hp's blog

The secret life of my scar

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 20:23:09 -0800

It's been a couple of months now since my skin cancer surgery. My scar looks only moderately improved from a month ago, though now it mostly lurks under my bangs with my new hairstyle.

It is still surprisingly tender to any pressure, but I'm OK now wearing a swim cap. Some days I don't feel my scar all; other days it itches. I am hoping the itchy days means it's doing some healing. Every night, I go through the ReJuveness routine, but I don't have any real way of evaluating of efficacy of this. Since there isn't much physical change in the appearance--at least so far--I don't know if it's healing or not.

So my scar continues on, living its own life atop my forehead....

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3 weeks

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:57:35 -0800

At the risk of emulating LBJ, here is what my incision looks like at 3 weeks:

3 weeks

Yes, it's healing well. But, I've got a bad-ass scar. Which I think is going to stay bad-ass for a while, so I might as well just get used to the idea. Not happy about it of course, but it's not going to help to fixate on it.

I've done some research online about facial scars as possible treatments. I'm going to talk to my doctor about options at this point. I'm not expecting perfection, but I do want to go for the best possible outcome.

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OK, it's been a week...

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:45:13 -0800

...since I had that somewhat horrifying incision on my forehead.

And you know what. It's still pretty horrifying. Sigh.

Good news is though they got it all. I'm going in tomorrow for a follow-up appointment.

I'm still keeping it covered with a bandage (I mean who wouldn't?!) - but they want me to keep it covered even if I wasn't so inclined.

Actually, it kind of makes me cry to look at it. But it's been a tough week, with Drake out of town visiting his family. I normally go back with him this time of year, but since I had so much time off work this summer with my Dad (my current client waited a month for me to get back) I didn't feel I could take more than a couple of days at Thanksgiving. But now I just feel really sad that I'm not there visiting, since I adore Drake's mom, dad, brother (and his kids). I did get to see them (though not the kids) in Chicago since they came up for my Dad's visitation/memorial service. That was really nice.

I just think I'll crawl in bed with a good book...

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Honestly, I don't know whether to laugh or cry...

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 09:49:33 -0800

But right now it hurts to either laugh or cry...

:-(

Looks oddly familiar..

Update: Here's the new me using the flesh-colored tape they gave me for dressing. Really, it's not so bad. Or at least I won't terrify small children!

Me_again

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Recovery

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 18:09:59 -0700

It's an odd experience waking up from surgery. When I went under, they didn't have me count backwards from 100 (my brother and Dad both did this with their surgeries). The anethesiologist just said I might feel some stinging around my IV (I never did) - the next thing I remember is someone saying my name and telling me that the surgery was over. And I could feel I had a bandage over my tummy. I was thinking yay - it's over - I've gotten it done.

Then, my next memory is a nurse telling me that my hair looked great even after being under the surgery cap. Talk about a good hair day! Gee whiz. It looked good even after surgery! OK, maybe she says that to everyone.

I remember looking at the clock and seeing it was 10:30. So I'd only been out for about an hour and a half. I must have fallen back to sleep because the next time I remember looking at the clock it was 11:00. The nurse was raising up my bed so I was more upright. She asked if I was ready for a snack and I told her not yet. I coughed some and that hurt. She asked me if I wanted some pain medication and I said yes. She gave it to me through the IV and told me that I needed to have a snack and then they would give me something more long-lasting.

I had a nice little snack of some saltines and Sprite. Just what mom would have given me when I was little and wanted to start me back on food after being sick.

At about 11:30 they asked if I was ready to move to the chair. I was! Slowly I sat up and then they very slowly walked me over to the lounge chair. They asked if they could get someone from the waiting room. Yes - Drake!

By noon I was dressed, seated in a wheelchair and being whisked out to our car in the garage. All and all pretty amazing. They did want me to go to bed right when I got home to take at least a 2-hour nap. That was no problem at all.

It felt great today to be back to work. All things considered, I'm very happy with my recovery. And it feels great to have the surgery done, the hernia fixed.

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Better today

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 06:33:46 -0700

I'll spare the details but yesterday involved going back to the surgical center to have a catheter inserted. My plumbing definitely wasn't right - a not-so-uncommon side effect of general anesthesia. Looks like I'll have this until Monday - it's mildly annoying but much better than the alternative.

Overall I feel better today. I'm going to taper a bit off the Vicodin. And today I get to take a shower! Yay.

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I'm all set for tomorrow

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 17:30:16 -0700

Talked to the Surgery Center - I need to be there at 8:15 - my procedure is at 9:15 and I should be able to go home by noon! Wow, that's great.

My brother had the procedure two years ago and he gave me some tips. First, I was going to try to tough it out minus much in the way of pain meds - he instead suggested that in the first couple of days I stay on the pain meds so that the pain doesn't have a chance to grab a foothold. This was also re-enforced by my Dad whose had some recent surgeries. I also read that because pain stresses your body, it's actually more healing to keep the pain at bay. OK - I'm fine with that. Both suggested I get some Metamucil (done) to deal with the unpleasant side effect (constipation) of the pain meds.

I've got some relaxing music all staged on ready on the iPod to listen to before and after the surgery. From there I'll just see how it goes.

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Surgery

nobody@vox.com(hp) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 13:00:14 -0700

I have a small but bothersome umbilical hernia I am going to have fixed in mid-October. Based on Internet research, it sounded like I could get back to normal activities (for me that includes training) in a couple of weeks. But the surgeon yesterday said no heavy lifting or activities for 4 to 6 weeks.

I had also read you could go back to work in 2 to 3 days. Surgeon says minimum of 5 days off work, with 2-3 days of "significant pain." Those were his exact words. This was in response to Drake asking a question, so maybe he was just trying to impress upon him the fact that I will be uncomfortable and will need a little TLC. Anyway, this is sounding a little more involved that I had first envisioned.

I pressed the doc (who is a very nice and otherwise did a great job explaining the procedure) about what I might be able to do in that 4 to 6 week period - I mean, it's not like I pass some magic threshold at 4 weeks - I'd like to gradually ramp my activity level up. Here he was a bit flummoxed I think at the specificity of my questions. I get no weight lifting, but what about some light jogging? When might I start that? Swimming? Cycling (here he had no idea because he "doesn't ride a bike").

He suggested my coach might know, which I seriously doubted (after all, she's a coach not a surgeon), but actually she did know quite a bit about it because her husband had the procedure a few years ago (she's also a physical therapist, so I am sure that helps). Anyway, her husband started right away with walking, then was soon able to do light jogging. For cycling, I should be fine with some easy spinning. Swimming (I'll need to wait until the wound heals) she suggested started out using a pull buoy to isolate upper body work.

Believe me I don't want to risk the results of the surgery, but it also just seems logical to keep active within safe constraints.

Also, please note I decided to skip a related image for this post :-)

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