another old blog post from 5-10-07:
Normally, when people tell friends and acquaintances that they are about to undergo surgery, they tend to get immediate responses like, "I'm sorry to hear that," or "I hope it's nothing too serious." But when you're trans, people are often not sure how to react. I mean, is it a good surgery? The surgery? A surgery that you want, or one that you merely have to have? Should I congrat you or pass along my sympathies...
Anyway, I had surgery on Monday. Not the surgery, but merely a surgery. Actually, this was the fourth surgery on my right cheek in the last 6 months.
See, last fall, I found out that I had skin cancer on my cheek. While it wasn't metastatic, it was an aggressive form of basal cell carcinoma. While most forms of basal cell carcinoma grow in the shape of a "ball" (thus making it relatively straightforward to remove), mine grew unpredictably, like an amoeba, extending protrusions underneath the surface of the skin.
So in early December I had to undergo a somewhat nebulous medical procedure called Mohs micrographic surgery, where they remove a bit of tissue, then do the pathology in house to figure out how much more tissue they need to remove, and so forth. Because they never know how much tissue they’ll need to remove, they automatically schedule you with a plastic surgery they next day. In the worst case scenario, they said, I might have required extensive skin grafts/facial reconstruction work done. Luckily, it wasn’t quite that bad…
Anyway, they ended up removing about a square inch & a quarter of my cheek. The plastic surgeon did his best to close up the hole, but since it was rather large, it didn't heel in the most optimal way. So my surgery on Monday was to fix up the parts that didn't heel right before. It all went pretty well, although (like all surgeries) it was a somewhat surreal experience...
Anyway, I plan to write more about all this later, but in the mean time I just wanted to let people know that it all went well and that I'm recovering...
-julia
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