One Layer

My appointment was at 7:30am this morning (along with everyone else's!) I quickly learned that this clinic schedules everyone for the day at the same time in the morning and they take you based on who gets there first-I wish I would have know this!
So, I was probably the 8th or 9th patient taken back. It is quite a process that you go through. A nurse comes in to evaluate the area, the surgeon comes in to check it, another nurse comes in to give anesthesia and then the surgeon comes back to start the surgery. They take a layer of skin at a time, so they removed the first layer and then (in your hospital gown) you go back into the waiting room to wait for the lab to process it to see if they removed all of the cancer the first time around. After about an hour and a half in the waiting room, they called me back again and said that it looked clear they got it all in the first layer-HOORAY!
So, they re-numbed the area and attempted to start stitching it up...however because I am pregnant they were unable to use Epinephrine (controls bleeding) in the anesthetic and also had to use a different cauterization technique that obviously does not work as well because all of the sudden I saw a tiny fountain of blood squirting up and out of my neck (Andy would have passed out). I got really nervous thinking maybe he knicked my carotid (my imagination is very vivid)! They immediately covered my face and upper body with a draping since they were having trouble stopping the bleeding. Thankfully they were able to control it and stitched me up. I got two layers of stitches-one inside and one outside. I will get the outside layer taken out next week when I go for my area on my back.
After they were done, I got really hot and dizzy. My BP dropped to 70/50 and had to lay back and have OJ and cookies. After a few minutes I felt much better and was able to go. So, all in all I was there from 7:30 til 12:00pm. Would have been sooner if I did not have the dizziness episode.
I have to admit I am really not too excited to go do this all over again next week but am so thankful that with this procedure the success rate is 99% effective for removing all of the cancer cells, so I am not complaining!!!!
The site is a bit tender and I am having trouble turning my neck. It feels like the tissue is pulled really tight. Hopefully after a good nights sleep and a tylenol, I will be fine for work tomorrow!