My experience with skin cancer, part 3: The Recovery

Catch up on part one here.

Catch up on part two here.

Sleep that first night was rough.  I had been instructed to try to sleep in a slightly propped up position, to keep blood away from my head and avoid swelling or bleeding.  I piled up three pillows and tried to sleep that way for a few hours, but soon gave up and discarded a pillow, laying down on my good ear.  I was comfortable enough laying down but was feeling a lot of pain and soreness, especially in my ear.  I didn't want to have to take more of the Tramadol, but the Tylenol just wasn't cutting it (they had advised me not to take Advil or aspirin).  I did get through the night on just Tylenol, but it wasn't very restful.

I was up on Thursday morning (the day after the surgery) to see the girls off for school-- I took a dose of Tylenol as soon as I woke up.  After the girls were off, I chatted with Mom and Dad for a bit while we had our breakfast and drank some coffee.  I then retired to my room/office-- I had several hours' worth of grading to catch up on, that I had postponed until this recovery time because I knew I would just be sitting around and trying not to move very much.  I did not anticipate, however, how distracting the pain would be.

As my Tylenol started to wear off the pain became very intense.  It was all in my ear-- my nose felt pretty much fine.  But the pain was beginning to radiate through my ear canal, across the front of my face, and into my head.  I began to realize that it was probably the extremely tight pressure bandage on my ear that was causing everything to be so painful.  I managed to focus for about 45 minutes of grading before the pain became unbearable, and in my desperation I decided to take another Tramadol.  I knew it would probably render me useless for most of the rest of the day, but I also knew that I would be able to remove the pressure bandage later that day after the 24 hour mark, so I would most likely be in less pain after that and able to finish my grading in the morning.

My hunch was right-- I took the Tramadol and laid down, and within 20 minutes I was asleep and slept for about an hour and a half.  When I woke up the pain was much better!!!  That's one thing I can say for the Tramadol, it was GREAT for pain.  Feeling somewhat refreshed and a bit hungry after the nap, I went downstairs to get some lunch.  Mom and Dad had returned from a few errands they were running for me, and we ate together.  As I was still feeling mildly sedated from the Tramadol, I didn't do much that afternoon other than watch T.V.  Mom and Dad joined me in more binge-watching Downton Abbey.

The girls had their usual dance commitments for Thursday afternoon so M was home to get them off the bus, pack some leftovers for dinner, and whisk N and C away to their classes.  J and L stayed home and finished up our binge watch with us, and then we began warming up leftovers for dinner.  After dinner, before M and C got home, I decided to start the process of removing my pressure bandage from my ear.  I gathered all the necessary supplies to clean and re-bandage it.  I had originally thought I would remove the pressure bandage and clean it myself, but as the time came I asked my Mom if she would be in the room to help me, just in case.

Together we removed the ace bandage wrap around my head, and I was able to remove the gauze dressing from the ear myself.  This was my first look at the ear wound and it was pretty ugly at the time.  The skin on my entire ear was bright red and purple from having been wrapped so tightly, and the wound itself was about nickel-sized, the same as the one I had seen on my nose the previous day.  The positive side was that the medical foam had helped it scab over and there was no bleeding when I removed the gauze.

My wound care instructions said to clean it with soap and water, but I couldn't bring myself to do that on the first day when it was still so painful.  I had decided to just use a q-tip to dab it with antibiotic ointment, and then re-do the bandage.  As soon as I started to try doing this I began to get extremely lightheaded and had to sit down.  I was glad at that point that I had asked my mom to be in the room with me!  When I sat down I had a huge wave of nausea and thought I might throw up for a second.  With deep breaths that passed, and gradually the lightheadedness passed as well.  It took about five minutes before I felt I could continue with the bandaging.  My mom and my dad both helped me finish up with a loosely fitting gauze bandage.  I still felt weak from the episode of lightheadedness, but almost as soon as I had the pressure bandage off, pain levels were SO much better.

After more vegging out, we all went to bed.  Sleep was a lot better that second night without the pressure bandage.  I still couldn't turn over onto my right side because any pressure on my ear was painful, but things were so much better overall.

