Jason Update

Yesterday Jason had his Mohs surgery. We got there at 7:45 a.m. and started waiting. We waited for the receptionist to acknowledge us, we waited in the "Op" room for the doctor and we ended the morning by waiting for the results.

The actual surgery was very quick, about 3-5 minutes. The thing that took up time was having the shots to numb up his nose. After he was numb, the doctor took a scalpel and cut out the spot she had marked on his nose and sent the skin off to be analyzed. The nurse, Brooke, had given Jason a valium before hand, but it didn't end up kicking in until 30 min. later. By then we were waiting for the results!

We sat for about 20-30 minutes in a waiting room with other post-op patients (I felt out of place with no bandaging on my nose like the rest of them) before the nurse came and told us his results showed they got all the cancer. Yippee!! That meant no more cuts. We had to hang tight until the doctor was available to talk with us about the results and look at the wound.

We sat for another 45 minutes before the nurse came back for us. The doctor came back in to the "Op" room and looked at the surgery site. They asked Jason if he wanted to see it and he said no. The doctor asked me to look at it and then started to discuss our next options - let it heal on its own or get a skin graft. Jason wanted to let it heal on its own. After having a good look at the site, I told him he really needed to look at it before he made his final decision. It was REALLY deep, at least compared to what my mind had been seeing before the surgery.

They wiped away the blood again and he took a hand mirror and looked at it. I could tell he was a little shocked at how deep the cut had been too. He ultimately decided that he would still like to leave it to heal on its own. The doctor had told us that there were still options of a skin graft or "sanding" it down after it healed. Brooke, the nurse, cleaned and dressed Jason's nose and we were on our way. We were home by noon and Jason crashed for the next couple of hours.

We now need to see the Doctor in 6 weeks to see how it's healing. In the meantime we have a sheet of instructions to follow on how to clean the site and keep it covered in neosporin and band-aids at all times. Jason may also lose feeling in that part of his nose, so I know he's worried about that too.

We are really blessed to have good family and friends who have helped us out. Jason's mom came and stayed with the kids and my visiting teacher (and friend) Jaqui made us dinner. Thanks too to the friends who called and stopped by. Jason really felt touched to know that people care about him.