14 hours and cancer free
My "procedure" went fine. I can't say enough about my dermatologist, Dr. LeClercq (pronounced leh-Claire). She's great with a needle and apparently is excellent with stitches. I told her not to do too good of a job because I want that scar. I like my scars even though they're all covered with freckles now. I still know they're there. My favorite has got to be the odd shaped one below my right knee from Katie's bachelorette party. Anywho, my doctor and two nurses stayed late last night to do the excision. That was really nice of them to do that for me but I guess they wanted to get it out as soon as possible. Apparently the tumor was self-contained enough that she didn't have to do an exploratory procedure. The exploratory procedure sounded kind of cool but I'm happy that the cancer hadn't spread.
There were two bad parts. One was the sound of what she was doing. Ok, not so much the sound but the fact that I knew what the sound was. I almost lost my lunch. The other bad part left a huge blood blister on my arm. Because she had to use a cauterizing tool I had to be grounded electronically. I've always thought of myself as a grounded, down to earth type person (hahaha) but apparently not enough that I wouldn't get electrocuted. So they attach this sticky patch to the underside of your arm (I'm guessing that's where there's the least amount of body hair?) and the patch has a lead on it that goes to a machine. Well when the nurse took the patch off she yanked it and some of my skin was still kind of stuck. So now I have this huge blood blister under my arm. That hurt.
She prescribed me an antibiotic and a pain med. I got the antibiotic filled at my local grocery store that happened to be trying to compete with Walmart so I got it for free! Nothing like free drugs!!! I don't know if I'll get the pain med filled though. It's for Loritab (or Lortab) which I hear is very nice but also an opiate.
So I go back in 2 weeks to have the stitches removed. After that I go in every 6 months to have a full body check. I don't even see my body every 6 months and now I have to have someone else look at it. Yeesh.
There were two bad parts. One was the sound of what she was doing. Ok, not so much the sound but the fact that I knew what the sound was. I almost lost my lunch. The other bad part left a huge blood blister on my arm. Because she had to use a cauterizing tool I had to be grounded electronically. I've always thought of myself as a grounded, down to earth type person (hahaha) but apparently not enough that I wouldn't get electrocuted. So they attach this sticky patch to the underside of your arm (I'm guessing that's where there's the least amount of body hair?) and the patch has a lead on it that goes to a machine. Well when the nurse took the patch off she yanked it and some of my skin was still kind of stuck. So now I have this huge blood blister under my arm. That hurt.
She prescribed me an antibiotic and a pain med. I got the antibiotic filled at my local grocery store that happened to be trying to compete with Walmart so I got it for free! Nothing like free drugs!!! I don't know if I'll get the pain med filled though. It's for Loritab (or Lortab) which I hear is very nice but also an opiate.
So I go back in 2 weeks to have the stitches removed. After that I go in every 6 months to have a full body check. I don't even see my body every 6 months and now I have to have someone else look at it. Yeesh.
posted by UhLisa | 7:11 AM
9 Comments:
Yeow! That grounding tool sounds painful! Isn't it weird how the tangential parts of medical procedures often hurt worse than the procedure itself? I'm glad you didn't have to have the exploratory part. And I'm so relieved you've got good doctors. Any doc willing to prescribe pain meds automatically gets an A in my book.
Yeah, the actual excision was fine since local anesthesia was involved.
I was thinking I'd like to get the Loritab just to have at home for, you know, parties and such. Kidding! Kidding! I rarely get invited to pill parties anymore.
Did you ever see that Will & Grace where Karen showed up to a party with a huge glass bowl full of pills?
That's exactly what I was thinking of when I said that. Tee hee.
Glad it went okay. I thought the sound was horrible too when I had the same thing done.
You are very brave!
I'm glad Arisa is ok! You are a trooper!
And its always good to know that my bachelorette party gave you a scar that you love so dearly :)
I'm very glad that everything went well for you yesterday!
I totally understand about the noise thing- I can't stand any noises associated with medical procedures!
Katie, I still wish there was a video of me executing that fall at your bachelorette. I bet it looked awesome.
It was breathtaking, I assure you.
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