Plastic Surgery #2 is TODAY

So it has almost been a month since I had MOHS surgery and my first plastic surgery. Since the last time I posted my nose looks completely different.

10 days after the plastic surgery I was able to have the stitches removed. They immediately covered the stitch marks with steri-strips. Steri-strips are a very sticky tape that kept the area really tight where the stitches had been. I had to keep these on for a week. As you can see I was back to big hair and big jewelry! : ) Minus the ugly bandages, I was back to my normal self.





After a week, the steri-strips were removed and I was able to be bandage free. BUTTTT... I did not feel comfortable going out and about with my "elephant trunk" ( I will explain in just a second) so I opted to cover it up with a bandage every day.



Under the bandage is my "elephant trunk" which is really a bridge. This bridge is there to keep the new skin on my nostril alive. Without this the new patch of skin would die. This "elephant trunk" or bridge as most call it will be removed during my second plastic surgery (which is today in about an hour)



As you can see from the picture the new skin is healthy and growing just fine. (This is why I finally get to have the bridge removed! YAY!) So far the doctor says everything looks GREAT and I agree! I am so pleased with everything. The scar on my cheek is not really noticeable at all when I smile. It blends in right with my "smile crease". With time and microdermabrasion all of the scars will be less noticeable. As for now, I am very pleased! : )



So far everything is going perfectly on schedule as the doctor had anticipated. Thank goodness that today the "elephant trunk"/ bridge will be gone! Very excited to not look abnormal but very nervous about the surgery. Especially the numbing shots. But it is all worth it. I cant wait to say farewell to the weird looking face below!





I got my ipod ready to go for surgery. I don't know how much pain will come with this surgery (praying not much at all) so depending on that I will post soon with pictures and details.

Love, Staci

Oh and one more thing! One of my dearest friends had this owl pillow made for me. Isin't it so cute! I love it. Thanks LG! (Made by Audie Oopie)

One Week Down

So it has been one week since I had the Basal Cell removed from my nose. This has literally been the longest week of my life. Although Brian already explained the plastic surgery to you in the last post I would like to provide everyone with some insight on the surgery. The beginning was definitely the worst part. Dr.Parker began by drawing the incision marks on my face (explaining everything to Cole as he took the gruesome pictures that Brian posted in the last post). Next came the shots. To be honest shots never have scared me. I never understood this fear that people had of a little prick until NOW. I received shots (too many to count) on my entire left cheek, left ear, upper lip and nose that numbed the area. These shots were much worse than the day before during the MOHS surgery. Cole had to step out of the room for a little bit during all of the shots. It was not pleasant and I cried a bunch. So after I couldn't feel anything, including my teeth (doctor said it shares some of the same veins or something) we began the process. Cole thought he was going to get to catch the whole thing on camera but they made him step out to the waiting room. Luckily, one of the nurses told me to bring my iPod to help calm myself so I put that on (Adam's Song by Blink 182 began the surgery). They covered my eyes and the right side of my face with rags and we began. Because I was given the numbing shots I did not feel any of the cutting but the pulling and tugging was very apparent. I could not feel pain but I could feel pressure. As I laid there trying not to cry, trying to block out the sounds of the surgery (I could only put the head phones in my right ear because they were going to be cutting on my left ear for cartilage so I could still hear everything) I knew it had been longer than the anticipated 45 minutes. I remember hearing the vacuum and then Dr.Parker tell one of the nurses that she could go home. That is when I KNEW it was way past time. I prayed and talked myself through most of it. 2 hours later we were done. My first mistake happened when the nurse asked if I wanted to see it. Of course I said yes. I looked for about 2 seconds and then handed the mirror back and said that's enough. Cole came back and they explained everything as I cried some more. (I am now wondering how I have tears left) Cole of course comforted me, he learned how to bandage me up and we were on our way out the door. Kendra and Brian were waiting with hugs in the waiting room! So on our way out the door I began to bleed through the bandage because they were not able to stitch a small area of my nose because of the swelling. One of the nurses gave us special gauze to hold on the area. I bled the whole way home. Thankfully Cole was okay with the blood control and driving at the same time. Once I got home and into bed, I was out! I just wanted to sleep. All the medicines together made me very nauseous so I had to eat which was not fun because of the swelling in my face and the stitches in my cheek. Mom hand fed me mashed potatoes and soup that night.

