The founder got new cancer
On Tuesday the 14th of March 2000 I got a phone call at work. It was about 09.30 and my wife phoned me up to say that a doctor had called from the local hospital. He told her he had tried many times to reach me the day before and this morning. He asked her to let me know he wanted to talk to me. My thoughts went back to the day I last operated. On Wednesday 23 of February I had a small operation to cut away a mole on my back. This was the 6th mole I cut away. All of the others were fine. But now I had gotten a phone call from the hospital. They never call unless it's something wrong.
So after the morning meeting at job I drove home to try to find the doctors name. I called the hospital and found out the doctors name and asked to speak with him. He told me that the mole was malignant. I had skin cancer! I felt numb. What was this? Have I got cancer again. I can't fight this again. I can't! I asked what the procedure was now and he told me they needed another operation to cut more around where the mole had been. The flesh will then be sent to testing to see if it's malignant. He meant that it was no need to think that it had spread to the skin but they always did this to be sure that there was nothing left of the malignant mole on my skin. The operation was scheduled to Monday the 20th of March 2000.
After hanging up the phone I felt even more numb. I felt I had a reaction. My body felt like shaking and I knew the symptoms. I was experiencing a psychological reaction. I thought that was it and drove back to work. While driving down to the office again I felt the body shaking even a little more than at home. But I thought I would manage and went up to my office. I tried to work and I felt it was harder and harder to concentrate. After a little while I phoned my superior on an internal phone and asked her to come to my office and bring the second in command too. I wanted to tell them the news I just got so that they were up to date on my situation.
But when they arrived at my office and I started to tell them what had happened I totally crashed. I burst into tears and had a very intense reaction. This was about one hour after I talked with the doctor. They hugged me and closed the door to my office. My superior said that I was excused from work and she told me to go home. They could do my tasks and just wanted me to go home and take care of myself. Another of my colleagues also came in to see how I was. He understood there was something happening. Our nurse came in to me after my superior left the office for a short while. She sat down and talked with me for a short while and asked how I was feeling. I felt awful at that moment and knew that the best thing was to go home and have a couple of hours rest in bed. So my boss drove me home and I went to bed. She told me I would not have to write a sick note or go to the doctor to get a sick leave. I was ordered to take care of myself and use the time I needed to manage these news. She understood that there were ghosts from the past that was coming back, because she knew about the bone cancer I had 12 years ago. I told her at the interview for my job.
After sleeping for a while I felt better and I used that evening and the next day to talk with my family and friends about this. I also spent the whole next day with my two children Reneé Kristin (2 months) and Chris-André (1 1/2 years). This was good for me and I went back on work for the personnel meeting we always have on Thursdays. The meeting was scheduled from 09.00 to 12.00. And at the meeting I told all colleagues about what had happened to me and about the forthcoming operation. My superior said I was excused for the rest of the day after the meeting and wanted me to go home and relax. But because of my tasks at work I told her I would like to come to work the next day and do a specific task that was urgent. I told her I would manage if I could concentrate on that one task that day. And she agreed. She told me she would help me with the task.
That Friday I did my job and got that urgent matter done. And on Monday 20 March I operated again. They cut away more skin and I was on sick leave that day and the next. I was back on job on Wednesday 22. March 2000. The 12. April I called my doctor to hear the results from that second operation. He luckily had some good news. Everything was alright with the last flesh they had cut away.
I won again!!
Just to let you readers know what this means, cutting away like this. Here you can see the results after the second operation. See pictures below.
Slik behandles føflekkreft (text only in Norwegian)
These news was brought to you by
Tor-André Skogland
Founder