A facial update. :)

I am feeling better about my face now. Thanks for the advice and concern, everyone. :) Also, after the nurse took out my stitches today, she loaded us up with all sorts of SPF 70 sunscreen. I didn't know they even made it that powerful! We have been working really hard at keeping wide-brimmed hats on the kids outside, and are being more conscientious about sunscreen with them too. As we were in the office today I noticed a poster with a cute, cute girl who was wearing a darling sailor's hat. She was so sporty and cute it made me think that I need one too. :)

A really long journey through the last couple of days - sorry! :)

About a year ago, Alison saw something on my face that she thought looked like skin cancer. She suggested at the time that I see a dermatologist, so a few months later, I asked our pediatrician neighbor for a recommendation, then it took two or three months to actually get into this doctor. When Dr. Bezzant saw the spot on my face, he immediately said, “BCC” which stands for basal cell carcinoma (a type of skin cancer that is treatable if they catch it early because they can just remove the cancerous cells), and then shaved it off so they could do a biopsy. It didn’t surprise me too much when his office called and told me that the biopsy results did indeed show that it was a BCC. We scheduled a time two months later for him to remove the growth.

It took him about ten seconds to take the biopsy, so I wasn’t prepared for what the surgery entailed. When Scott, AND Adam, AND Garrett, and I got to the office Monday morning, I asked how long they thought it would take, and was surprised to hear “we have one hour scheduled”. What? We would not have brought so many children without attention spans along if we had known that it would take so long! My nervousness level jumped! I was a little nervous already because the spot was in a visible place on the side of my nose. I was worried about scarring from the procedure, but knew that it was more important to just get the thing off of me. Even knowing that, I was more taken aback when the doctor started drawing on my face with a marker to show me exactly where he was going to cut. Eeek! He was really going to cut into me, and in a bigger way than I had imagined!

Hoping to calm myself a little, I said a prayer, and then just tried to suck it up. :) That helped me feel better – I visited with Dr. Bezzant during the surgery and then while he was filling out a prescription for an antibiotic and Oxycodone (What? I am going to need Oxycodone?), I asked him to take a look at a funny growth that I have on my knee. He gave me a shot in the knee, took a sample for biopsy, then I asked him what he thought it could be. Once again, I was caught a little off guard when he said he thought it could be either a wart, psoriasis, or squamous cell carcinoma. What?!

As he finished his paperwork, I was just sitting silently on the operating chair – thinking about a lifetime of worrying about all of the crazy things that could go wrong with my body, wondering if he really knew that he had gotten all of the cancer out, and hoping that my scar wouldn’t overwhelm my face. He asked me a couple of times if I was okay – did I look like I was in pain or in shock? I told him that I was fine - just feeling sober.

Anyway, this has been an interesting ride. I felt emotional Monday and yesterday because the scar is just over inch long, and it goes from under my eyeball on a slant down to the middle of my nose. I feel an affinity to Frankenstein. The stitches are in until next Monday, so it looks kind of scary with the black thread going through the scar, and I have a puffy, colorful eye. Luckily, I am supposed to keep a topical antiobiotic on it, along with a band-aid, so most of the yucky stuff is hidden. My vanity is still suffering some though. Sigh. I hope it isn’t too visible when all is said and done, but things could definitely be worse. I don’t have stomach cancer or congenital heart disease. How is that for putting things into perspective in a quick way?

I feel better today. As it turns out, there are still some pre-cancerous cells there, so after the scar heals, Dr. Bezzant wants me to apply some cream to the area for a period of time, and the thing on my knee is just a plantar wart. Praise be! It sounds a little silly – I will admit, even to me – but I feel like this has been a brush with mortality. I know that I am fine, but we are just not indomitable, are we? Sigh.

(By the way, I didn’t need the Oxycodone. It hurt, but not anything like a c-section!) :)

Self-frosting Zucchini Cake

Here is one of the new recipes I have tried lately. I got it from our former ward's cookbook, from a nice lady named Kim. :) It is basically a chocolate cake, but the zucchini in it makes it moist, and I thought the topping was tasty too. You sprinkle chocolate chips, brown sugar, and nuts (if you want) on top instead of frosting. We liked it -

Ingredients:
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups finely grated zucchini
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
4 1/2 Tbs. cocoa
1 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder

3/4 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup nuts
3/4 cup brown sugar

Directions:
Combine first 6 ingredients. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients. Add dry ingredients to cremed mixture. Place in 9 X 13 baking dish. Combine chocolate chips, brown sugar, and nuts, sprinkle on top of the cake. Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.


Yummy!