A Visit to the Plastic Surgeon
So Mohs Surgery is now two days behind me, and today was the day to see the plastic surgeon. He was a no-nonsense kind of guy -- he came in and took the bandage right off, then told me my options. He said if it was his wife, he'd recommend option #1 -- stitch up the wound, which would probably leave a little scar, but would mean the site was closed and I wouldn't have to have a big bandage on my face. Risks -- mainly infection, exacerbated by the fact that it wasn't happening within 24 hours of having the surgery (this was not my fault -- I had an appt for yesterday but his office rescheduled it because he was in surgery). Option #2 -- wait a little while for the wound to heal more, then do a skin graft. Downside of that = mainly appearance (skin would look obviously different) and having an open wound for another two weeks. So we decided to agree with him that option #1 was best.
We had to wait about 20 minutes, and then we went into a little outpatient surgery room. I do not have words to describe the pain I felt next as he did six injections of anesthetic into my nose. I thought the injections on Monday during the Mohs surgery were bad. I have never felt pain like that in my whole life, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. SP said I was pretty much howling through it. I didn't mean to -- I wanted to be tough but it felt like he was driving ice picks into my nose. Holy motherf*cker.
But soon enough I was numb, and then he started sewing me up. He was done with that relatively quickly, which was good because I was shaking like a leaf after the pain from the injections and just wanted him to finish so I could get the hell out of there. He seemed surprised when he was done, because it was not as bad as he thought it would be. In fact, once he rolled up some gauze and inserted it in my nostril (which was fun, AND it gets to stay up there until I go back to him Friday), the injured nostril had almost the same shape as the normal nostril. He was happy about this, and so was I. It didn't look quite as bad as I expected it to, which was a relief. But it is obvious that I was injured and it was sewn up.
I'll tell you what really got me. The doctor was talking about how great and resilient skin is, and how it has a wonderful capacity to heal itself. That got me thinking about everything my nose and skin have been through over the last week. It really is a miracle to think that I could recover from something like this and not look like the Bride of Frankenstein, but according to the doctor, the scar should be minimal, and the nostril on that side should only be slighly disfigured compared to the other one. I was getting very worked up over this, because I was thinking about how tough I am on my body all the time. I don't eat well, I don't exercise as much as I should, and most of the time I look in the mirror and end up hating my fat stomach, big butt, ugly face, etc. But that is the wrong way to look at things, I think. Any body that can recover from trauma like that which I have gone through this week is pretty incredible.
Now, of course, there are no guarantees. The doctor today was pretty concerned about the infection that could set in -- he said if that happens the stitches will come out, they'll wait for it to heal some, and then do the skin graft thing. He was emphatic in saying that we really don't want that. He put me on some antibiotics, and he put some neosporin over the top of the stitches, but that was it. Now it's up to me to heal the best I can from it.
I have been home about 6 hours now since this happened. I have some pain now, even though I took a vicodin (didn't work today as well as it did yesterday), and the site itches some as well. But it is on the road to recovery. I have had a hell of a week, and I have to be prepared for the possibility that it may get worse before it gets better. But I am still here, my nose is still attached, and I am on the way to recovery.
So far, it's been one unbelievable spring break.
We had to wait about 20 minutes, and then we went into a little outpatient surgery room. I do not have words to describe the pain I felt next as he did six injections of anesthetic into my nose. I thought the injections on Monday during the Mohs surgery were bad. I have never felt pain like that in my whole life, and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. SP said I was pretty much howling through it. I didn't mean to -- I wanted to be tough but it felt like he was driving ice picks into my nose. Holy motherf*cker.
But soon enough I was numb, and then he started sewing me up. He was done with that relatively quickly, which was good because I was shaking like a leaf after the pain from the injections and just wanted him to finish so I could get the hell out of there. He seemed surprised when he was done, because it was not as bad as he thought it would be. In fact, once he rolled up some gauze and inserted it in my nostril (which was fun, AND it gets to stay up there until I go back to him Friday), the injured nostril had almost the same shape as the normal nostril. He was happy about this, and so was I. It didn't look quite as bad as I expected it to, which was a relief. But it is obvious that I was injured and it was sewn up.
I'll tell you what really got me. The doctor was talking about how great and resilient skin is, and how it has a wonderful capacity to heal itself. That got me thinking about everything my nose and skin have been through over the last week. It really is a miracle to think that I could recover from something like this and not look like the Bride of Frankenstein, but according to the doctor, the scar should be minimal, and the nostril on that side should only be slighly disfigured compared to the other one. I was getting very worked up over this, because I was thinking about how tough I am on my body all the time. I don't eat well, I don't exercise as much as I should, and most of the time I look in the mirror and end up hating my fat stomach, big butt, ugly face, etc. But that is the wrong way to look at things, I think. Any body that can recover from trauma like that which I have gone through this week is pretty incredible.
Now, of course, there are no guarantees. The doctor today was pretty concerned about the infection that could set in -- he said if that happens the stitches will come out, they'll wait for it to heal some, and then do the skin graft thing. He was emphatic in saying that we really don't want that. He put me on some antibiotics, and he put some neosporin over the top of the stitches, but that was it. Now it's up to me to heal the best I can from it.
I have been home about 6 hours now since this happened. I have some pain now, even though I took a vicodin (didn't work today as well as it did yesterday), and the site itches some as well. But it is on the road to recovery. I have had a hell of a week, and I have to be prepared for the possibility that it may get worse before it gets better. But I am still here, my nose is still attached, and I am on the way to recovery.
So far, it's been one unbelievable spring break.
posted by Jennifer at 18:17
1 Comments:
Just dropping in to see how you are doing. I lost your blog URL and then found it again. Sorry to hear you have been under the weather, nose-wise! Take care - Sue.
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