Poor Glenyce’s face saga
Looking at the last several posts, it might seem as though I have a possibly unhealthy fixation upon mutilation or disfigurement. However, quite to the contrary, I am very interested in the healthy functioning of this wonderful mechanism in which we all appear to be encased for the duration of our lives.
The mysterious rash from several months ago has vanished completely, courtesy of my trust-worthy immune system. Glenyce’s right cheek featured recently, after the removal of a skin cancer, but I am glad to report that after a fortnight the stitches are now out and she is healing up quite well, as the following picture shows:
After he’d removed the above stitches, the dermatologist tackled a basal cell carcinoma high up on her left cheek, close to her eye. Using Moh’s surgery, he removed the extensive lesion, leaving an L-shaped wound with 20 stitches in it:
After he’d removed the offending tissue, there is a wait for the pathologist to do a microscopic study of the removed cancer cells, before the incision was stitched up. As it happens, based on those results, he needed to go in again and remove more tissue to get the carcinoma all out properly before closing the wound.
Now I have the task for the next fortnight of dressing the wound daily, with hydrogen peroxide, followed by vaseline, the latter minimizing scarring. I’m getting pretty good at using the dressing materials and the Micropore tape. My poor darling Glenyce is not all thrilled by this damage to her face, and concerned about her future appearance. But on the other hand we’re glad to have been under treatment by a surgeon who appears to be very good at his profession, and pleased to have been able to get rid of Glenyce’s nasty skin cancers.
Perhaps I should get him to give me the once-over, just in case!