The next day mom stayed home with me. Which I am very thankful for because I don't think I would have made it without her. She took great care of me! Mom has to change the bandage and clean the area everyday. I was very nervous for my mom to see my face because I really felt like a monster. I warned her and warned her and when she removed the bandage she didn't cry or make a facial expression at all. She made me feel much better. Even if she was hurting inside she never showed it. This is me, the day after the surgery. Scary, I know.


The days to follow were very much the same. Pain, take medicine, throw up (because I didn't eat enough... finally I got that part down) and most of all SLEEP. Sunday I started to feel much better. I got out of the house and it felt great! Here are pictures of me on Sunday (this is just during the cleaning, otherwise it is completely bandaged up)





Yesterday, I went back to the doctor. They were supposed to take all of the stitches out but they ended up only taking out the stitches in my ear and cheek. The ones in my nose were not quite ready. I will go back on Friday to get the rest taken out.

For right now I am just praying that everything goes smooth and works how it is anticipated. I will have another plastic surgery in 4 weeks to put this nose of mine back together. Dr.Parker promised me that in the end I will be back to normal! : ) Oh how I can't wait to just look normal again!

This couldn't come any faster... time PLEASE fly by!

Having a wonderful family and great friends has made this experience so much easier. I have the best parents that are always here for my every need and two awesome brothers and sister-in-laws that continually stop by to check up on me and of course an amazing boyfriend that is here every night! The house is full of flowers, gifts and inspirational cards from wonderful people in my life. Thank you all for the great words of inspiration and encouragement. Brittany, one of my Chi Omega sorority sisters, emailed me this last night and I wanted to share with y'all how sweet it was.

(If it is too small for you to read, it is a $25 donation to the Skin Cancer Foundation in honor of ME!)

I am such a lucky girl to have all of you!

I also wanted to thank everyone for passing my blog along to others. It brings a smile to my face that my story is being passed along and others are learning from my experience.

I will update again on Friday after I get my stitches out of my nose.

Oh and about the Job Interview... I thought it went great but I didn't get the job. The principal called to tell me they decided to go with someone with more experience. So... the job search is still on.

Love, Staci

Plastic Surgery

This post is going to be a little different than the previous entries...mainly because this is Brian (Staci's boyfriend) filling in for Staci post op.

Well, today was the big day for various reasons. Mainly because of the plastic surgery but also for her interview. From what I was told prior to the surgery, it went really well. Let's all cross our fingers she get this!

Now for the surgery...

Originally I took off Tuesday and Wednesday to be there with Staci but after Tuesday passed, Staci told me she didn't think it was necessary for me to go today. (I wasn't to thrilled about this because I felt I needed to be there for her) So I told her I would go ahead and cancel my day off and go to work. Well, I did go to work, but showed up right before the surgery. :) I just couldn't take being at work wondering if everything was going ok. When we arrived at the office we only sat down for a brief moment before they called her back. I wished her good luck and assured her everything would be fine, as did her brother Cole. (He was today's hero really) The doctors had informed us today's procedure would only take about 45 minutes but that was a little off as it lasted around 2 hours. Dr. Parker made sure to take extra care of my pretty girl and that everything went smoothly. Basically they took some cartilage from behind her ear to place on her nose. Once the cartilage was in place, they made another incision on the crease of her mouth to take skin from so it could be the same kind. ( If you smile, it's the line on either side of your lips like big dimples). Next they made a "bridge" from her cheek to her nose to cover up the rest of the nose. Once she was done she came into the lobby bandaged up with some tears in her eyes. We assured her she would be alright and she looked great. Cole taxied Staci home as quickly as possible because there was some slight bleeding (no worries it's just from all the swelling) but Cole took care of that with some of his handy paramedic skills from being a fireman. Dr. Parker let her and us know everything went great with the surgery and she will be healed up perfect as ever in no time. For the time being, Staci is in a great deal of pain (as would anyone if they had 60 shots or so and their face worked on) but she has some good meds to make her feel better with some rest along with a great family to take care of her every need. She is currently in bed with Chanel getting some sleep while I type this and requested that I blogged for her.

