Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Dec 5 - Under the Knife


Since I don't have much to talk about acting wise now that school is winding down, I guess I will have to talk a bit more about the other areas of my life. Yesterday I had a little minor surgery. I now have about twenty stitches in my lower abdomen(very low abdomen).

I had had a mole removed about a month ago. They cut it out and sent it to the lab. Well it came back "atypical", which according to my doctors does not mean cancer. They stressed this to me over and over. "It's not melanoma. Really."

Anyway, as part of standard treatment when they get this sort of result back from the lab is to cut more off of you to make sure they get any little atypical cells that might be heading off to explore the wider world.

So yesterday I popped downstairs (I work in a hospital - how convenient) to get cut up. I make a point of letting the nurse know I work there. I do believe I get better service. Not that I wouldn't get good service anyway, but I get a little extra friendliness, because they know they might see me around the cafeteria or in the elevator. And we're family.

The nurse takes my vitals and takes me to the procedure room. It's huge this time filled with all sorts of medical machines. In the center of the room is the bed under the big metal operating lights hanging from the ceiling like alien space daisies. It looked serious.

The first time they cut the mole off I was in a tiny exam room, which doubled as a supply room. As they were working on me people kept coming in asking, "Where's the V-4 tube sutures." or whatever (I made that up by the way in case you are a medical person saying to yourself, what in the world is a V-4 tube suture?)

So the contrast between the storage closet and this big tech filled room had me worried. Luckily when the doctor came in he waved a hand to the machines, and said don't worry we won't be using any of that. Whew!

The doctor came in with a stack of CD's, one of which he put into a CD player. His son made him a mix CD to play during surgery, which I thought was a nice idea. Something to distract the very nervous person who has a phobia of needles and scalpels.

I was a micro bit more relaxed because I knew what to expect more or less. The doc numbed me up, and started cutting away. When he was done he plopped the little chunk of me into a liquid filled jar to send off to the lab. It was about the size of the last two joints of my pinky, and all pink and bloody. Yum.

Of course while the cutting is going on we are chatting about where I work in the hospital, and who I work for. Turns out the doc worked with one of our research groups, so he knew my people. A little light work chatter, a little soft music in the background. All I needed was a drink in my hand, voila! Cocktail party.

I got all stitched up, and got my bandage replacement materials from the nurse. I was feeling pretty good because everything was still numb, so I popped down to the cafeteria for some lunch with my friend Bucky. Something about surgery makes me hungry. Maybe my body had realized some of it is missing, so it wants to replace it as quickly as possible.

I went back to work for a while to finish up some payroll things I had to do. People in my office were like, don't you want to go home? I said I am still numb and feel fine. I might as well take advantage of it. I did leave a half hour early to catch the bus home

All was good until about 9:30 last night when the last of the anesthetic wore off. Ouch! I stayed home today so I can lay out in my sweat pants moving as little as possible. I can't take a shower until to tonight, and then I get to replace my bandage.

I am looking forward to seeing what my scar will look like. The doc said he would give me a nicer one than the last person. I am glad for that because the last scar was bumpy at the ends. I know a lot of people aren't going to see it, but still I don't want to be lumpy.

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