Pat & Claudia’s Blog

I thought we had more blogs than this after the first of the year. Perhaps I am thinking of the Monthly Letters I have written

You can see the area of concern and the little spots that Claudia and I thought were Age Spots. The red spot in the center is where Todd took the biopsy. GREAT call on his part.

for PBN, or the other blog with which I’m half way finished. Sandy was working on the pages, and I just KNEW we lost one, but probably not.

Anyway….

I wanted to get this up here quickly, as the bandage is still on my face. The wound was left open in case Todd needed to do a little more cleaning up around the edges. I’ll find out this Thursday, when he cleans it up and closes it. I’m REALLY ready to get this bandage off my face. You should see the people trying NOT to look at it

After the surgery, the bandage was to stay on my face for 48 hours, then for the next week it was to be changed every day. Mandy did that for me. She was GREAT.

On the left is Janice, the Medical Assistant, and on the right is Dr. Todd Williams, the Dermatologist. Janice was very good at preparing the area for Todd to do the Surgery. I felt NOTHING, except the needle going in to numb it. Some of the pics I will display were actually taken by Todd, who stopped the surgery to help you see better what was taking place. Todd is a BELIEVER IN YESHUA, and lives it around his patients. He puts us all at ease with his great patient care.

The melanoma was almost found by “accident”, although WE know Jesus was really the one pointing it out. Todd (The Dermatologist) had checked me over and used liquid nitrogen on some little trouble spots, and he was about to leave the room. Just as an after thought I pointed between my left eye and left ear and said, “What is this… and DON’T tell me it is Age Spots.” Really, they looked like age spots, but I thought I would ask him, KNOWING he would say… “Oh, those are just age spots.” BUT, he didn’t. He stopped and said, “How did I miss that? I think we need to take a biopsy of that.” Sure enough, the lab confirmed it was Melanoma which was spreading.

Tell me THAT wasn’t Jesus that prompted that???!!!

Well, the pictures will tell the story.

Here Janice continues numbing the area. You can see the numbing agent building up in the area. Janice was very good, trying hard not to cause pain.

Here you can see Janice's finished product. She had nicely prepared the area for the surgery, making sure I would feel NOTHING!

Todd begins the process of cutting around the edges of the melanoma. Believe it or not, I am taking these pictures.

Two sides and the bottom have now been cut, and Todd is carefully pulling up the flap, as Janice catches any blood that tries to escape. I am feeling nothing but a little pulling.

Todd has just about finished removing the Melanoma. He asked me if I wanted a better picture of it, and of course I handed him the camera. He asked another nurse to come hold the flap of skin for him, and as Janice kept the blood at bay, he snapped this picture.

The flap of skin is gone. Janice keeps the blood from running down my face as Todd snaps the picture. Quite a large area, but he thinks he got it all. We will see on Thursday.

Smoke Rising. Flesh burning. Todd begins the job of cutting off the bleeding by cauterizing the area. Yes, I'm actually taking the picture.

It resembles, and actually is the size, of a pepperoni. Todd has done a great job of cauterizing the area, and Janice cleaned it up quite nicely.

This is about 4 days later. Janice's bandages have made way for Mandy's. Mandy has done a great job of keeping the area clean, dry and covered.

This entry was posted by Pat on Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012 at 3:13 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.