Blog Dis
Six degrees of healing
2024-03-26
Firstly, these pictures aren't pretty to look at, so scroll on if you're of a delicate constitution. Information is power IMO and, when it comes to healing, I'm happy to impart advice based on first-hand experience, if it can be of help to some. So, this is me at my worst and w/o a stitch of make-up, following skin cancer surgery.
Secondly, thank you to all those who've expressed their support throughout my healing process, whether publicly online, in person or in DMs.
Here are six pictures (Left to right, top to bottom) to help you visualize the stages of healing; each is identified by the colour of my top.
#1: Lime green. Taken seconds after the surgeons stitched me up. The tail of the droopy 'P' is where the skin was borrowed as a graft. Needless to say, my forehead and left eye felt tight as my skin was stretched to replace the excised area. I lost half an eyebrow - a small price to pay for being alive, I'd say.
#2: Pink. Exactly 48 hours post-surgery. I look like I was caught in a dog-fight. It's hard to look at this, but this is truth: healing takes time and patience. Your positive thoughts about yourself will mean everything to help allay your fears that you won't come down with a post-op infection or post-op bleeding; the two worst signs to watch out for and which mean you need to act right away - get your fanny back to the clinic. I cleaned the area gently with a Q-Tip soaked in warm water with a little salt, after which I applied Vaseline to the stitches, not on the actual skin graft site. Research on wound healing confirms that keeping the surgical site moist is better, rather than exposing it to the air, to dry out and get crusty so soon after surgery.
#3: Dark forest green. Bruising around my eye, forehead, and to the left of my eye, to include a swollen eye. Above the surgical site, you'll see my previous scar from the first skin cancer surgery (2003); the result of impact trauma which had caused damage on a cellular level. I changed my dressing twice daily, re-applying Vaseline each time, but to reiterate only on the stitches - never on the skin graft area.
#4: Yellow. Exactly 18 days after surgery and I finally felt as tho' I had turned a corner for the better; there's still a little swelling under my left eye, and the surgical site is now covered by a scab, after the dissolvable stitches had disappeared. A scab is the body's way of healing, to protect the wound, to prevent infection from getting inside. Never pick at or peel off a scab. Let it come off on its own naturally or when you're ready to shower again, the spray will help it to come off, but be mindful. I showered only for the first time after two weeks, following the operation, given that there was a skin graft. And, before taking the shower, I had covered the area using a large, waterproof bandage but after it was removed, there was some white oozing from the site, which is natural. The surgeon explained there were also stitches inserted underneath the skin and these take longer to dissolve, up to 3 months.
#5: Fuchsia. Taken in the first week of March, seven weeks after surgery. The progression of healing is more obvious; also drove me to distraction when the wound began to itch like crazy, but know this is the best sign of healing. I still covered it up with band-aids changed twice daily.
#6: Burgundy. Exactly 8 weeks and 2 days after surgery. I took a shower without covering the area, and voila! No more scab! Yay! The reddish colouring will eventually fade, and the scar will turn white. However, and until the reddish colouring disappears, I'll continue to cover it at night to sleep, as well as when I cycle, or if I step outside and am forced to wear a winter headband to protect it from the cold (last week we had temps of -17 Celsius).
It's a grand feeling to see the progress of healing, and it uplifts your mood, and reminds you that you've got a lot of living yet to do. So I hope these pictures inspire you in some way.
Here are rules to observe after skin cancer surgery and if and when a graft is involved:
A. Most important: No alcohol. No heavy lifting. No smoking. No exercise. No sleeping on the side of your face with the surgical site. No removing post-surgery bandages for 48 hours. No Polysporin! No direct shower spray. No bathing for 48 hrs. minimum and no sudden rushes of blood to the head, like bending down too quickly or lifting free weights, and no elevating your blood pressure [I don't have to spell this one out for your partner who'll have to keep their hands off you].
B. I was advised to take 1,000 mg of Tylenol every 5-6 hours for pain and swelling, plus to ice the area, right over top the wound dressing, immediately following surgery, and to continue icing for 10 minutes every hour on the hour for the first 48 hours, to help with swelling and pain. I know my body, so I only took half the dose of pain meds. They also recommended the alternative of a combination of Tylenol and Advil (400 mg each) every 4-5 hours, providing you're not on blood thinners. I stopped meds every 4-5 hrs after 5 days but continued to take one each right before bed; otherwise pain creeps back in quickly.
