Swim Team

Anslee is taking swimming lessons. She calls it swim team because she says only babies take swim lessons. When my friend Sandy took her one day this week, she told Anslee she couldn't wait to see her at swim team. Anslee whispered to her that it was really swim lessons, but not to tell anyone. She is such a quick learner and is doing great!!

Be Prepared! If you have a weak stomach don't look!!!

These eye pictures are worse than before! They even make me feel a little ill!!! But I've had some requests for pictures, so here goes....

If anyone knows a way to hide the pictures until you click on them, please let me know!

To fill up a little space so you can choose not to see the pictures I just want to say thanks to everyone for bringing meals and helping out with Andrew and Anslee. Taking Andrew to camp and Anslee to swimming and for the playdates, etc. My family feels so loved!!

This first picture is when I was at the Mohs surgeon. The shots into my eyelid were the most painful thing throughout this entire process!! My eyelid is puffy because of the local anesthesia injected into it. This was done on Monday.



This next picture is after the Mohs surgery was complete. If you look closely (not that you'd want to!) The white part is a special cotton gauze to fill up the hole that the plastic surgeon

fixed on Thursday. My eye is extra wrinkly because it was packed with gauze that has just been removed prior to taking this photo. I went to see her on Tuesday (the day after Moh's was done) so she could decide how to reconstruct my lower eyelid. Keith took this picture today (On Friday).

Prior to the surgery, the plastic surgeon said that she was 99.9% sure that in order to repair my eye it would need to be sewn shut for 6 to 8 weeks. Luckily we ended up on the .1% side. As it turns out she was able to take a little bit from both of my upper eye lids to repair the outside of the lid. They take from both eye lids so that after I have healed my eyes will be symetrical. Thus the stiches on my open eye. She also made an incision on my laugh line next to the eye, seperating the inner layer and streching it over to repair the inside of the eye lid. The doctor said basically it looks like a little quilt work under the patch ~But I am prepared for anything when they remove the gauze on Thursday!!. She also put temporary stiches in to hold my eye closed until next week so that the eye lid will remain still and repair itself more quickly. Next week about half of the stiches will be removed and I will have full use of that eye!!!

DON'T FORGET TO WEAR YOUR SUNGLASSES!!

While we are talking about medical stuff...

Keith and I noticed that Anslee had some places on her palms that were itchy, peeling, round places. We just found out my neice had impatigo and were worried that Anslee had it too so Keith took her to a children's medical health place when he got home from work.

They just returned and she has Papular Urticaria which means she is ultra sensitive to bug bites. This is a condition that when Anslee gets a new insect bite, the sites of old insect bites react almost as if they had been bitten again. When I looked it up, the medical journal stated that this is most common in asian people, usually children.

She got a mosquito bite the other night and by the time we got home, it looked like she had 15 or more. So now this all makes sense!

Just thought I'd add more medical stuff you've probably never heard of :-)

WARNING ~ Gross eye pictures!!

OUCH!!! Today I had surgery to remove skin cancer from my eyelid. I am going to type this whole thing out so that hopefully you won't see the pictures unless you choose to see them and scroll down. I don't want to gross anyone out!

I noticed a red scratch on the ledge of my inner left eyelid about 5 months ago. It didn't hurt, and I didn't remember scratching it. I would check it periodically to see if it was still there. I wasn't really worried, because who has ever heard of anything going wrong with your eyelid?!

In late April I woke up in the middle of the night and started thinking about my eyelid. I thought that I should figure out what was going on. So I googled eyelid cancer and couldn't find anything. I checked a few other keywords and again found nothing. I went back to bed feeling okay.

The next morning I got worried again and after searching for about 2 hours I found a picture that looked similar to my eyelid. The picture was of a basal cell carcinoma. I know basal cells almost never metastasize but they spread and can majorly destroy the skin. I waited until the dermatologist office opened and called. They had an appointment in two weeks but I started crying and they saw me 2 hours later :-)

My dermatologist looked and had me make an appointment with an eyelid specialist. Who even knew there were eyelid specialists?

I saw the specialist and she made an appointment for surgery two weeks later after school was out. She had me try an antibiotic steroid cream for a week, but that did nothing, so on to the surgery.

Last night, Nana took Andrew and Anslee to spend the night and to go see Up today.
Keith and my mom took me to the hospital today at 6:30 am. My surgery was 9:00 and lasted almost an hour. The doctor cut a pie shaped wedge out of my lower eyelid. It stings and I can feel the stitches rubbing my lower eyeball (YUCK!). My throat hurts from the breathing tube, but other than those things, I am fine!

I go back to the doctor in a week to have the stitches removed and to find out if they got it all.
If they didn't get it all, we are talking major reconstruction with my eye sewn shut for 6 WEEKS! Don't worry I'd post pictures of that too :-) If you have an extra prayer, please pray that all of it has been removed.

The reason I wrote all this and am putting these pictures online is because I had such a hard time finding any information at all about this. I hope this helps someone else...

The moral of this story: PLEASE wear sunglasses! The lower left eyelid is the most common place for eyelid skin cancer due to the glare while driving a car. The specialist said she used to only see this cancer in 70 or 80 year olds, but now she is getting a case a week in 30 and 40 year olds. Scary, huh?

I didn't get a before picture of my eyelid, but it looked similar to the second picture here . Mine didn't really come all the way to the outer eyelid yet. Everyone who looked at my eye had such a hard time seeing it, they were suprised I found it. Luckily I found it early.

If you have any concerns about your eyelid check out this site or this one.