All you can really see is a red line below my right nostril to my lip and now that the dissolving stitches are doing there thing and dissolving thing are all moving back into the right place.  Visually its looking great and you would never know that I’ve actually had quite an extensive reconstruction done.

What they actually did was cut out two centimetre of the top lip, then cut down each side and under the nose, re-arrange it all to fill in the space, the sew it all back up again!  The incisions down the side of the nose are just about invisible now and while the under nose bit is still healing its quite hidden.  The incision to get the lymph node is also hidden under the jaw line and looking great.  While still a little swollen that to be expected.

So today I took my new face out for coffee with a friend.  She was major impressed with the results and had no idea that the extent of work that had been done.  Was really good to hear and know that visually its not been disfiguring at all.  We had a great chat and catch up and probably the longest I’ve talked since the surgury.  Felt quite whacked afterwards and new on the trip home I might have overdone it, but still was definately worth it, and Segafredo coffee is always good!

The reason they want to move so quickly with the surgery is that it is malignant and aggressive and now thats its been tampered with by the first surgery its highly likely to spread.  As the next available slot is in a months time there is a very strong recommendation to move quickly.

Also while not fully identified, it has been confirmed what it is not and the treatment for the remainder is all the same.  Excise to clear margin.  So we are back to that.

The pathology also went off to the National Cancer Centre across the road which was fortunately one of the places I was recommended to goto for a 2nd Opinion.  End results all come back to the same thing.

So see you soon.

Went through a number of tests that day after getting the bad news, blood tests, ecg, contrast CT and chest xray.

Friday was back again for consult with doctors again to cover exactly what has to be done, consult with anesthesiologist, and MRI.  The outcome of all that is that alot of my upper lip has to be cut out to get a clear margin around the cancer and then they will do re-constructive surgery to get it all back to normal.  Should heal to minimal scaring in 6 months.

They have ruled out Melanoma and Basel Cell Carcinoma which is some good news, but thats about as far as the good news went.

Hand great dinner with friends that night which helped alot.

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