Last Thursday I went into the dermatologist to have the second of three surgeries scheduled to remove this awful skin cancer I've been going through. Laying there while he scraped the tumor on my numb face and then waiting in the waiting room for over an hour while he made sure it was all gone, then finding out I had to go back to get a little more removed ... it was awful. Then my eye was bandaged and I was sent home to deal with feeling very uncomfortable. The spot was under my eye, you know the part where you put eye liner on? Yeah, that's not been a good feeling. The next day I had to go to an eye surgeon for reconstructive surgery. Luckily, I was put to sleep for that. It's the first time I've ever had that kind of anesthesia before and I was a little nervous. I laid myself on the operating table and suddenly I woke up sitting on a chair in the recovery room. Whoa! The next 48 hours my eye was covered in a bandage and I was able to remove it on Sunday. I've been icing the eye and putting in eye drops and cream. I had a bad reaction to the pain medicine, but I haven't really needed it anyway. It's been rough. The kids spent five days with my parents and came home yesterday. I can't drive for a week. My husband went back to work today. Stitches come out Friday. So, the start of summer has been miserable for me.
In a few weeks I go back to have the other eye done. This time the spot is on my eye lid and I'm nervous about that. I'll have to do the reconstructive surgery again because during the time the dermatologist removes the tumor he'll be removing the eye lid too.
A lot of people have been telling me that they've had skin cancer but I have yet to hear of a case like mine. Even the doctor can't figure out why I keep having spots popping up. It shouldn't be this way. He thinks it may be a genetic disorder but can't know for sure until I have genetic testing. This could be something that will stop at some point or this may be something I'll have for the rest of my life. I really don't think I have the strength to continue with these surgeries. I'm not sure my body could handle it. It's a scary thing to think about but I've been giving this all to God and having faith that He will help. He knows my future and all I can do is trust in him. Honestly, this experience has drawn me closer to Him. It's also brought my marriage closer. I talked about feeling a disconnection to my marriage but recently things have made a sudden change. Things are good between us. It's great. Speaking of my husband, he's doing so great at caring for me. It's funny because he's usually the one having the surgeries and I'm the one being the caregiver but now the table has turned. He's been so good and taking over and caring for me.
Those flowers pictured are from my daughter's second grade teacher. Her and I have been keeping in touch over the summer and she went to her dance recital. The nice thing about working in the school is becoming friends with the teachers and staff there. Our neighbors brought us dinner last night and lots of friends have reached out offering help if needed. It's really nice to know people care.
My eye is swollen. It looks like I was in a boxing match. But it will heal. I'm feeling thankful that these surgeries could happen in the summer when I'm off work. I can't drive all week.
This hasn't been a fun experience but I know it could be so much worse.
No comments:
Post a Comment