What a week at the Christensen house! This past Wednesday morning Seth went in for his skin cancer to be removed. We got there at 7:15 and were there until 1:30! They removed the spot on his cheek, and then we waited for 45 minutes while they examined the cells to make sure it was cancer free. It wasn't, so he went back and they took another layer around the outside. Another 45 minute wait- still cancerous. After a 3rd try and another long wait, the cells came back negative, meaning that the cancer was all removed. Thank goodness!
Little did we know that the worst part was yet to come. Seth now had a nickel sized hole on his cheek where they had removed the tumor. If the doctor would have just stitched the hole together, it would have left a nasty scar. Instead, he cut all the way down Seth's cheek from the hole, which was under his eye, to just next to his lips, and then across the top of his cheekbone. He then took "the hook" and pulled the triangle flap of Seth's cheek that he had just cut, pulled it away from his face, and pulled it over to cover the hole. I don't know what was worse, that Seth was awake during all of this, or that I was there watching it. I'm sure it was worse for Seth!
He ended up having about 50 shots of anesthesia in his face, and had 59 stitches when all was said and done. He now has to wear a huge bandage that covers the entire right side of his face. The day after, he had a black eye and was very swollen and sore and had a hard time talking. He is slowly recovering, and is just relieved that the cancer is gone, and, as he says, going through what he went through is much better than chemo or other types of cancer treatments, so we should consider ourselves lucky.
After his appointment, I left to go to my follow up appointment with my Ob-Gyn from my surgery the week before. It was so hard to walk into that doctor's office and see all the pregnant women in the waiting room, and all the signs and pictures on the wall about pregnancy and babies. I was shaking uncontrollably, but I chalked that up to the fact that I hadn't eaten anything all day except for a Nutrigrain bar at Seth's appointment.
I kept it together until the doctor came in and looked at me sadly and asked "How are you doing?" I lost it then and could barely ask her any of my questions because I was crying too hard. Basically, she gave me a clean bill of health and said I was free to "try again" whenever I am emotionally ready. It's hard to know when that will be. On the one hand, I'm anxious to "try again" so that I have something positive to look forward to should we be lucky enough to get pregnant again. On the other hand, I'm scared to death that this could happen again, and I just don't know if I can go through it again right now. Time will tell.
All in all, a really yucky week. Add to it the stress of getting back to work and starting at new daycares and longer work weeks than usual because of meetings and trainings, and it's all just very overwhelming. Someone said to me that "it can only get better from here", and my first thought was "no, it could be worse, but I pray that it's not". It makes me count my blessings that we're all alive and healthy, we have jobs, and a house, and each other, and it definitely could be worse. Although this has undoubtedly been the hardest, most traumatic week for our family, I make myself stop and think every now and then of all that we have to be thankful for, because there is a lot.
2 comments:
Seth's ordeal sounds so terrible!! You have been through a rough week, you deserve a break from all the bad stuff! Hang in there. :)
Your strength will help everyone get through this hard time. You are an amazing person and I feel that god only gives us what he knows we can handle, even if it pushes us to our limits sometimes.
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