Squamish?

A little while ago Roland noticed a small wart-like spot on his hand and as he had to see his GP anyway to review his medication for various odds and sods he thought he would take that opportunity to ask whether he should be concerned about the wart-like thing.

GP peered at it, said 'I dunno, in which case I'd better make you an appointment to see someone who will know'. A few days later an appointment came through for Rol to see a dermatology specialist up the hospital. Dermatologist didn't like the look of it and recommended that it be removed pretty sharpish as it might just be something nasty so an appointment was made for him to have it removed last Saturday under a local anaesthetic.

And so it was that whilst I was off shouting at fascists and honing my reportage skills in Cambridge, Rol was having seven stitches in his paw and being told that the 'something nasty' could well be squamous cell carcinoma, a cancer of the cells found in the outer layer of the skin.

It's the second most common type of skin cancer in the UK as 20% of skin cancers are this type. Usually these are slow-growing and only spread to other parts of the body if they are left untreated for a long time. Occasionally though, they can behave more aggressively and spread at a relatively early stage. However, most people treated for this are completely cured with simple treatment.

For the first few days he had to keep a dressing on the wound (Rol said it made him feel like a dressage horse, as it was like one of those socks that dressage horses wear) but we are now in the phase where he needs to 'get air to it' before the stitches come out on Wednesday. By next Saturday we should have heard back about exactly what type of nastiness it was (or is).

Roland is pretty laid back about it all, having had cancer (testicular) way back in the early nineteen eighties whereas I am feeling slightly anxious and slightly guilty that I didn't go with him when he had the procedure done. The Lodger went with him, having a car, and apparently Roland took great delight in telling the hospital staff that The Wife couldn't come because she was a photographer and was away that day covering a riot ....

Yesterday morning he was doing a session at a local school providing emergency supervision cover of a class of 12 year olds. They were a bit rowdy until one of them said 'Oi, you, what you done to your hand?' to which Roland replied 'I was carrying out a citizen's arrest on some bloke who was trying to rob a woman but he got a bit funny and stabbed me'. The class immediately became very, very obedient.

Roland is also rather enjoying not being able to do the washing up.