Successful Surgery

 

Carcinama removed from face, melanoma from back, on the day before thanksgiving.

 he has had zero pain and is doing great.

The Good News is they gave us all the left over bandages/tapes/sponges.

The roll to the right is the cool tape, cut to fit and it covers all in one big bandage on his back.

 She advised he would look like someone took a poke at his face. It looks painful, but he has zero pain and no meds taken.

 He slept all night, I did not. Having pains in my joints since I had the Covid Booster. All my joints, I can barely get up off the sofa without pain. There is not a joint on finger, toes, spine, back, shoulder that is not hurting. Its been 4 weeks now and is worse. Also, body aches in muscles. Bob is the same with the joints/muscles

I wish I had not taken it.

Read all about it HERE. Yes, I read it after the fact.

Scar Face is his new name! for now, she said it will not leave a scar. 

Stop in the name of love

thanks for stopping by. Nothing much to report. This is a photo practice shot of taking a selfie by holding the handout and waving it. Hold left arm out as far as I can, wave hand.

Just remember to remove the hand before it counts down from Three.

 

Bob and I both went for 6-month body scan at the dermatologist. We had his finger prick, known as INR to test his coumadin in blood, at 8:30, and Bob at 9:25, Me at 9:50 and we were there a while.

I am fine, 3 frozen thingys

he had TWELVE frozen things, a biopsy on face that looks like carcinoma and the back might be another Melanoma. She removed two places about the size of a pencil eraser, if you can remember back that for when we used pencils.

Waiting for results. He has had 3 melanomas; this will be 4. 

Beaus lab work results came in an amazing PERFECT. Vet's words, not mine. Will post the text from vet on Beaus blog, to keep a record.

Thankful Thursday a day late

I am late posting today.. Yesterday was Bob's Melanoma surgery. I will try to document our day in short sentences. I tend to Bloviate. har har

First and Best First

The man who doesn't like doctors, Loved the surgeron, 

Loved the Nurse and the Nurse Anesthetist.
Loved the fact we were in and out and home in 2 hrs 15 minutes.
Loved the threatened Anesthesia, turned to twilight and local.
Loved that is was glue not stitches
Loved that he has had zero pain.
We are waiting until 2 pm to remove bandage.
I am so thankful that it went so well, unlike the last surgery which was quite the nightmare.
Manatee Surgical Clinic is a well run clinic and was the best surgical experience we have ever had.
He is scheduled for this coming Tuesday for dermatologist to remove 2 squamous carcinoma in her office. no big deal.
All is well... thanks for all your caring comments and emails.
I get so much support from my E-Friends.
My Valentine is well.
I talked to my son in TN today, today is his 55th birthday. Happy Valentine to David and Happy Anniversary to David and his wife Deanna.
and to all of YOU

Update on Bob's Melanoma

Stitches are out, Bob can swim today. Yay!

Not so Yay! the 4 inch of skin had zero clear margins. 

Another Yay! it is Melanoma In Situ which means, skin only
stage zero. Has not spread anywhere. Is not anywhere but thin skin. None showing any where but very thin top of skin.

Our 3 options.
1. enlarge the 4 inch even bigger (more surgery, and still might not be clear) she suggested a no on this one
2. go to MOHS and see how far it extends
3. watch it once a year to see if it comes back.

We will talk with the Dermatologist that sent us to the surgeon on the 25th, and see what he has to say, but are 99 % sure we will do the watch and wait... Surgeon agreed that at age 83 this is a good choice. zero is very low risk, 5 to 10 years if nothing done.

Update on Bob's Surgery

Order of photos in collage, left to right

Out Patient Lobby 5:45 AM

My view 6 to 8 AM

The circle Dr drew

4 inch incision she made

10 AM Bob's Happy Face, nurse is taking out IV and sending home. Home by 10:30

Supplies I purchased

Make Do Supplies from drawer

First bandage at 2 pm

Bed time bandage

He went to OR at 8 AM, back to Post Op at 10, surgery was about 40 minutes. Doctor said in OR she decided to take as much as she could since I had told her He said he was not coming back again. Thus the large gash. The thing is 72 hours later, it is healed together.

Instructions were keep bandage on for 48 hours (beautiful bandage with see through tape) that allowed me to see if it bled. IT BLED, the bandage was soaked.

I wanted to see the blood if it bled again, the tape I purchased was not clear,

 I made do with clear window made from packing tape.

Bedtime it was soaked again, I did better on that one. 

HE IS FINE, still looks Grumpy though, can't swim get in pool until June 10th  

which causes Me PAIN..

My consolation price is not one but TWO pair of beautiful yellow Socks, 

1 pair from the surgery that was not and one from the surgery that WAS.

