Two surgeries later...

I try not to think about how much my surgeries interfered with our vacation--we still got to the beach, but for fewer days.  And a lost half-day in between.  I had, in essence, two surgeries--the first to take out the melanoma, the second to stitch up the wound.  Everything would have worked out if the stitching had been done at the same time as the cancer surgery, but since there was a chance that I had more cancer, the surgeon wanted to wait to do the stitching.  The family plan was that we would go to the beach as scheduled (the day after the first surgery); then my husband and I would drive back on Tuesday for the scheduled stitching.  We left a day later--I wasn't feeling well enough to travel the day after the surgery--and I was pretty sure I wasn't going to feel like going back to the beach after the surgery on Tuesday.  But I didn't say anything about that--my husband would have to go back to the beach since my son was there without a car, and I was hoping they would stay the few final days without me.

I knew there was a chance that the test results wouldn't be back in time for the Tuesday stitching--the surgeon had said there likely would be only a few hours to spare--and I thought about checking my voicemail as we were driving back (about a 4 hour drive).  But I didn't check the voicemail until we got home (I hadn't given them my cell phone number, which I should have done).  The test results weren't back, so they wanted to postpone the surgery until Friday.  It was about 11:30am; my husband said he wanted to go to the beach that day, so we got right back in the car and drove the 4 hours back to Virginia Beach.  And I still didn't know whether I had more cancer.  It didn't even feel like I'd been in the car for 8 hours--I had to sit around anyway, so why not in a car?  I just wish I had checked our home voicemail while we were driving; they called around 9:40am, which means we could have cut out half the trip.

We decided to leave Va Beach Thursday evening after dinner, so my son and husband could get in one more day at the beach.  The surgery center had called to confirm the Friday surgery, but I still called Thursday morning to confirm that the surgeon had the test results.  They left a message for him to call me back, and he did; the results showed that all the cancer had been removed.  I was overwhelmed and teary-eyed with the news; I had been anxious about the thought of more cutting, more areas that would have stitches; and maybe even a more invasive cancer.  So we were quite relieved.

But the stitching surgery is actually a more difficult recovery.  I have another week of needing to stay quiet and not exert myself, but the stitching hurt more than the cutting did, and my left cheek and upper left lip have swelled up, which didn't happen with the first surgery.  I'd only expected to need a week to recover, and I am scheduled to teach 2 yoga and 1 pilates classes this week.  I find it difficult to talk--it hurts when I open my mouth--so tomorrow's yoga class could be difficult.  And I don't know when I'll feel up to trying to play the flute.  Not until toward the end of this week at the earliest, so I'll have to cancel Friday's lesson.

At least the stitches dissolve on their own.  I have two layers of stitches--4 or 5 stitches inside, and then a continuous stitch, like a baseball stitch, on the outside.   And they feel itchy and they hurt and it feels like my cheek is swelling as I write.  Lying down doesn't help as much as it usually does, because I can't prop my feel up like I usually do--that would cause more swelling.  Ah, well, this is all temporary; each day will get a bit better.