WARNING: A LITTLE GRAPHIC...not for the queasy!
It's been one week since I've been cancer-free. It feels great to know that whatever was attacking my forehead has finally been cleaned out, and to top it off I have a really ugly scar to prove there was something there.
Last week Sunday, Jan. 31, Jerry brought the girls to his mom's for a couple days. When he returned I had the house cleaned and I was showered and ready for the big date that he had planned for me. Much to both of our surprise he got us tickets to the ballet, Flickers (Charlie Chaplin). I said it was a surprise to both of us because Jerry didn't really know what he was purchasing when he bought the tickets. He thought it was going to be a play, but it turned out to be a ballet, and if you've never seen a ballet, there's not any talking...so he was a little bit disappointed, but he still liked the actual ballet part...not so much the dancing ballet part, but the story-line of the ballet. I did enjoy it because I used to dance ballet as a child and haven't seen or done it in many years. After the ballet we went to dinner at one of our old time favorite restaurants, but unfortunately it wasn't quite as we remembered. Don't worry, we still had a very nice date (especially because we didn't have any kids!).
Monday morning, Feb.1, we had to be at the dermatologist at 8:45am. I was scheduled to have Moh's surgery to take out all of the basil cell skin cancer. The process goes like this, the doctor takes a layer of skin and divides it into pie shaped pieces. The each part is put under the microscope to make sure the cancer is all out. If it's not, the doctor goes back in ONLY to the place where the cancer is left and takes more out. Fortunately my doctor got it all on the first try and we were out of there by 10:00am....but not without a HUGE hole in my forehead.
Tuesday morning, Feb. 2, I had to stop eating at midnight and my plastic surgery to cover the HUGE hole in my head wasn't scheduled until 1:45pm. If you know me even a little bit, you know that I love to eat and I get VERY, and I mean VERY short tempered when I don't eat, plus I get a headache when I don't eat. So of course all morning I was thinking about how hungry I was and what I wanted to eat and what sounded good and I couldn't eat a darn thing. Finally Jerry woke up around 10:45 and we had to leave by 11:30-11:45 because we had to be at the Southwest Surgical Center at 12:15 (a hour and a half before surgery). This worked out well because I actually got right in, they worked pretty fast at getting me prepped for surgery and I think I went in 30-45 minutes early. After surgery I felt ok, until the nurse told me I could get dressed and go, if I was ok....well, I was ok, or so I thought. After I got dressed, I felt like I was going to throw up. The anesthesia that they gave me was a little too much for my system to handle. I never did puke, but trust me, I thought I was going to more than once and all the way home, even once I got home I thought for sure it was going to happen. I think it was worse because I couldn't eat anything. I tried to eat some saltines when I got home, but that didn't go over real well either. Finally I felt well enough around 12:30am (Feb. 3) to go downstairs and eat some toast with peanut butter. So I did....and then about 2 minutes afterwards, I felt like I was going to pass out. So back up stairs I went until 7:00am.
Wednesday, Feb. 3, I stayed home from work, not because of the pain, but because I could and because I wanted to ice the heck out of my head.
Thursday, Feb. 4, I woke up with a little bit of swelling over my left eye, but nothing major and I thought that was pretty good since the doctor warned me this would happen.
Friday, Feb. 5, I woke up looking like Rocky...a swollen left eye, almost all the way shut, a swollen nose, and a partially swollen right eye. It was NOT a pretty sight...so needless to say, I stayed home and iced the crap out of my face ALL day! And it worked pretty darn good too.
Saturday and Sunday were pretty good days. Nothing to great to report on.
Today I got my stitches out....I was a little shocked at the sight. I don't look like Rocky any longer, now I just look like Frankenstein. No big deal! The nurse who took out my stitches said "if you don't like the look of your scar once it heals, you can come back and we can put some scar tape on it." Now, I don't know a lot about scars, but I have had a few in my days...I'm pretty sure once you get a cut and the scar heals, there's not a whole lot of moving that happens. I'm think I'm just stuck with the "S" curve scar that's on my forehead. Good thing I can just say the "S" is for SUPERMOM SEEVERS! (hey, it's my scar and I can say whatever I want!