Why are they different colors, Now I will have to MATCH them when I wash them. HE says I can HAVE them..

Any one interested? 

The surgery that almost WAS

SHORT answer to why Bob still has his melanoma. We waited 6 hours, we left, we are waiting to reschedule or cancel… If you don’t want to read a book about it, you may escape the blog NOW… thanks for caring.

I am a ‘talker’ thus I ‘talk’ too much when writing. You have been warned.

Bob’s Melanoma outpatient surgery was scheduled at  9, surgery at 11.  Pre-op IV and vitals completed by 9:30. We wait…………….. 6 patients sent to sit in waiting room, there is No room to hook up more victims, patients until some of us move on to surgery holding unit.

Word is our surgeon is Stuck In Cath Lab… (????? I don’t know either) I am stuck in pre-op with a white haired BEAR that last had food at 5 pm the night before which is 19 hours plus no coffee and never wanted to be there in the first place.

3 hours after IV, At noon, they roll Bob and 3 others to a backup holding room. We can tell this because the room is full of equipment that has been pushed in the corner right in front of the back hurting gurney the bear is on. Nurse says one more hour.

12:20 Surgeon appears in fake holding room. “I am stuck in the cath lab” at least another hour. (How did she get out occurs to me) and THEN she says Let me mark the site to be ready when I get out. Bob sits Up, she says where is the site? I point to lower shoulder thinking she is verifying so she doesn’t cut out the wrong thing. She says is it this scar or that scar, he has many. I say I think it is this. Supposed to 3 cm wide and deep as you can go. She says.. I spoke to a melanoma specialist and he says don’t take the whole scar, only take the margin around the biopsy site. Are you sure this is it? Well I think so.

She draws a small purple circle and LEAVES to become stuck in the cath lab, which I know she has been in since 8, because she answered her cell while standing there drawing the circle and snapped I HAVE been in the hospital since EIGHT…. (we can assume the 3 people waiting for her behind us are calling the office to complain) 

Bob and I start to yammer because he is threatening to pull IV and leave, which he has been known to do in past years. 2002 in fact. The nurse covering lunches says are you OK? NO! I am not ok and fill her ear with the above story.

She walks away comes back with her phone and sits down to entertain us with photos of her dogs and bunnys and children, because she heard me fretting over Big home alone. She was keeping us occupied because she called the Direct of Nursing and she appeared and the nurse left.

By this time is is 2:20 Bob with no food.coffee now at 22 hours. The gist of her story was she had spoken to Doctor IN CathLAB and it will be at LEAST another hour and if it gets to late it will have to be rescheduled. She said your option is to leave now and reschedule or wait another couple of hours and still maybe reschedule.

I say we will leave now on top of Bob’s voice saying it at the same time. I said what if I cancel it. We are not sure we want to do this and I tell her the story. She says you can discuss that with her. I said what about what you did here yesterday and today, the insurance will not pay if we leave. She said they will if you reschedule I say I don’t want him going under anesthesia with the breathing tube down his throat for that tiny incision that could be done in an office. She says give me five minute, makes a call and says they will not charge us. RIGHT I am thinking.

We choose to leave and reschedule or cancel and find another way. We want the surgery to be done with a local, not anesthesia since it is half the size of what was done with local at another time and Doctor.

That is where we are now… he still has the Melanoma and I still have the HEADACHE of dealing with insurance, doctors and BOB. We have not heard from the Surgeon Office, she may still be Stuck In The Cath Lab..

UPDATE! the Surgeon called me at 8:45 and started the conversation with an apology and assured me there would be no anesthesia, but local and that she knew where it is and also had a lengthy talk with a Melanoma specialist. the incision will be narrow but deep and must be done as out patient in case of bleeding or something out of the ordinary that could not be handled in a chair... I am satisfied and she said they would schedule us for first on next Thursday.

and next week will be day before blood work and same old same old AGAIN with the white headed bear.

Today In Our Lives...

Today I am not at TOPS, because Today Bob is having a Melanoma Cancer removed from the top left shoulder/neck, scheduled for 9 am.
 In June of 2017, he had Melanoma  removed and it has recurred in the same spot. This time requires a General Surgeon, and out patient surgery at the hospital because it will be very deep and wide... We are praying she can get clear margins to prevent more test and surgery and that it has not spread into his body.



Bob has spent every single day the sun shines out in it since 1970. He moved from Pennsylvania fleeing cold and rain and dreary days.  His skin is like leather. He says it was worth it, he is 82 years old and has enjoyed every day of his life outside.
I say this to say, if you are outside for hours, wear SPF, he did not, ever! Neither did I. I don't need it now because the sun makes me so hot I can't stay in it.

All my hundreds of photos show him just like this. He spends his day in and out of our pool, every single day and at the beach if he can.