I would like to personally thank all of her friends and family that have sent their thoughts/prayers or just a simple something to her during this time. (Thank you Kendra for showing up today, very sweet of you) It really means a lot to me and to Staci of course that she has some great friends and family that truly care about her. I honestly do not know of a stronger person than Staci. She has been so tough and positive through out this whole ordeal I don't know if I could have personally gone through it. She really is my hero (as corny as that sounds, it's true) and I can't tell you how lucky I am to have someone as strong as her in my life.

I'm sure most of you are wondering what her nose looks like... well we were able to take a few quick pictures to show all of you. They are pretty graphic so just beware... oh yeah, I promise Staci said it was ok to post these. I actually didn't want to but she insisited just in case you guys were wondering. :)

This is before plastic surgery and AFTER all the cancer is gone.


Here's a close up of it with the lines drawn on her where Dr. Parker will take skin from.


This is her ear where they took the cartilage from. (It's very swollen)


Here is a picture after the plastic surgery at home. Notice the swelling and "pre black eye"




Well, that's how today went and thank you again to everyone!

-Brian aka Taco Boy

Round Two- MOHS Surgery

I had to go back for round two. When I got back to the surgery room my doctor ended up having to give me a hefty number of additional shots in my nose because all of the original medication had worn off (This was not normal. The medication should have lasted but I seemed to have a high tolerance to it. It would wear off at a very quick rate.) Lets just say I couldn't stop crying during the rounds of shots. It hurt super bad!! Besides the shots, I got some good news and some bad news. During this round they would have to take additional cells out and go deep into my nostril. Dr.Parker told me that he is definitely going to have to use the cartilage from my ear tomorrow during the plastic surgery to form a new nostril. So that is the bad news. Good news is that the area is not larger in area than expected. This is great news because sometimes the whole area is not visible by eye and they could have to take a large area of skin off (For example, it could have spread to my cheek or to the other side of my nose. Luckily this was NOT the case) SO it was great that it was just the left side of my nostril like Dr.Parker had expected but not so great that it was deep into the layers of skin. After Dr.Parker explained everything to me and the shots had kicked in, we began round two. It seemed to take a longer amount of time. During the beginning of the process you don't hear or feel much of anything. The only thing I could hear was the sound of Dr.Parker breathing and the only thing I could feel was the nurses finger way up my nose. The smell of the latex glove deep in my nose was not pleasant. I'm guessing this is when he is just removing the cells. I am not positive as to what is going on because my face is completely covered by a towel with a hole in it for my nose. I literally can't see anything. After the silent process a loud machine is turned on that sounds like a saw with a mixture of the sound that is made when you spray shaving cream. The smell that is produced by this machine is horrid. It smells like burnt skin. My doctor said that this machine stops the bleeding. Thank the Lord above that I can't feel any of this. After that I was bandaged and sent to the waiting room where I found myself crying uncontrollably. Being able to look down and see that most of my nostril was missing was very hard for me. Luckily Mom and Brian were there to help me through it all. After waiting one and a half hours the nurse called me back again to tell me that I was DONE FOR TODAY. I was so relieved that they were able to get all the cancer out during round two. The nurse explained that I needed to keep my head elevated and to not remove the bandage. I was prescribed pain medication, we paid and by 1:00 PM we were on our way out the door.

Mom, Brian and I went to Cheesecake Factory to eat lunch. I fell asleep on the drive home and then came home and immediately went to bed. About 30 minutes ago I was woken up by a stream of blood running out of the bandages. The nurse explained that this might happen and that I would need to apply pressure for 30 minutes to stop the bleeding. Mom, Cody (my brother) and I finally got it to stop bleeding.

Here is a picture of the bandage after Round Two (notice it is much larger and thicker from the bandage from Round One)


Here is a picture of my current self, laying in bed with Chanel. My poor pup is so worried that she won't leave my sight. It's amazing how dogs have that sense.


That is all for today. I will just be laying in bed, trying to keep my head elevated. Tomorrow at 2:30 PM I will have the plastic surgery to put my nose back together. I will post all about it when it's over. Tomorrow is not only a big day because my nose will be put back together but it's also very important because I have a job interview at 1:00 PM. I know it sounds crazy to go to an interview with this big, ugly bandage on my nose but I can not let the opportunity slip through my fingers. There is nothing more that I want in this world than to have a classroom of amazing little ones to teach when school begins and I was afraid that if I rescheduled the opportunity would slip away and I would regret that forever. Tomorrow I will be put to the test with my confidence and strength. It's sad but I am more nervous about the job interview than the plastic surgery.

