopsies in preparation for the surgery.

I came home to let Alex know about the surprise diagnosis, but she didn’t take it well. Unfortunately, the day I went for the initial consult was the anniversary of her mum, Robyn’s, death, so, thanks life, for that great timing!

I did share with Alex that I had asked the doctor if he thought this was going to kill me, and he said he was fairly sure that we got it in time, but the biopsies would confirm. The results came in, no melanoma (Yay!!) But most of what I did have was squamous cell carcinoma, the next most dangerous, with a few basal cells, the not so dangerous. Not good, but not as bad as it could have been.

Next step, appointment booked with the local Surgeon for the first week of January. This all happened mid-November, so only a couple of weeks to wait.

In that time, we had some great distractions. Xander and Calan came home with their partners, Alyssa and Sarah, to celebrate Xander’s 22nd birthday.

We did a quick trip to Sydney through a bush fire at Bulahdelah and 45 degree temperatures, to attend our good friend Dawn’s 60th birthday.

Dawn originally had a theme of formal with a touch of Christmas but with the temperature sitting at 44 degrees at the start of the party, everyone went with shorts and as little on as possible.

On our way out of Sydney the next day, it was 22 degrees and raining, (what a relief), we went past our very first home that we lived in, by ourselves, after our wedding. Banks Avenue, Monterey. We were on the top floor in the unit on the very right. It was 25 years since we had seen the place and nothing had changed.

Also on the way home we got to catch up with our adopted family, Cath and Pete in Medowie.

And then, as I shared in my “Happy New Year” post, we had everyone back over for the Christmas-New Year break.

Tiled Gallery 4: Courtesy of the Macvean Family Archives

After a great catch-up, we then had to say goodbye again, but first, we got our first photo together for 2026.

And then, we were back to just the two of us, sorry, the three of us. Love you, Leelo.

(Don’t judge, I know, the exterior of the house is well and truly overdue for a repaint.)

We finally got to the 8th of January, the day of the appointment with the surgeon. He takes one look at me and says, “…that’s not good…” and books me in for day surgery two weeks later. It literally was that quick.

I thought waiting a month to see the surgeon was bad enough, but those next two weeks were torture. Mind you, we did get to spend a couple of great days down at the beach, of course, me covered head to toe in blockout. I have to admit it did feel like locking the gate after the horse had bolted. But anyhow, it is what it is.

Alex also got the chance to catch up with her brother, Duncan, on a fleeting stopover from Queensland at the local service centre.

Tiled Gallery 5: Courtesy of the Macvean Family Archives

Then finally, Wednesday the 21st of January, D-day rolled around! I was booked in for 7am. I was so bloody nervous, I was awake at 4pm, so I went to the gym and did a step workout for an hour.

6.45am came around and Alex drove me in. This is us waiting after booking in.

It is stupid I know, but I had it in my mind that I might not wake up from this anesthetic. So I made sure to let Alex know that if I did cark it, it would be a great opportunity for her to upgrade to a new younger model partner. She didn’t seem to like my suggestion and hit me very hard.

The next thing I knew, they were wheeling me into the OR. Yeah, not because Alex knocked me out or anything, it just seemed to come around real quick after that.

I then had a cast of thousands around me. This shot below is similar to the view I had.

I heard someone telling me that the anesthetic they were going to use was going to sting. OMG! Jesus, Mary and Joseph, they weren’t wrong. I felt it enter my hand and then flame it’s way up my arm, till I thankfully fell into the black abyss.

As you have obviously guessed, I didn’t cark it and three hours later I was back home letting the boys know I had woken up.

The drugs were still onboard at this stage and I kept it that way for the next week.

Here was my first peek at the surgeon’s work, at the first dressing change.

Tiled Gallery 6: Courtesy of the Macvean Family Archives

Yeah, Alex took one look and ran. She explained that it actually made her sick to look at the wounds. I must say I was having difficulty myself. Funnily enough the only thing that really gave me any pain was the graft site. Oh, that one stings like a bastard.

Two weeks later, the stitches and dressings are all out and the wounds are recovering well.

Tiled Gallery 7: Courtesy of the Macvean Family Archives

Now all I have to do is follow up with the GP and continue the burning off of the other cancerous spots; oh, and get used to the three new holes on my face.

The great thing is, I’m still here, and we have a plan in place to manage the other cancer spots. Oh yeah, and Alex can sort of look at me again. So all good. Yay!