The Nose Knows

The nose knows it hurts.

I made it through my MOHS surgery yesterday - they had to take two slices. It was close to being only the initial slice... after the first cut (and again, I cannot stress enough how absolutely heinous it is to have novocain injected into the side of one's nose) I had to wait an hour for the results. When they called me out of the little waiting room, the nurse happily said, "all clear - he got it all!". I was thrilled - I'm all, "stich me up and get me the hell out of here!". She left the room to find the doc, then came back extremely apologetic, saying that she was mistaken, there are two slivers he needs to take yet around the perimiter. Damn, and I was all excited to be done.

So after more novocain (this time wasn't as bad since I was pretty numbed up already) and a couple swishes of a knife, I was back in the waiting room. Good thing they told me to bring a book - thanks to my waiting time and Caro's Book of Poker Tells, I should rip it up at poker next week.

When I got called back again, this time it was a confirmed "all clear", and I only had to wait to be sewn up. They keep the doors open in the office, and that doctor was running around like the energizer bunny. Apparently a large number of people have some sort of need for MOHS surgery. When he finally ran into the room, amazingly not out of breath, I got even more novocain. Then the stiching began. I have never been conscious for stiches before. The only times I ever had stiches were when I had my wisdom teeth removed and when I had knee surgery. This whole being awake thing was going to be a whole new experience. And it was quite odd. All I felt was a whole shitload of pulling, streching, poking, and wiping. And I don't know what the hell he had to cauterize, but the stench was gross. Kind of like burning hair. It took him a long time to sew it up - he wanted to make sure the scar wasn't going to be visible. Hey, great with me - take your time! Dave said I was getting stiched for about 45 minutes. He fell asleep.

So I got to leave with a big honking bandage on my nose, some gauze bandages, and ointment to put on it. No drugs. Damn. I was supposed to take Tylenol or the like for pain.

I had to go back this morning so they could remove the big honking bandage, check out the area, and put a nice, smaller bandage on it. So now I'm finally able to see without a big white blob in front of my left eye, but it's starting to hurt much more now that the pressure is off of it. It's kind of a wierd sensation - kind of a cross between burning, pulling, and feeling like I got whacked in the face. I may pop a couple of Alleve soon.

I also got the distinct pleasure to see the area - this morning the nurse said something about it not being a very big area and I said I had no idea, I hadn't seen it. She whipped out a mirror and asked if I wanted to. Against my better judgement, I said yes.

Gross.

That's all I'm going to say. I'm going to have to make sure I do not eat before I go about cleaning the area like I'm supposed to. I mean, I'm not really squeamish or anything, I just have an aversion to seeing my own bloody areas. Bleh.

So I go back in a week to get the stiches out. I'm sure that will be a lovely experience - with more novocain.

Now I'm just going to try and keep under the radar until I don't have to wear this stupid bandage on my nose. I feel like a moron, like everyone's looking at it but trying not to look at it.

Oh well, at least the cancer is gone - I'm going to go pop some Alleve now.