I also want to say THANK YOU for all the prayers, text messages, facebook comments and phone calls from amazing friends and family. Y'all are the ones who help me keep my head up! : )

Love,
Staci

MOHS Surgery

Today is the day of my MOHS surgery to remove the Basal Cell Skin Cancer on my nose. MOHS surgery is very unique in its precision. Instead of removing the tumor and a large area of normal skin around it, Dr.Parker will be able to remove the minimum amount of skin with this process. This morning I began the process at 7:45. I started with numbing shots in my nose by Dr.Parker and then a couple more by the nurse. After the medicine started working and I was no longer able to feel anything it was time to take the first layer off. It was an eternity of scraping (which was only like 15 minutes in reality) and then I was bandaged up and sent to the waiting room (which is where I am now). I will wait for approximately an hour and a half while they look at the skin under a microscope for malignant cells. If I still have cancerous cells after they observe it I will continue this process (remove a layer, check it, remove a layer, check it) until I am cancer free. Lets hope they only have to do it one more time! Here is a picture. Attractive... I know. (Sarcasm)

How to protect yourself from the sun!

As I was packing my suitcase for Hawaii (hats and tons of sunscreen of course), I realized that in my last post I did not tell everyone what Dr.Parker told me about protecting myself from those nasty rays! I thought this would be great information to pass along.

1) Being that Basal Cell is very common on the face, hats are a wonderful accessory to help protect yourself. I have a great assortment that I have packed for Hawaii to match all my bathing suits!

2) Sunscreen should be worn everyday. If your like me all you can think of is the smell and feel of the thick and very potent lotion on your body everyday. Dr.Parker introduced me to Neutrogena sunscreen and I love it. Not thick and best of all it doesn't smell like sunscreen! For daily protection I apply Neutrogena's Ultra Sheer Liquid Daily Sunscreen SPF 70 to my face. This water-light texture spreads easily over skin, absorbing instantly for an invisible, weightless feel. It also provides an even, non-shiny finish that works beautifully alone or under makeup and moisturizers.



For the rest of my body I use Neutrogena's Spectrum+ Advanced Sunblock Lotion SPF 100+. This product features Helioplex360™, a breakthrough, advanced sunscreen technology that delivers comprehensive, stabilized protection from the major causes of sun damage: UVA, UVB and Oxidative Damage. Best of all it doesn't stink and it's lightweight.



You can buy these Neutrogena sunscreens basically anywhere! (Wal-Mart, Target, Tom Thumb, CVS... every place has it!)

3) What to wear when in the water, sweating, playing sports and all of those fun summer activities? Dr. Parker recommended 2 different brands. He told me that Bull Frog and Blue Lizard are the BEST! He said he uses Blue Lizard on himself so I took that as saying Blue Lizard was absolutely the best of the two. I researched Blue Lizard and everyone is raving about this stuff! Blue Lizard is a sunscreen line dedicated to promoting healthy skin and reducing incidents of SKIN CANCER! : ) This stuff is the BEST OF THE BEST! You can visit their website at http://www.crownlaboratories.com/bluelizard/ When at their website you will notice that at the current time you can not order the sunscreen online because they are currently OUT OF STOCK. Yep, sold of out sunscreen!!! Due to the overwhelming demand and the superior rating and press that BLUE LIZARD is receiving they are out of stock online. But no worries, you can still get some! CVS drug store carries it. That is where I got mine. I used it the other day when my niece and I went to Six Flags, swimming and had a tea party. We were in the sun all day and didn't get burnt one bit! It was amazing! It didn't feel sticky or greasy and it was extremely water resistant. Oh and if you have children they will love the bottle! Why you ask? It turns color when in UV light. (Don't worry, it's just the bottle. Not the actual sunscreen.)









And those are your sun protection tips. Enjoy!

Now it's off to Hawaii I go! 30 minutes until we board the plane! Hello Paradise!!



-Staci

Welcome To My Not So Sunny Experience

Where to begin? Lets start with a little bit about me (just in case someone decides to read about my experience that doesn't know me). I am 22 years old and this past May I graduated from Texas State University with a degree in Elementary Education.

