I'm sure you're still pretty

Perhaps, the rashes are somewhat unpleasant however.

I haven't looked at your blog in a while, the excuse being real-world family events, and I feel like I'm walking in on the middle of a medical saga. If you're where I think you are, you have the best odds at the present level of technology. Tertiary hospitals usually have cutting-edge expertise, crappy amenities and so-so support services. You can be on the way to a consult with a world class oncologist and they will lose the chart, or fumble the pre-op med to make you more comfortable for a procedure. None of that changes the odds, though.

The one time I had a life-threatening illness, I was visited by a wildman friend whose pied noir grandfather had owned a big sugar mill in Casablanca. I pass on the the parting words of his visit: "Courage, mon ami".