So I have been dealing with a cancer diagnosis for the last year. It began about a year and a half to two years ago we I began to experience swelling in mu right cheek just to the right side of my nose. Nothing appeared on the radiograph at my routine dental hygienist exam. I visited an ENT and nothing seemed out of the ordinary and all test came back negative for infection but I was placed on antibiotics as a precaution. The swelling continued and did not change with a few rounds of different antibiotics.
I visited an infectious disease specialist and a CR scan was performed. The scan was read as a sebaceous cyst which was communicating with the sinuses as there appeared to be an area of irritated cells where the cyst was in contact with my sinus. I was placed in stronger antibiotics. After the treatment there was no change . Surgery was planed. Out patient surgery was planed to remove the cyst and clump of cells. The surgery went well and the said he was able to remove a large amount of the cells and the membrane of the cyst and it was sent for testing. This was in January of 2024. The doctor called a few days later and test came back positive as sebaceous carcinoma – skin cancer which had metastasized to my sinus. I was scheduled to see an oncologist at University of North Carolina Basnight Cancer Center in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
I began infusions of monoclonal antibodies in March 2024 and received them about every three weeks until August 2024. The tumor had reduced in size almost by half. In September 2024 I had surgery to remove a portion of my nose, sinus, and cartilage.
In October 2025 a skin graft was performed to remove skin from my forehead to replace the area of my nose and cartilage and skin from my shoulder and collarbone were used to rebuild the inside of my nose and cartilage which supports the nose. That was strange because for about two weeks I had an artery exposed from the forehead to my nose feeding the grafted skin while the connected to the nose. It was two weeks where OxyContin was my best friend and I slept. A third surgery was performed to disconnect the “root” they called the feeder artery. About three days after this surgery I was home and in the usual pain I had become accustomed to when I began experiencing stabbing pain in my nose.
Suddenly I began bleeding profusely from my nostril on the right side. After 30 minutes or so if applying pressure with stoping of the bleeding I drove myself to the emergency room of the nearest hospital which was about a half a mile away. When I walked in to the ER my shirt down to my pants were covered in blood and a handful of paper towels I was using to apply pressure to my nose. They rushed me throughly the intake interview and took me to triage.
While they they were
Arthur in the Garden! 