Face Update

A little under two weeks,  12 days after the skin graft, (Wed. May 28th) I had a few questions about what was happening on my face and how it should feel and look while it was healing.... 1. It was feeling hard and bumpy towards the bottom of the graft.  Should it feel this way? 2. the top inner edge, closest to my nose, was still oozing yellowish brown yuckiness.  What is it?  Should this be happening?  Why is it happening? 3. I could see that there were still some stitches left in my face.  Should I try to get them out, or should I wait and let someone in their office get them out? - I called my plastic surgeon's office and they asked me several questions over the phone about the color of the ooze, the temperature of my face around the graft site, did it smell?  Finally they asked me to come on in so that they could take a look at the graft site and the donor site to make sure neither of them was infected and that they were healing as expected.

In the plastic surgeon's office that day all of the steri-strips were removed and both sites were checked.  The donor site was healing nicely.  I got the okay to keep it completely uncovered, and to start using a new type of scar treatment gel called ScarAway on it twice a day.  (ScarAway is a fairly new gel treatment for scars that uses a blend of silicones that improve the appearance of scars and prevent abnormal excessive scar formation.... it also is expensive.  Approximately $25 for a 10 g tube.)  The graft site however, didn't look so good everywhere.  That top inner edge, closest to my nose, was still looking pretty gross.  The surgeon told us it was not infected, but that the edge of the graft may be dying.  If it was indeed dying, what the hope would be is that the other parts of the living graft would eventually fill in a dying or dead part.  What we needed to happen was for it to stop oozing and make a scab, so that it could heal, and maybe live.  I was given instructions to stop using the steri-strips on the graft site, and to start wearing a band-aid over the whole graft.  This would protect it, and help keep it free of dirt and infection while we waited to see what it was going to do. A few more stitches were removed from both sites that were missed at my previous appointment and buffing my graft site was also discussed.  Buffing would help to smooth and blend in the new skin on the graft site, but typically is not done until about a year after the graft.  It also is something that is very painful, so I would be put to sleep during that procedure. The plastic surgeon asked me to make my next appointment to see him again in about a month to check the progress and healing of the graft site, unless I called with concerns sooner.

I was less than thrilled with the news of having to wear a band-aid on my face all the time.  The gauze was bad, the steri-strips were okay, but a band-aid was a step right back to dorkville, in my opinion  At least the gauze screamed "this girl has something seriously wrong on her face", but the band-aid just hollers "hey look at this dork, I bet you can't resist asking her what she did to her face."  And, sure enough, kids and adults, friends and strangers, have all been asking, "What happened to your face?" or "What did you do to your face?"  Skin Cancer, SKin CANcer, SKIN CANCER, people!  WEAR SUNSCREEN!  PUT SUNSCREEN on your CHILDREN, and WEAR HATS when out in the sun.  You do not want to have skin cancer anywhere on your body.  Trust me on this one.  So, I went to Walgreen's and spent $24 on different types of band-aids. (We will not need to buy band-aids at our house for years.)  I wanted to follow my instructions, but wanted the least visible band-aid I could get.  I had no idea what size or type, so I bought 4 different boxes.  The best band-aid for me has been the box of 30 BAND-AID Clear Strips, All One Size.  The sticky part is clear, but the padded part is not.

Sunday, June 1st, Day 16 after the skin graft

After showering and cleaning around the graft site, it looked pretty good that morning...before it started oozing again (see picture below).  Finally at about day 18 it stopped oozing and made a big yucky scab.  Hooray, but eeeww. (And, sorry, no pictures of that.)

Thursday, June 5th Day 20 after the skin graft

After showering, I realized that the scab had fallen off.  Looking into the mirror I got pretty excited... It was pink and red.  This is good news.  That means, at least for now the whole graft is ALIVE!

My next appointment date to check the progress and healing is June 27th.  Until then I will be the girl wearing the band-aid on my face to protect my new skin that is ALIVE.  Thank you God for listening to my prayers and to the prayers of others who have been praying for me.  I will continue to hope and pray that my body keeps healing and the graft continues to grow healthy and stay alive.