We were comfortably living in our family home of 18 years in Mt Waverley, when in late 2016, in December, I went to the dentist for the annual checkup.
Whilst doing the normal oral check the dentist discovered a lump in the roof of my mouth and asked “What is this?” I responded and said that it was probably a result of eating something really hot and having burnt the roof of my mouth! She said that she wasn’t happy with the lump and referred me to an Oral Pathologist to do a biopsy and check.
Three weeks later, in early January (4th to be exact, my father’s birthday!!), I received a call from the Oral Surgeon who had done the biopsy, advising that the results were “low grade Muco Epidermoid Carcinoma”. He apologised and said unfortunately he couldn’t do the operation to remove the tumour as he was going to Japan Skiing in January!
He referred me to Royal Melbourne Hospital Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMFS) team.
This was the start of my cancer journey…
However, prior to going for the operation on the 16th February 2017, we were going to attend an Auction for a 2-bedroom apartment, in South Yarra.
I said to my partner, “Given that I am having a major operation to remove a cancer and don’t know whether I will require further treatment such as Chemotherapy or Radiation therapy as a follow up, do I take the checkbook?”
My partner said, “Take the checkbook!!”
So, we purchased our apartment. I had the operation, and then had to focus on preparing our home for sale, clearing out 40 years of our ‘stuff’ and putting it into storage. All this happened, we sold our larger home and settled into and renovated our new home…. Busy, busy..
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We lived in this 65 SqM apartment for 5-years, in the meantime purchasing a 2-acre block of land in Northern Victoria to tidy up and use as a weekender away from the central city environment.
So, we moved from our apartment, selling this.
We eventually placed a small cabin on the block, cleared the block up of 20 years of rubbish, and moved there.
So--we moved from 24 squares to 9 squares and now 4 squares (a one BR relocatable dwelling on 2 acres).
This was our ‘Downsizing’ life!
Another journey was on the way, but this is for another time….
James Davey
October 2023