The body's natural response to surgery, plastic surgery is to react intensely, and our emotional response is to want to obliterate pain but keep in mind that pain tells you that your body is alive and responding as it should. I also upped the dosage of Vitamin C which aids in wound healing, plus I added one tablespoon of pure Silicea gel (silica) into my morning shake, as silica helps form the building blocks of collagen, which is a really important protein found in your skin.
C. I used a non-adhesive compression pad, taped into place, once the post-surgery dressing was removed. Unfortunately for me, the tape which is supposedly gentle ended up irritating the previous scar above the new surgical site. So after one week post-surgery, I switched up to band-aids, three used together; all cut and overlapped strategically into place. Covering up the surgical site must continue for minimum two weeks post-op or longer, if necessary. Eventually I found a brand of band-aid that was anti-biotic and didn't cause irritation.
D. It's hard to tell if your surgical site is progressing as it should but post-op instructions from the clinic were 5 pages in length. I read them at least five times. Basically, you're advised to haul your caboose into the clinic asap if, at any point in your healing, you break out into a fever, experience chills or excessive bleeding [these symptoms sound dramatic and they are but mostly they occur post-op].
E. You're also advised to take 5 days off work after surgery but me being who I am, I worked from home for three weeks straight and I only needed to rest in the afternoon for 1.5 hrs. I can't sit around all day thinking about my surgery. Work helped to take my mind off my healing.
Apparently, skin cancers in Canada are on the rise while operating room availability is on the decline. Wait times to get scheduled are from four to six months. I got lucky! My name came up on the cancellation list with barely 45 minutes to spare, so I jumped at the opportunity [gratitude!]. I had sweet-talked my way onto the cancellation list, by the way. The surgery clinic won't operate unless you have someone who'll leave with you, plus spend the day with you at the clinic. You're not allowed to leave once inside. The whole process took five hours. This was outpatient surgery, i.e. no local anesthetic; just multiple needles on the site with a local. The procedure calls for the surgeon to excise the area, then send the piece off to the pathologist who confirms that all the cancer was removed, before they return and tell you, "We got it all." If you don't hear these words, it could mean more surrounding tissue needs to be excised. In the meantime, your freezing wears off, while you wait for these results, and you may need to be stuck with needles all over again before being stitched up.
When all is said and done, and once the freezing wears off, boy oh boy, lemme tell ya the pain sets in real fast, as well as a whopper tension headache the night of. Swelling returns quickly, once you're no longer icing the area.
For those who've never gone through this before, the worst words to hear out of a dermatologist's mouth are, "You have cancer. It's deeply embedded and you need surgery, so I'm requesting an accelerated date," which were the precise words from my dermatologist. My palms immediately broke out into a sweat. It didn't matter at the time that I had gone through this before. You can never prepare yourself for getting a diagnosis of cancer. My skin cancer was considered the best kind, Basal cell cancer (as tho' there are best kinds 😅) but if left untreated, basal cell will become lethal. Back in Oct 2022, my dermatologist had examined this area and noted that it was fine, only for one year later to deliver a revised diagnosis. Cancer doesn't give two hoots about rules. The worst kinds of skin cancer are melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma, fast-growing and deadly. My attitude is don't dilly-dally. If you think there's an area which doesn't look right, get it checked out. And if you've had skin cancer before, statistically speaking, there's a 90% you'll get it again, just like me.
Being a good healer means to me that you eat right, and take care of yourself, and believe that your body will overcome this obstacle. The hardest part too is not being able to physically work out, and feeling the absence of this energy which comes from working out. I slowly re-introduced stretching into my morning routine but only in the third week.
Hope this information is of help to you, if you're going through something similar. A new surgical scar takes from 12 to 18 months to mature. I'll have to slather on SPF protection going forward, forever, unless I want the scar to turn a dark colour that cannot be undone. But again... I'm grateful for the surgery, to be alive. In fact, I'm quite fond of being alive.
I am also grateful for my friends, some of whom were considerate enough to make jokes about my surgery. One friend had sent me an email, which nearly made me choke on my coffee, as I tried to suppress my laughter. "When you're done healing, let's connect in person and together we can go looking for your missing eyebrow." 🤣😂😅 [If you don't laugh, for sure you'll cry].
