A stitch in Time...
Just over a week had passed since the operation. Other than a visit to the nurse at my GP surgery to have my outer dressings changed it had been an uneventful week. I was full of energy, enjoying resting and catching up with all the TV recordings I never normally had chance to watch. I often had a slightly unpleasant taste in my mouth, which I believe came from the eustachion tube as 'something' appeared to leak into it from the surgery site. I was also getting used to having no sensory feeling in the right hand side of my face. A result of it being lifted for the surgery. Otherwise I was doing very well.
The day had arrived for my stitches to be removed. We had driven to the Sutton site of the hospital. After checking in we sat in a large waiting area. As I sat there looking around the room at the other patients I was struck again by just how many people were there with cancer. Everyone looked so ordinary, a random cross-section of the population brought here by cancer. Many of those had come with a partner, a parent or a child and it was not always obvious who was the patient until their name was called.
Then a nurse called my name and we were led round to a corridor outside consulting rooms. The corridor was bustling with the movement of nurses and patients and most of the chairs were occupied. The nurse found us a pair of seats then asked me to come and stand on some scales as she checked my weight. I sat down again and a few minutes later we were called in. It was the same surgical doctor who I had spoken with after my operation. After asking how I was she removed the wound dressings and said I had healed well. She then cut out a number of stitches behind my jaw and ear. She examined the packing in my ear and informed me that this needed to be left untouched for at least another week until I saw my consultant.
Another week passed and we were back up to see my consultant. Apart from the occasional unpleasant taste in my mouth and some swallowing issues with my tablets I was reporting that everything was going well. He was pleased with the wound healing both on my head and in my abdomen, where they had removed some fat tissue to put into the void caused by the partial parotidectomy. (It was slightly amusing to some that technically I had had a face lift and tummy fat removed!) He then decided to remove the packing in my ear to see how the healing process was going. He picked up some surgical tweezers and began removing the pack from my ear. I was expecting this to me a rather quick process. The reality however was unreal with the surgeon pulling out a long strip of tape that seemed to go on and on in a fashion that would of impressed many magicians.
Once removed he informed me that it was 'granulating' well but that there was still some bare bone. He then repacked it with fresh BIPP gauze. Filling the cavity had less dramatic impact but was nevertheless rather surreal. I watched him, at the edge of my vision, repeatly feed a total of about 2m of tape into my ear.
Pathology Report
The consultant also informed me about the success of the surgery. Though MRI scan result before my operation had shown no sign of cancer he informed me that he had removed a tumour of about 2.5cm from the parotid bed. I was pleased that they had found something as it justified what I had told them about something being there. This was my 'magma chamber' that I had tried to describe.
He told me that the pathology report on the sample sent had found that there was still a positive margin left. However, he was confident that he had removed further tissue beyond this margin. It would require me to have follow up radiotherapy to get rid of any cancer cells that might be still active in the area. Radiotherapy would begin in a few weeks once my surgery had a chance to heal. I would now be referred to the radiotherapy team who would coordinate my treatment.