This is the lotion the Dermatologist gave us to get his leather like skin soft enough to see the skin cancers. it worked wonders in 3 days.

Thankful Thursday..Suvivors

Today is Thankful Thursday
I am thankful for our home of 28 years and I am thankful that Bob is a Survivor and that we all 3 survived his heath issues and a few other crazy things last year that involved our truck held hostage by a broken spring on the garage door.

The year 2017 started when our water heater died and had to be replaced at a cost of $897

As I played with the mono setting on my camera, my two Men just walked around me and into the photo

Then Bob's health went berserk.

 June 9th melanoma cancer removal 

June 19th stroke

June 25th 4 hour cardiovascular surgery 

Sept 10th Hurricane Irma 

Oct Bob's Cataracts removed
He is now back to 100% from all of it.
I am thankful to have Bob and Jake to walk into my photography efforts.
Let the PHUN begin...
We made it to Feb 11, before the OUT OF POCKET started.
$490.00 for a POOL Filter, we ordered it from Amazon and it came yesterday.
VERY Thankful Bob can install it... 

I am thankful that Jake has watched Bob cook breakfast for 13 years and that Bob has cooked his own breakfast for 20 years.

This is NOT a Whopper...

That Red Fish was This Big...

The first week of May, Jake had a tumor removed from his eye lid, Bob found out that same week he had Melanoma. End of May Jake and Bob were in a Dog fight that crippled Jake for a week, Melanoma surgery June 9th and on Sat a week later Bob had a Stroke, we had to wait a week for blood thinner to get out of his system.. Most of you knew this. Thank you to all who supported me through this last 2 months.

Then in all the chaos Disaster Struck...   "The Cable DVR Quit. as in did not work. At All.... "
It was like The End Of The World.
I had to decide to leave Bob Home Alone and fret over him or let him have another stroke because he could not watch NASCAR and NHRA.

TV won..
I drove straight to Spectrum and exchanged the DVR, Be glad you were not a fly on the wall while we hooked it up...

Alas! they changed the FORMAT... the menu on the screen, everything we use was DIFFERENT.. Bob Panicked. It was NASCAR/NHRA week end.. Disaster Averted, I figured it out...He calmed down, the whole week end was pre-recorded by Madsnapper

There it was, waiting to be watched and he went to hospital.

The good news was, when he came home 3 days later there was lots and lots, hours and hours of racing to watch.

I have pondered if the death of the DVR  could have caused the stroke??? hummmm

We came home from hospital and Day Two at home.... NO CNN! the noise he made, OH MY!
the only channel missing out of 87 million was NOT THERE.. for hours...

I checked the TV in  the bedroom. THERE it was.. He did not miss it enough to watch it on the tiny 36 inch flat screen (remember the 19inch). HE WANTED THE BIG SCREEN. I mean who cares, all they do is yada yada blah blah . (in my opinion)

Listening to his ranting, I picked up the phone and dialed 611 which is a direct line to Spectrum and GUESS WHAT.....   I got a  recorded message saying Due to high call volumn, we can not answer your call, If you are calling about missing channels ..We are Aware of  The Problem with CNN, our engineers will have it repaired shortly....  whooo boy I bet those lines were HOT..
I do solemnly swear this is NOT a Whopper Story but the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Time Off

Bobs reflection in the glass door from my archives

On Saturday at 3:40 am, Bob had a stroke, he could not walk, could not move right arm or right leg. within an hour he was able to move, the slurred speech went away. it did a little damage to the brain that effects his walking and balance, he is working on that at home while we wait for surgery. they found one artery totally blocked and the other 85 percent blocked.

He now walks like a toddler, but he is walking.

Bob's surgery is approved for Friday the 23rd, it will be inpatient, they will open the carotid vein, clean it out and patch with a patch. there is 3 percent chance of stroke during surgery, chance for facial nerve damage, and a few other things, to say nothing of 80 years old going under anesthesia.

The big man is worried they will shave off his beard he has had for 50 years..

I am a little freaked but will survive. The surgery I mean, not the shaved beard.

Thanks to all of you for prayers and for the loving comments I have received.

I will be back when life slows down a little. He had melanoma surgery on Friday the 9th and still has a large whole in his shoulder, and we had to cancel his next appt. But the good news was the melanoma was removed totally...

I will be back soon... right now my mind is not working properly, his stroke messed up my brain...

Flower Friday

It's Flower Friday and I waited to post because I wanted to give and update on Bob's Melanoma .

The melanoma is removed  She cut deep circle about 1 1/4 inch,  now we are waiting for report. she sewed around it and pulled together like purse strings, if report comes back with clear margins, just wait for hole to close, if not, she snips the purse strings and cuts more. we wait.