Two Weeks After Surgery - Day 15

My surgery was two weeks ago today so I thought I should share some new pictures. My husband says my nose is looking better everyday. I will start posting weekly pictures of my nose for now and then monthly pictures once it gets better. I am still hoping it will change a lot I do not like that one of my nostrils is larger than the other hopefully it will change. I know Dr. Rowley said it will really change in the next few months so I am hoping for it to look even better.

Ninth Day After Surgery

I got all of my stitches out today. Saturday evening I started feeling better by Sunday I was feeling a lot better but thought I was all better and kind over did it so I had to lay down for the rest of the day and take it easy. This week I have been out and about. It is so nice to feel better I am not very good at being sick. I think Dr Rowley was impressed with how well my nose has healed. He said it will change a lot in the next few weeks/months.

So yesterday when I took my daughter to her dance class I put a large bandaid over the bridge of my nose and a smaller one from the bottom middle up over the bridge so no one would see this and gross out. After I got my sititches out today I just put one over the bridge of my nose and went into Frys Electronics with my daughter and kind of kept my head down. This will be so nice not to have to wear anything on my nose when I go out but I will keep something on there until I can put make up on there so people will not stare at me.

Sixth Day After Surgery

I guess I posted to early yesterday. Shortly after posting yesterday I ended up having a 100 degree fever and slept most of the afternoon. My stomach was still hurting and I was very weak.

Today I am not feeling any better. I decided to call my doctor and ask him about the antibiotics and he told me to stop taking them they maybe making me sick to my stomach. I took one this morning but was only on 2 a day. I sure hope this was it and not some type of flu bug on top of all of this. I had a 99.6 temp after taking Tylenol this afternoon and ended up sleeping again.

Here are a few pictures of my nose today.

Fifth Day After Surgery

Wow, I feel so much better today. I think with the massage my husband gave me last night and the antibiotics Dr. Rowley gave me it finally did something. I was feeling so bad these last few days and could tell my stomach was swollen. I have been drinking a lot of water to flush out all the junk that was put in my body during the surgery. Well last night about 2:00 I was having really bad stomach cramps so I got up to go to the bathroom and I got rid of so much stuff I thought I was going to be dehydrated. I figured this was worth it if it will make me feel better. I finally felt like I could go back to bed and about 5 minutes later I was back in the bathroom. I was hoping this was it and I could sleep the rest of the night which I did. I felt a little weak this morning and a little nauseous and cold chills. I am feeling a little better after eating a little something. It is so nice not to have that funky feeling I was having the last few days even though I am still a little weak.

Fourth Day After Surgery

I got some good sleep last night but woke up not feeling too great. My husband went back to work today so I had to take care of myself and my daughter not feeling well at least she is a huge help and is a very good 4 year old. I did not know if I was going to make it to my doctors appt today I was pretty scared about driving feeling as bad as I did and taking my daughter with me. My husband ended up meeting us over there and took our daughter home since I did not feel safe driving her home. Dr. Rowley took out 1/2 of my stitches and put me on antibiotics. My nose was looking very bad this morning and very red Dr. Rowley thought taking some of the stitches out would help with the redness. It looks a lot better tonight. Here are a few pictures my husband took of it tonight. I get the rest of my stitches out next Tuesday. This has been so hard not being able to go out of the house this week, not that I probably would have feeling like I do but I do not want anyone seeing my nose looking like this. I can put a band-aid over it and go out if I need to and will. I will be happy when it starts to heal better and I can put makeup on it.

Third Day After Surgery

I had my husband take some more pictures this morning of my nose. I think it looks worse today than the first day. These have been a rough couple of days. The first night home I think I got about 4 hours of sleep probably about the same the night before my surgery since I was so nervous. My doctor gave me darvocet for the pain (yes I am a light weight and do not like pain medicine) and I think it actually wired me and would not let me sleep. I took one when I got home from the hospital and felt like I wanted to sleep then all of a sudden I was not tired and had to get up. It did the same thing when I took the other one right before going to bed. I have not felt a lot of pain for this but just feel like I have been run over by a train. Yesterday morning I was doing okay and then by the afternoon I was not feeling well at all and asked my husband if he could stay home with me an extra day since I felt so bad. I am so glad he did he made me a bunch of eggs and a smoothie and I was feeling a lot better. I was able to finally sleep last night. I got up at 9:30 this morning and am kind of dizzy and kind of feeling a little off today. I feel like I could go back to sleep for another day. I have only taken Tylenol for the last two days for the little pain I am feeling. I go back to see my doctor tomorrow and they may take some of my stitches out or may leave them in until next Tuesday. I felt better the day of my surgery than I have today or yesterday. I hope by tomorrow I will be feeling better. Not that I can really go anywhere looking like this.