Scars reminds us of the passage of time, that we've lived and survived, and will go on to tell another tale.
Secondly, thank you to all those who've expressed their support throughout my healing process, whether publicly online, in person or in DMs.
Here are six pictures (Left to right, top to bottom) to help you visualize the stages of healing; each is identified by the colour of my top.
#1: Lime green. Taken seconds after the surgeons stitched me up. The tail of the droopy 'P' is where the skin was borrowed as a graft. Needless to say, my forehead and left eye felt tight as my skin was stretched to replace the excised area. I lost half an eyebrow - a small price to pay for being alive, I'd say.
#2: Pink. Exactly 48 hours post-surgery. I look like I was caught in a dog-fight. It's hard to look at this, but this is truth: healing takes time and patience. Your positive thoughts about yourself will mean everything to help allay your fears that you won't come down with a post-op infection or post-op bleeding; the two worst signs to watch out for and which mean you need to act right away - get your fanny back to the clinic. I cleaned the area gently with a Q-Tip soaked in warm water with a little salt, after which I applied Vaseline to the stitches, not on the actual skin graft site. Research on wound healing confirms that keeping the surgical site moist is better, rather than exposing it to the air, to dry out and get crusty so soon after surgery.
#3: Dark forest green. Bruising around my eye, forehead, and to the left of my eye, to include a swollen eye. Above the surgical site, you'll see my previous scar from the first skin cancer surgery (2003); the result of impact trauma which had caused damage on a cellular level. I changed my dressing twice daily, re-applying Vaseline each time, but to reiterate only on the stitches - never on the skin graft area.
#4: Yellow. Exactly 18 days after surgery and I finally felt as tho' I had turned a corner for the better; there's still a little swelling under my left eye, and the surgical site is now covered by a scab, after the dissolvable stitches had disappeared. A scab is the body's way of healing, to protect the wound, to prevent infection from getting inside. Never pick at or peel off a scab. Let it come off on its own naturally or when you're ready to shower again, the spray will help it to come off, but be mindful. I showered only for the first time after two weeks, following the operation, given that there was a skin graft. And, before taking the shower, I had covered the area using a large, waterproof bandage but after it was removed, there was some white oozing from the site, which is natural. The surgeon explained there were also stitches inserted underneath the skin and these take longer to dissolve, up to 3 months.
#5: Fuchsia. Taken in the first week of March, seven weeks after surgery. The progression of healing is more obvious; also drove me to distraction when the wound began to itch like crazy, but know this is the best sign of healing. I still covered it up with band-aids changed twice daily.
#6: Burgundy. Exactly 8 weeks and 2 days after surgery. I took a shower without covering the area, and voila! No more scab! Yay! The reddish colouring will eventually fade, and the scar will turn white. However, and until the reddish colouring disappears, I'll continue to cover it at night to sleep, as well as when I cycle, or if I step outside and am forced to wear a winter headband to protect it from the cold (last week we had temps of -17 Celsius).
It's a grand feeling to see the progress of healing, and it uplifts your mood, and reminds you that you've got a lot of living yet to do. So I hope these pictures inspire you in some way.
Here are rules to observe after skin cancer surgery and if and when a graft is involved:
A. Most important: No alcohol. No heavy lifting. No smoking. No exercise. No sleeping on the side of your face with the surgical site. No removing post-surgery bandages for 48 hours. No Polysporin! No direct shower spray. No bathing for 48 hrs. minimum and no sudden rushes of blood to the head, like bending down too quickly or lifting free weights, and no elevating your blood pressure [I don't have to spell this one out for your partner who'll have to keep their hands off you].
B. I was advised to take 1,000 mg of Tylenol every 5-6 hours for pain and swelling, plus to ice the area, right over top the wound dressing, immediately following surgery, and to continue icing for 10 minutes every hour on the hour for the first 48 hours, to help with swelling and pain. I know my body, so I only took half the dose of pain meds. They also recommended the alternative of a combination of Tylenol and Advil (400 mg each) every 4-5 hours, providing you're not on blood thinners. I stopped meds every 4-5 hrs after 5 days but continued to take one each right before bed; otherwise pain creeps back in quickly.
