Not a vampire, not so bad, not so bad at all.
So I have been out of the hospital for about two weeks. I have been thinking about posting for a while, but I know that I have a lot to say and only one hand to work with which makes typing time consuming and annoying.
The surgery lasted 10 hours. The surgeons were all very kind to me as I was getting prepped. I was doing great chatting it up with the anesthesiologists, but started to cry a little when Dr. L, my main surgeon, arrived. The doctors asked me what was I afraid of and then addressed each fear with me. Really cool.
To be honest I'm not ready to talk about everything. I don't want to sound like a wimp but the emotions of the past few months have now started flooding in. It has been so crazy. My hospital stay was intense (I was in recovery room for a day and a half- and hooked up to 8 machines.) and I am so glad to be out. So now I'm staying with family and get visited by a nurse everyday. My face actually just looks swelled where the artery was replaced and my arm is in a sling so people just think I was in an accident when I go out. Dr. L tells me that it's going to take a long time for everything to heal and look right. People ask how i like my new nose (haha that sounds so funny to me) I tell them it's like having a baby- right now it's just a blob of skin, it will take months before it will look anything like a nose.
A few days ago my primary care doctor told me that they see a shadow on my lung. I had pneumonia last November and had another x-ray the day before my surgery. Comparing the two pictures they now see a spot. I don't know the details, only that they want me to go in for a CAT scan. Of course my first reaction was that my cancer metastasized but people with BCC almost NEVER have this happen unless it is a reoccurring cancer. The statistics are ridiculous, something like less than 1%
I have talked to friends and family about it and they said that most of the time the doctors are just being precautious, and that radiology can be tricky and always libel so they tend to over read the scan. Also is it better to have a doctor who sees something and decides to check it out, or one who just ignores it?
I choose precautious.