Fifth HNC Op

I’m like the cat with nine lives. I’m sitting here in Ward 74 after a small but significant head and neck cancer surgery. It was done under local which was a new experience for me – no sedation just huge local anaesthetics which haven’t quite worn off yet.

I had no sedation because my airway is problematic, the anaesthetist wasn’t keen and I didn’t really want to miss anything.

By all accounts the surgery went well. I remember the surgeon placing the skin graft on the place where he’d cut out the dodgy tissue and saying, “It looks custom made,” or words to that effect.

To me, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Will it heal okay and what will the path results show when I get them in a week or two? At this point in time I’m not worried about either of those things – I want the wound to settle down so that I feel comfortable going home tomorrow.

The surgeon was someone I have never met – he is the Fellow of my regular lovable, older surgeon who is away for a couple of weeks. This guy was what my son called “a hot shot young surgeon” wearing Spiderman headgear and almost unrecognisable to me when I saw him without the goggly eye wear after the surgery. Nice guy: crisp, authoritiative, extremely busy.

Two guys were working simultaneously – the main surgeon who seemed to use an electric scalpel to remove the tissue and another guy who worked on the donor site on my neck. I think he had someone helping him. I felt nothing but the pulling of my mouth open and of course some stinging from the anaesthetic needles initially. I refuse to bow to the pain of needles.

The most unpleasant experience was probably the ng tube going in at the start. I’m usually unconscious when those go in but anything that is quick is bearable.

What they did was cut out the rough patch in my right inner cheek near the lip and place a skin graft from my neck on it. On top of that they placed a cotton wool bandage and soaked it in Betadine which I inadvertently swallowed at one point. Everything was sewn down and there was at least one stitch to attach a small silicone dressing to the outside of the cheek. The Betadine stung at first but thank goodness it settled down.

It was okay – I’m glad I didn’t have a GA but overall I’d say it was a more challenging experience than I expected. It was harder than all the dental procedures I’ve had for my implants!

Now to the most embarrassing bit. They insisted I choose background music. I couldn’t think of anything so Peter suggested Bob Dylan and I croaked out Leonard Cohen – the result was a medley of quite awful lesser Cohen songs. I wish I’d just said to them, play your own music or chosen Mozart or something.

Surgeon has just been in and checked the inside of my mouth and says it looks good. I’m sore but not in real pain – just a sore, unpleasant, aching feeling.

This is an unwanted experience but if all goes according to plan, my fifth head and neck cancer surgery will have caught a small primary cancer before it could do more damage.

Found by lucky chance.