A couple of years ago a blood vessel just under my right eye burst under the skin and created a little spidery vein. For a while it wasn’t very visible, but as time went on it became more so. During the last six months in particular, it had seemed to get larger and more noticeable and when I last went to my doctor for a checkup she advised me to see a plastic surgeon about whether or not it should be removed.
Here’s a shot around the time of my first consultation with the surgeon:
The fact that it had become raised seemed to be the main point of concern, since this is unusual for burst blood vessels. The plastic surgeon advised removal and biopsy in case it had become cancerous. Needless to say I agreed and we set up an appointment.
About a month after, I had the surgery. I’ve only had stitches once in my life, and I was so young I don’t remember it at all, so I was a bit nervous (including about the chance of it being skin cancer). The doctor started with four injections of anesthetic, which – as he warned me – were incredibly painful for about five seconds. Then he cut open my face, removed some stuff, cauterized the blood vessel with an electric spark and sewed me up with thread so fine it was barely visible. The whole thing took about 25 minutes and was more uncomfortable than unpleasant.
I had the nurse snap a photo immediately afterwards, and this is what it looked like:
The whiteness is apparently as a result of the anesthetic, and persisted for many days.
Afterward he put some surgical tape over the incision. While they were skin-coloured, they also wicked the blood away from the wound and very quickly looked like nasty, bloody strips. Here’s a shot from later that day:
I had to keep these on for a week, which meant working with it right there. The first few days it didn’t bother me much, but I was irked by the fact they prevented me from washing my face as fully as I’d wanted (they were waterproof, but I didn’t abuse that). After a few days though the incision started to itch, and I wanted to rip off the tape and give it a good scratch!
Here’s a selfie I took at school. This is what my students saw:
Judging by the look on my face, I must have just graded some exams 🙂
A week after the procedure, I returned to the doctor for him to trim the stitches and give me the biopsy results.
The good news: not cancer. He told me what it actually was, but I immediately forgot. Something about ‘unusually high localized concentration of midichlorians’ I think. The bad news: he slapped another tape on it, and told me to leave it on until today.
And thus, I have now removed the tape and here’s what it looked like immediately afterwards:
Not bad eh?? After a wash to get rid of some dried blood and adhesive it looks even nicer. The area is still slightly swollen and red, but that will fade in time. The doctor has advised me to put on some sort of anti-scarring lotion that I can buy, and I probably will. The original blemish is gone completely, and the stitches seem to have healed very well (they were never removed since he used thread that is absorbed by the body).
The only unknown now is if I have to pay for the procedure. Our insurance company doesn’t pre-approve anything done by a plastic surgeon, and if they believe this was an unnecessary procedure I’ll have to pay myself. Either way I’m glad I got it done, and I think the surgeon did a good job.
Did you tell your students that you got nicked in a knife fight?
Good that it wasn’t cancerous, but now what to do about the tracking device the surgeon no doubt placed in there?