I have a wonderful family, an awesome boyfriend, amazing friends and a super cute puppy!

Oh and one other thing, I have Basal Cell Skin Cancer. This being the reason I am here, writing about my experience. Through this blog I will post stories, pictures and explanations of everything I experience during this journey of having skin cancer at 22 years old. At first I had decided to keep this whole "skin cancer" thing to my family only (honestly I didn't even want to tell my friends) but I have decided that it was pretty selfish of me. I realized this after all of the hours of googling and searching for a story or pictures of a young person with skin cancer and only finding pictures and stories of people over the age of 60. I found tons of news articles saying that skin cancer is on the rise for young individuals but I could never actually find anything about their surgery, what their scar looked like, nothing. So I figured that there will be another youngster in the future searching and searching for someone to relate to and hopefully they will find this blog and feel a little more at ease. Here it is, my story:

Two weeks ago I decided to visit my dermatologist about this flaky bump on my nose that wouldn't go away. It had been there for quite some time and I thought it was just a really annoying pimple. I figured my dermatologist would give me some cream and everything would be okay. Here are some pictures that I found where you can kind of see it. It is on my left nostril. I'm not one to go out in public without makeup, much less take a picture, so it was hard to find pictures where you could actually see it. These will have to do.

So 5 minutes into the doctors visit, I was completely caught off guard. My dermatologist explained that he thought I might have Basal Cell Carcinoma and that he needed to do a skin biopsy. WHAT!?? That NEVER ONCE had crossed my mind. Skin Cancer at 22 years old? At this point I began to feel a little nervous. The nurse gave me 6 shots in my nose to numb the area and after I could no longer feel my nose, my dermatologist scrapped the top layer of the area off. They explained that they would send the skin sample off and I would know the results in 5-7 days. Here is a picture of my nose 2 days after the skin biopsy. ( I cringe posting these horrible pictures of myself for the world to see...)

The next week I got the phone call. The nurse explained that the results came back positive for Basal Cell Skin Cancer. Basal Cell is the world's most common cancer, with more than one million people diagnosed every year in the US alone. Almost all basal cell carcinomas occur on parts of the body excessively exposed to the sun. Being that this type of skin cancer rarely spreads, the nurse explained that I was "lucky" because I had the 'best' kind of skin cancer. (I bet you can guess how "lucky" I felt at that moment.) The nurse referred me to a MOHS surgeon (MOHS surgery is a micrographic surgery that is the most effective and state-of-the-art procedure for skin cancer today). In two days I found myself sitting in Dr. Berlin's room. Lets just say that things didn't go over so well with Dr.Berlin and myself. He briefly examined my nose and had me read a 5 page packet about MOHS surgery. After I had educated myself about the surgery the doctor explained to me that he has 90 year old patience and then ME (that made me feel GREAT about myself!!) Finding out you have skin cancer and then being yelled at because you have have it at such a young age was not the best experience I have ever had. He believed my nose would need extensive reconstructive surgery that he would not be able to perform. He told me that I would need to see a plastic surgeon the day after he got the cancer out. After that I decided that it would be best that I see another doctor.

Two days ago I met Dr. Thornwell Parker. One of the nurses that works with my mom referred us to him. The great thing about Dr.Parker is that he is a MOHS surgeon and a plastic surgeon all in one! Everything about this visit was completely different than my original visit with Dr.Berlin (or as my mom and dad refer to him as Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde) Dr.Parker actually explained the surgery ( I didn't have to read a packet about it), he examined the rest of my body to make sure he didn't see additional spots (the other doctor did not do this) and best of all he did not bash me for having skin cancer at 22 years old. He explained that he would do whatever it takes to make me look normal after its all over and done with and that everything will be okay! : ) Having a doctor with confidence made everything seem 100% better.

I leave for Hawaii on Sunday so I had to put the surgery off until after vacation. Dr. Parker will do the surgery on Tuesday, July 6th at 7:45 a.m. and then he will do the reconstructive surgery the following day at 2:10 p.m. During the surgery I will not be put "under" (they told me to bring something to keep myself busy because it might take awhile) so I will update the blog with pictures and information throughout the surgery.

Here is a picture of my nose today, two weeks after the skin biopsy. It really doesn't matter what it looks like since it will be cut off in two weeks but I sure am glad makeup can cover up the scab for Hawaii!

- Staci