Same Day – Repair Surgery

Immediately following the Mohs procedure, my husband drove me directly to the ambulatory surgery center, which checked me in and got me into a bed.  Unfortunately, because of the possibility of using general anesthesia, I could not take any oral pain meds, so I was stuck with the nose pain.  It dulled down a bit but was still about a 4-5 out of 10.

Things seemed to be going along smoothly until the nurse came in and told me that my surgery was delayed by 1.5 hours.  Bummer!!!  It was almost noon at this point. I was so hungry, and in pain, but there was nothing I could do but wait.  I kept reminding myself that it was going to be just one day of hassle, and then I was home free. I was fairly patient and sent my wonderful husband out so he at least could get some lunch for himself.  No use with both of us being hungry and cranky!

I counted the minutes until the surgery, only to be visited by another nurse, who told me there would be another hour delay.  This time I was pissed.   But once again, it was out of my control, so the only thing I could do was lie on the bed and watch bad hospital TV.

Finally, at 2:30 the anesthesiologist and plastic surgeon came in and said it was time.  Thank God.  The anesthesiologist tried 3 times to get a needle into my wrist for the IV, as I begged him to use my arm instead.  I was in pain, hungry, cranky, and was in no position to be patient as he poked me looking for a vein.  He was very nice, but said that if I was this agitated with the IV portion of the process, then he wanted me under general anesthesia for the surgery – twilight was not an option.  I completely agreed at that point.  Knock me out and make this all end!!!

He gave me some Versed to calm me down, and wheeled me to the Operating Room. In the OR, I fell asleep to the tunes of Michael Jackson….no kidding….it’s what the doctors were playing on the speakers.

Here is a non-medical description of the repair that the doctor performed:  She took cartilage from my left ear (same side as my hose) and put it into the arch of my nostril to rebuild that rounded area.  She then cut a flap of skin from my nose in a butterfly-like shape (leaving it attached to the surrounding skin) and pulled it to cover the wound.  She then stitched it up and we were done.

I woke up in the post-op area at 4:30pm coughing, but felt ok other than that.  I could see the white bandage on my nose, but it took me about 30 minutes to realize that my whole head was wrapped in gauze.  This was to hold on the ear bandage.   But it had the effect of making me look like I had a major head injury.

I was able to leave at about 5:30pm.  The anesthesia had worn off and my nose was starting to hurt so they gave me Tylenol in the post-op, and sent me home with a prescription for Tylenol with Codeine (at my request since I do not tolerate Vicodin or Percoset), plus antibiotics.