March 15th, Re-Excision

Wallace (hubbie) went with me.  In the room, the doctor was concerned, respected our questions, discussed his procedure, and really connected with us.  We found the right person to do the surgery.  After painful needles with local anesthetic, he proceeded.  I did not watch.  Wallace held my hand.  The Dr. drew a sketch of where he would cut, with a Sharpie.  He cut and tagged the removed swatch of skin (I caught a glimpse of it and was grossed out.)  He cauterized with some heated gun, and did a “purse” stitch to pull the skin as tight as possible.  (Imagine the old pull string purses.)  The wound closed from 1 ½ cm around to the size of a pencil eraser.  He then started to discuss wound care and I told him I couldn’t look.  So, he said that maybe Wallace would do wound care until I was comfortable.  I felt a bit like a ninny, but didn’t care.  The wound was pretty gnarly.

The doctor expected me to walk out of the surgery.  I was so hesitant to put weight on my foot that I barely shuffled out.  I knew it was going to be painful after the local wore off, if I put weight on it.  I thought it was nuts to not give me crutches.  But, this was a very unusual area to have melanoma, so maybe they aren’t used to it.  I was cautiously given Tylenol #3.  I was afraid to take it because it is addictive.  I only took two, on Friday night because I was working right after the surgery and did not want to cloud my mind.  Good thing, because Saturday, I couldn’t count/add.  The stuff really messes with your mind.

Lucky for me.  Traz had purchased crutches at a garage sale.  He used them to vault across the lawn.  Imagine: Put them on their tallest setting.  Get a running start.  Plant them and fling yourself in the air.  Land.  Then do it again.  At first, he did it on the pavement! “Mom” rules started to fly – not to fast, only on the grass….. I took all the fun out of it.  

So, I spent the day after surgery at home, and then went into work with crutches.  The crutches were mainly for speed.  I could just make it across

Market Street

(4 lanes) if I moved when the walk across signaled “WALK”.  If it already was glowing WALK, I had to wait.  They were also handy for going to the restroom which was way down the hall.  I used the crutches for the rest of the week and the following week.

NEXT STEP: Wait for results.  Go to Oncologist appointment.

MY PSYCHE: This stuff is history. Start re-hab at the gym.