Surgery Day

I had to be at the hospital at 7:30 so we dropped off our daughter at a friends house about 6:45. This is the longest time we had been away from her, so it was very strange, but she did have tons of fun playing with her friends.

Within a few minutes of checking in, they called me back to prep me. I had to put on a gown and they tried to get the IV started, but the nurse could not get it in right, so she had to call the anesthesiologist tech. He was getting a little frustrated too, but the second time he got it. I loved the little numbing shot he gave me before sticking that needle in me. He then tested it out to make sure it was good, so it would not blow out in surgery. About 8:30 they let my husband come back to be with me until they wheeled me away. My surgery was scheduled for 9:15. Around 9:30 the anesthesiologist came in and talked to me and told me what he would be doing. About a minute later my doctor came in and talked to me. A few minutes later the nurses that were going to be with me in the surgery came in and introduced themselves. Then another nurse came in and told me she was going to give me some happy medicine. They then injected it into my I.V. line. My husband kissed me good-bye and left. The nurses wheeled me away and I do not remember too much until I woke up and tried to touch my nose; the nurses quickly stopped me. One of the nurses got my glasses and a mirror so I could see the final results. Then I started asking questions, they gave me some ice chips for my thirst and, I asked if I had the MAC anesthesia and they told me, "no, you had general." Oh-well, I felt pretty good coming out of it and was not in any pain, and I really just wanted to go home. I remember looking at the clock about 11:30 and thinking that this took a long time. I finally left the hospital about 12:45.

Dr. Rowley cut out a little at at time and sent it to the pathologist to see if it was clear of cancerous cells. It took a total of 3 passes to get it all, and I ended up with a Bi-lobe flap to repair the amount of tissue that was removed from the tip of my nose, but he said that the cancer was all gone and shouldn't cause any future problems.

When we picked up our 4 year daughter she was a little freaked-out and was not sure about how to react. When we got her in the car seat and I looked at her she said, “Mommy I am so glad they did not cut off your whole nose”. I think she is slowly getting used to it now.

Here are a few pictures of my first day. Sorry these are a little gross and there is still blood on my nose. I will try to post new pictures every few days for the first few weeks then taper off to once a month.

Two More Days

In 48 hours I will be at the hospital waiting for my nose surgery. Almost 7 years ago I had a light pinkish spot on the tip of my nose it was a little sensitive I had my doctor take a look at it and he froze the pink spot it scabbed over and it was fine for a few years but still a little pink. A few years later it started getting a light scab over it again almost like when you get sun burned and your skin peels never really a big scab. I had gone to a dermatologist for another spot and she froze the spot on my nose again. It was good for another few years until last Summer it was doing the same thing so I went back to my dermatologist (a different) and she wanted to do a biopsy. I had asked her if I could go to my plastic surgeon to have him do the biopsy and she told me he does not do things like this. I told her I did not want just anyone cutting on my face. Well I called my plastic surgeons office and they were like sure come on in. I had another basal cell carcinoma taken off by this plastic surgeon in Oct 07 on my upper chest almost by my shoulder so I knew him from before. I had another spot on my chest that I needed checked too. I ended up putting off going in until January since we were so busy in November and December I did not want to get bad news during the holidays now I am glad I put it off since it did end up being basal cell carcinoma. I had searched for pictures and stories like mine on the internet and could not find anything and the things I found scared the crap out of me.

I have been really freaked out about this whole thing from being put under to not knowing what my nose will look like after this is all done. When I think of being awake for this and not knowing how long it will take or how many times they might have to take off more of my nose and send it to the pathologist the more I do not want to be awake knowing what is going on and when I wake up it will all be over. I have not been put out since Oct 84 for my wisdom teeth. I know everything will be alright but it does not keep me from being scared. Can you tell I like to be in control? I keep thinking back to my c-section in 2004 and the reaction I had to demoral and all the crap they put in me. My body could never do drugs lol thank gosh.

I just had my husband take a few pictures of my nose. These pictures are taken about 6 week after my biopsy.