Monday 19 November 2012

Z looks like a pirate

Yo ho ho, darlings, I may have missed Talk Like a Pirate day, but at least I can look like one for a couple of hours.  I can take this off soon in fact, but I'm keeping it on for long enough for the children to laugh at me.

I'll put in photos, but to save you from any gruesomeness you'd rather not see, I'll insert a break and put them after that (I hope I can work out how to do that).

First they sent me downstairs to the medical photography place to have pictures taken.  I felt a bit of an idiot, having a young man asking me to look at the camera, look at the ceiling, sit up straight, left a bit...while he took photos of a lump on my eye.  Then back to the eye unit - it had taken half an hour's waiting, so someone had gone ahead of me, but that was okay.  A sweet nurse called Zerlina (that is, her name was the same as little z's real one) took my blood pressure, which was 151/82 and therefore quite a bit higher than usual, and asked me to read the chart.  I was wearing my glasses and was able to read it from top to bottom with either eye, which rather impressed me, as I can't always do that.

I waited a bit longer - Dilly and Hay were with me, but eventually went off to get some tea - and another nurse came and gave me some plastic bags to wear over my shoes - that is, they were elasticated and intended for the purpose - and then took me through to sign the consent form.  The surgeon met me there and went to get ready.  I was given a head cover, highly becoming I'm sure, to keep my hair out of the way, anaesthetic drops were put in my eyes, then iodine to clean the eye to be done, then we went into the theatre.  Once I was lying on the operating table, I had another drop put into my right eye, then he injected a local anaesthetic into my eyelid,* then it was clamped open.  The lights were extremely bright.  The procedure itself was very quick.  When he started to put the clamp on, I began the 17 times table, which is the best for distraction purposes.  May, the nice nurse, held my hand but I didn't need to squeeze, I saw the lesion being dropped into the bowl as I reached 17 times 5 is 85.  The surgeon said he reckoned it was a mole.  It'll be sent for analysis, but no one thinks it'll be a problem.

Then he put the eyepatch on me, I was told to keep it on for a couple of hours and that I'd be given eyedrops and to return in a few weeks, and I sat up and left the room.  I've got an advice sheet and the drops and Dilly has asked us in to dinner tonight so that I don't have to cook.  I must be careful for a few days, not bend over or lift anything heavy so that it doesn't bleed.  No stitches, but he cauterised it.

So that's done.  Here are the 'before' photos - if you've met me, you'll know what my eye looked like but it's distinctly unappealing in close-up, so if you're the least squeamish, don't click on the jump.

*I'd forgotten this, BW reminded me


Update - I've just taken off the eyepatch and it isn't too bad, so I'll add that photo here.


If you read this on a feedreader, I'm afraid the jump doesn't work.  Sorry, I can't remember how to stop showing a full post on a feedreader, so I'll put the pics some way down the page.




























I warned you ...


20 comments:

Rog said...

I'm just about to have my tea! I think you are well shot of that thing though.

When you go back to school I wonder what your pupils will think of the new eyelid.

Z said...

It looks a lot better now, even though it's swollen. If you read it before I took the patch off, I've put up another picture now.

It'll be interesting to see who notices, actually.

LẌ said...

I'm not squeamish about medical stuff, so no problem with the pix.

Take care.

Blue Witch said...

I enjoyed the account and the pictures, thank you :)

I'm amazed that they took a lump off an eyelid with only anaesthetic drops - I'd have thought they'd have needed to jab needles into the flesh. That's a relief, then.

Blue Witch said...

And I guess the 'before' pics taken at the hospital were in case you decided to sue them afterwards... the times we live in, eh?

Z said...

Oh yes, he did - I'd forgotten! I'm quite good at blanking things that are better not remembered. I'd better amend the post.

I don't know, I'm not going to anyway, obv. I signed a disclaimer regarding scarring and the like. But it looks fine apart from redness and swelling which you'd expect, and I've got phone numbers in case of infection or bleeding.

Z said...

I'm interested in my own body, LX, not so much in other people's.

Blue Witch said...

Oh ow, how did you forget that bit!?

Z said...

It was a bit painful, the only thing that was. So I eliminated it. Tough, me :/

Anonymous said...

It's all right, yes? I skip the photographic evidence and trust your word.

Z said...

Good idea, Mago. Yes, it's fine. The swelling is going down already, it doesn't hurt, I'm hopeful that there will be no problems.

martina said...

When you have day surgery procedures at U.S. hospitals they give you cheap brown socks with no skid soles to wear then. You can take the socks home afterwards. A friend got a pair of them and we refer to them as the $6,000.00 socks (the cost of the procedure).
That growth looks like it must have been very irritating.So glad you got the surgery done and over with and all went well.

Roses said...

Glad it's all sorted.

*runs away*

Unknown said...

You're braver than me! xx

Z said...

Not a penny to pay, Martina, not even for the ointment. Though I don't think it was $6,000 worth!

Anyone who clicked on 'read more' was brave. A bit stoopid, possibly...

mig said...

Not squeamish so I looked. I'd never have realised there was such a huge thing on your eyelid. It didn't show so much when we saw you. It must have felt elephant sized! (Like those invisibly small sores on the tongue which feel as if they fill the whole of your mouth).
I bet it'll be wonderful to have it gone.

Z said...

It's been there for some years and I've been immensely self-conscious about it. But when it started to grow inwards, I went straight to the doctor. It is wonderful, an odd sense of freedom.

luckyzmom said...

Wow, about fifty times larger than I was imagining. Happy to hear about the wonderful outcome.

lom said...

Oh my friend has just had one of those removed, I must say your eye looks a lot neater than hers

Z said...

I never noticed it growing funnily enough, I think it must have been when my mother was ill and I was too busy to look at myself, so by the time I consciously noticed it, it wasn't a surprise as I'd got used to it without noticing. Which makes no sense, but there it is.

It's a lot neater than I thought it would be, LOM. I didn't expect it all to come off so precisely in a single cut. Very impressed.