The surgeon was seriously stretching the skin on my face to cover the crater left by the melanoma excision, and I was writhing, sweating, and trying to hold still. My attempt to calm myself with breathing wasn’t working nearly fast enough.
It started with vanity. Near the corner of my mouth, was a stubborn clogged pore, or so I thought. With something like a tiny hole punch, the dermatologist removed it and sent it for a routine biopsy. To our great surprise, the pathology report showed a melanoma! A few weeks later, she removed a piece of my face the size of a nickel and ¼ inch deep. Feeling lucky that the cancer hadn’t spread, I took the crater in my face to a plastic surgeon.
The dear plastic surgeon spent 30 minutes before the surgery explaining the different approaches to the repair. He took pictures of the crater, and pictures of my mouth in a grin and in a pucker. He showed me textbook pictures of drastic facial reconstructions, giving me a quick education on possibilities for my face. The pictures were hard to look at, but my “defect” seemed less and less of a challenge.
I need to tell you I’m very squeamish, but the education was quite reassuring, and it postponed the cutting and sewing a few minutes longer.