The next day, Friday morning, was the second day after my surgery.  I woke up feeling much less pain.  I was up in time to eat breakfast with my girls before they left for school.  After finishing breakfast and coffee, I decided to use my beginning-of-day energy to complete the grading I had to do.  I sat down with my computer and, thankfully, felt well enough to complete the few remaining work tasks I had to do for the week-- grading and submitting evidence for my evaluation portfolio.  It felt great to have it done early in the day.

As I was working I took occasional breaks to get up and get snacks, refill my water, etc.  Moving around felt pretty good, but I was still having occasional feelings of dizzyness, lightheadedness and some stomach cramping.  I had been told to expect swelling and bruising in the 48 hours following the surgery, and of course pain, but I hadn't been warned about the lightheadedness.  After some Google searching I determined that it was probably a side effect of the Tramadol, and the stomach cramping was likely from the antibiotic.  Because opiate drugs can take 48 hours to leave the body, I figured I would wait another two days to see if the lightheadedness abated before feeling too concerned about it.  I felt some relief that, with the pressure bandage off, it was unlikely that I would need to take any more Tramadol.  I also knew that the first 48 hours were very important for healing the skin graft-- along with no bending or lifting I had been advised to avoid anything that might elevate my heart rate or increase blood flow: exercise, drinking alcohol, getting too warm, etc.  So I literally sat most of the day, despite feeling a bit better, pain-wise.  It was very strange for me to be moving so little, but I was trying to "be good" and follow my instructions.

My parents left mid-morning that day to meet some local friends for lunch.  After I finished my work I got up briefly to change out of my pjs and fix some lunch for myself.  I felt fortunate that we had lots of healthy leftovers that I had cooked in the week before my surgery.  I was trying to eat lots of fruits, vegetables, and nourishing foods to speed the healing process.

After lunch I returned to the couch.  Luckily Jemmy was napping right next to me for most of the day.  I think he sensed I needed a friend.

In the afternoon I began writing this series of blog posts, and then as I began to get more tired and feel more pain I switched to reading for a while and watching TV.  Again it felt very, very weird to be doing so much sitting.  When Mom and Dad came home they found me right where they left me!  Eventually the girls came home from school and we continued our resting and relaxation into the evening.  Mom and Dad helped me pop some frozen pizzas into the oven that I had reserved in the freezer for this occasion.  We talked through our plans for the next day, as there were several things going on-- art class for C, an all-day rehearsal for L's Districts Orchestra and her concert in the late afternoon.  I had had to spend part of my morning work time arranging transportation and chaperones for all the students participating in the Districts Orchestra event, because I had decided it was best to play it safe and not push myself to drive students an hour away and attend the all-day rehearsal.  So that evening all we had to do was talk through how to get our family all there.  L packed up her concert clothes and her music, and we planned to have her pack a lunch in the morning.  Then we all settled in for the night.

Before bed that night M helped me change my ear dressing.  I still got a bit lightheaded once I had it off and did have to sit down for a minute, but it was nowhere near as bad as it had been the previous day.  I just had to sit for a few seconds and then I recovered and was able to finish the ear dressing by myself.  M just held my hair back for me :)

Everyone woke up Saturday morning and our first task was to get L ready and out the door by 8.  M drove her to her fellow cello player's house and her parents drove L to the rehearsal (so thankful for them!).  I decided that my task for the remainder of the morning would be trying to get myself presentable enough to be seen in public.  Of course I hadn't showered since Wednesday morning (only sponge-bathed) and it was now Saturday.  My hair was pretty dirty and my ear and nose bandages were clearly visible.

Because I wasn't allowed to remove the nose bandage or get it wet at all, there was nothing to be done for that one.  However, because my ear was feeling far less painful, I decided to try a regular band-aid so I could hide it underneath my hair.  After a sponge bath, a dry shampoo, some clean clothes, and an ear band-aid, I was feeling halfway presentable and ready to be seen in public for L's concert.

A huge improvement over being one big walking bandage two days before this.

We had agreed that Dad would drive to the concert as I was still having occasional dizzy spells (definitely a side effect of the Tramadol... these stopped happening by the next day).  We all attended the concert and it was wonderful!

Getting through that first hurdle of being seen in public gave me confidence that, if pain levels continued to improve, I would be able to return to work the following week!

To be continued...

Move on to part 4 here!