The body's natural response to surgery, plastic surgery is to react intensely, and our emotional response is to want to obliterate pain but keep in mind that pain tells you that your body is alive and responding as it should. I also upped the dosage of Vitamin C which aids in wound healing, plus I added one tablespoon of pure Silicea gel (silica) into my morning shake, as silica helps form the building blocks of collagen, which is a really important protein found in your skin.
C. I used a non-adhesive compression pad, taped into place, once the post-surgery dressing was removed. Unfortunately for me, the tape which is supposedly gentle ended up irritating the previous scar above the new surgical site. So after one week post-surgery, I switched up to band-aids, three used together; all cut and overlapped strategically into place. Covering up the surgical site must continue for minimum two weeks post-op or longer, if necessary. Eventually I found a brand of band-aid that was anti-biotic and didn't cause irritation.
D. It's hard to tell if your surgical site is progressing as it should but post-op instructions from the clinic were 5 pages in length. I read them at least five times. Basically, you're advised to haul your caboose into the clinic asap if, at any point in your healing, you break out into a fever, experience chills or excessive bleeding [these symptoms sound dramatic and they are but mostly they occur post-op].
E. You're also advised to take 5 days off work after surgery but me being who I am, I worked from home for three weeks straight and I only needed to rest in the afternoon for 1.5 hrs. I can't sit around all day thinking about my surgery. Work helped to take my mind off my healing.
Apparently, skin cancers in Canada are on the rise while operating room availability is on the decline. Wait times to get scheduled are from four to six months. I got lucky! My name came up on the cancellation list with barely 45 minutes to spare, so I jumped at the opportunity [gratitude!]. I had sweet-talked my way onto the cancellation list, by the way. The surgery clinic won't operate unless you have someone who'll leave with you, plus spend the day with you at the clinic. You're not allowed to leave once inside. The whole process took five hours. This was outpatient surgery, i.e. no local anesthetic; just multiple needles on the site with a local. The procedure calls for the surgeon to excise the area, then send the piece off to the pathologist who confirms that all the cancer was removed, before they return and tell you, "We got it all." If you don't hear these words, it could mean more surrounding tissue needs to be excised. In the meantime, your freezing wears off, while you wait for these results, and you may need to be stuck with needles all over again before being stitched up.
When all is said and done, and once the freezing wears off, boy oh boy, lemme tell ya the pain sets in real fast, as well as a whopper tension headache the night of. Swelling returns quickly, once you're no longer icing the area.
For those who've never gone through this before, the worst words to hear out of a dermatologist's mouth are, "You have cancer. It's deeply embedded and you need surgery, so I'm requesting an accelerated date," which were the precise words from my dermatologist. My palms immediately broke out into a sweat. It didn't matter at the time that I had gone through this before. You can never prepare yourself for getting a diagnosis of cancer. My skin cancer was considered the best kind, Basal cell cancer (as tho' there are best kinds 😅) but if left untreated, basal cell will become lethal. Back in Oct 2022, my dermatologist had examined this area and noted that it was fine, only for one year later to deliver a revised diagnosis. Cancer doesn't give two hoots about rules. The worst kinds of skin cancer are melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma, fast-growing and deadly. My attitude is don't dilly-dally. If you think there's an area which doesn't look right, get it checked out. And if you've had skin cancer before, statistically speaking, there's a 90% you'll get it again, just like me.
Being a good healer means to me that you eat right, and take care of yourself, and believe that your body will overcome this obstacle. The hardest part too is not being able to physically work out, and feeling the absence of this energy which comes from working out. I slowly re-introduced stretching into my morning routine but only in the third week.
Hope this information is of help to you, if you're going through something similar. A new surgical scar takes from 12 to 18 months to mature. I'll have to slather on SPF protection going forward, forever, unless I want the scar to turn a dark colour that cannot be undone. But again... I'm grateful for the surgery, to be alive. In fact, I'm quite fond of being alive.
I am also grateful for my friends, some of whom were considerate enough to make jokes about my surgery. One friend had sent me an email, which nearly made me choke on my coffee, as I tried to suppress my laughter. "When you're done healing, let's connect in person and together we can go looking for your missing eyebrow." 🤣😂😅 [If you don't laugh, for sure you'll cry].
Scars reminds us of the passage of time, that we've lived and survived, and will go on to tell another tale.
