Thursday September 29, 2011 Post Surgery Update

Well, here it is two days after the surgery & I survived. Yes, I am not going to lie it was painful. The worst part was the initial numbing. I did jump & they had to start over. I had a lot of scar tissue from the biopsy site, so I had to have a lot of numbing medicine. One I was numb, it was pretty easy. It is kind of strange to have the little paper put over your face and to try and keep your eyes closed. I really wanted to look but I was afraid that I would freak out if I saw the doc cutting on my face..so..I kept my eyes sealed shut.

From numbing time to surgery was about 10 minutes. The surgery itself only took about 5-8 minutes. Then I was cauterized, bandaged & packed off to the waiting area. I am going to say that the initial pathology took about an hour. The doctor took me back into the procedure room & explained that they did not get all of the cancer and we would have to do another stage of surgery. He also explained that he would be going wider & deeper. Oh Joy. I was numbed up some more. It wasn't so bad this time as I was still somewhat numb from the first go round. Out comes the paper thing onto my face & surgery begins. This one took about 10 minutes. Cauterized again, then bandaged & bundled into the waiting area.

After waiting for another 30-45 min., we are taken back into the procedure room. We wait in there another 10-15 minutes. The Doctor comes back in and tells us that they got all of the cancer & the margins are clean. Then we discuss the repair. The doctor tells me that he thinks the best repair would be a skin flap. I have done a lot of research on it and I am in agreement. The first stage of the repair is to kind of shore up & close the tissue on the underside of where the flap will be. The doctor is very good and he doesn't like the way it is coming out so, he removes the stitches and starts over. Once he is happy with the underlying stitches, he begins the skin flap. This portion of the surgery takes a little more time. I think the entire repair process was about 45 minutes. Once all is complete I am bandaged up & sent on my way with my prescriptions for pain & antibiotics. Pain meds were good the first day. The second day my body rejected them. So, it's advil for me from here on out.

If all goes well & the swelling goes down, (boy is it swollen), I will be getting the stitches out on Oct. 4. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

I am going to change the dressing today. It will be the first time I have seen any of it. I hope I hope I don't freak out.

We did take pictures through out the entire surgery. I will warn you they are pretty graphic, so if that bothers you beware.

If anyone has any questions, I will be happy to answer them as best as I can.

Brenda