Visit to the Blgs docs

Gma had a doctor appt in Blgs to have a little skin cancer taken off her eyelid. She thought she had a sty there and it popped one day. She told her eye doc about it at her last appt and he said it was a cancer growth. When she went to her regular physical check up doc she told him about it. He looked at it closely and thought it could be, but she should see a dermatologist or have the eye doc fix it. She called the eye doc and he set up this appt with the real pro in Blgs.

That was for Tuesday morning at 9:30, so we went to Hdn the day before. I'd rather drive an hour in the a.m. than two. And you never can tell about the weather. Besides they are doing massive road construction between Belfry and Bridger. I understand they are doing construction the other way as well (through Powell).

Anyway we did our thing and got to Blgs at the appointed time. The doc checked out her eyelid bump and took a bit off to analyze it. Came back as some sort of lesion that started with a C and is non cancerous. Its a hereditary thing. So I'll probably get one someday as well. Now I know what it is I can deal with that.

As the doc was explaining all this to Gma and making sure she was ok he looked at me and asked what I was doing with a ------ on my nose. So he got me in the chair for a better look and decided it was definitely a cancer thing and should come off. The sooner the better. How about now? Figured that was impossible and I'd have to go back and get a referral. OK. Come back at 2:00 p.m. He had the nurses set up an appointment for that time. We could get lunch, go shopping or whatever. That was ok with Gma. Wow! I wasn't planning on this, but........

Pat was in Blgs that day so I called her and we had time to meet for coffee before her dental appt. Were going to Appleby's , but they weren't open yet, so we went to IHOP. By then it was 11:00 so Gma and I had pancakes and eggs with our coffee. Pat had toast and coffee. But it was a good visit. After that Pat went her way and we took a scenic drive out King Ave to Shiloh Road and back on the frontage road. Decided we'd go ahead back to the clinic and people watch in their big lobby. We just had half an hour to kill, no time to do anything else.

At my appointed time I was there and they explained what they were doing which I kinda knew as Gma has had this procedure done before. So they took out the bump which actually looked kinda big. Then they had to run it through the lab to see if they got it all. If not they do it all again. Takes at least 45 minutes. So we waited. Came back that they got it all. Now they had to graft some skin from my neck behind my ear to fill the hole. It was a rather sizable hole. They showed it to me with a mirror. The skin grafting procedure took awhile as they had to numb my neck and measure the hole and stuff. Then they cut that part and had to re-numb my nose so they could sew it in. Then they sewed a plastic thingy over that to hold it up so it won't collapse. Also put a big gauze piece up my nostril to help keep pressure on and also helps hold all the other stuff in place. They didn't cover up my eyes so I could see some of what was going on. They said if the light bothered they could cover my eyes. I wanted to be able to see.

After all the stitching and bandaging they froze off three other little spots on my cheek that are pre-cancer sun spots. They said they could do those later if I wanted when I come back for a check up in May. I said "I'm here now, do it and be done with it all.". So they did.

Now I have instructions on how to behave. No heavy lifting, no rigorous exercise, can't bend down to pick up stuff or tie my shoes. Have to keep my head above my heart. Apparently I'm a bleeder so have to be careful and take it easy. I can do that. I can't sneeze or blow my nose either. That might be a problem. So far so good though. Get the stitches out in 10 days and can do that in Cody. They set up the appt. I can take the bandage off my neck Friday and then may not have to put a bandage back on it. Depends on whether it leaks or not.

So I guess I'm going to live. I was sort of broken and they fixed me. I really like this cancer doc. He's very good and has good bedside manner too. He did a great job on Gma. She likes him too.

Was surprised he'd take me on right then, since I didn't have an appt or referral. Anyway its done now. Don't have to wonder when I'm going to get around to doing something about it now.