POST-OP POST

(WARNING: Graphic surgical wound images ahead.)

Night before surgery

Last Monday's surgery went better than I worried it might, even though the cancer was more extensive than my doctor thought it was initially.  She kept asking me when I first noticed the cancer, which I thought meant the red spot on the end of my nose.  That was last summer.  Then I told her about the change in my nose contour, very slight, that I noticed the year before.  On the roundest part of my nose tip, the skin seemed to go flat - ever so slightly - and didn't reflect light like the rest of my nose did.

"Ah, yes.  Of course," she said.  "That is likeliest when it began."  Dr. B is from Russia, by way of West Germany, then to Pennsylvania, where she has lived and practiced medicine for the last 30 years.  She speaks English beautifully (better than I do) with the most charming accent.  (I thought she was from Ukraine.)

She had to cut slices from my nose three times before pathology gave her the all clear to proceed with the graft.  I will post some photos my daughter and I took.  I wasn't allowed to have Karie in the room with me, so some of these were after I had been bandaged between slices, and the next day.

The final cut before graft.

Daughter, whose sense of humor about such things is as twisted as mine, said the wound above reminded her of a slice of Italian sausage on pizza.  My face was swollen from the several injections of anesthetic, and from being tugged this-way-and-that by tissue forceps.  Took almost four days for it to return to normal.  My upper lip looked as if it had been cosmetically enhanced.

 My behind-the-ear lift, graft skin source.  Used 4-0 braided something - nylon?  Feels like a toothbrush back there.  

When Dr. B pulled one suture through, it sounded like a guitar string.  Did you know that most of the ear parts are located behind your ears, inside your skull?  Had a hearing test at Lebanon VA hospital last Saturday and the audiologist tested back there.  (I have perfect hearing, turns out.  Went there because of tinnitus - sounds like my head is full of crickets, tree-frogs and cicadas, all singing at once and at full volume.  Turns out the culprit is amlodipine - Norvasc.)

Headed home, with first nose cone.  Puffy-faced, hard to smile because mid-face was still numb

.

Call me Cyrano.  

Tuesday, we went out for coffee, mostly so I could get used to being out in public with my nose cone.  Karie suggested I put orange and white strips of duct tape on the dressing like a safety cone.  I get no respect.

After second bandage.  Swelling down quite a bit.  

Still not allowed to take photos at doc's office.  I said to heck with that and took it off last night to see what was underneath.  That yellow thing on top of the graft is called a bolster.  It is stitched down onto my nose, through the graft, to help hold everything in place.  It's loaded with some sort of petroleum-jelly-like stuff, which melted and soaked through the first dressing, loosening the tape holding the dressing in place.  I figured I could replace it myself.  Well, of course I can!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

 Okay, maybe not.  I didn't have the proper materials on hand.  The paper tape doesn't stick to my skin and I kept adding more on top of the other, which also didn't stick.  I called Karie.  She said my nose looked like those baby vultures in some Disney movie she watched.  Or maybe a baby eagle's beak.

I get no respect.  Did I say that already?  Well, let me say it again...NO RESPECT!

New bandage, with Karie's help.

It helps to have an extra pair of hands to replace the bandages.  Grandson said it looks like strips of Silly Putty...just like his mother.  I give up.  

This will do until I can have my nurse redress the wound on Tuesday.  I just hope I didn't introduce any bacteria which will cause the graft to rot off.  I was very careful.

I had a great team who took the best of care.  I especially liked my nurse, who did a good bit of the work and answered my questions.  Her name is Katie.  She's about half my age and a no-nonsense professional, very patient-oriented in her care.  All in all, everything went well.  

But then I knew it probably would because I went in wearing a cloak of kind thoughts and good wishes, plus I had on my magical, lucky socks!

(PS: Please wear sunscreen with as high a SPF-value you can find, and limit your exposure to only a few minutes at a time during early morning or late afternoon hours.  Have your doctor check your skin at least once a year and learn what to look for when you check yourself.  My cancer likely started 50 years ago when I fell asleep on the beach in Gulfport, Mississippi.  I was face down for almost two hours during the worst time of day.  Had sheets of blisters on everything that wasn't covered by bathing suit.  Had sun-poisoning (radiation?), had to stay in bed for almost a week, was sick as a dog.

But it doesn't take something like that to cause skin cancers, so please be careful.)