Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Surgery went well for Grandpa Jones

I feel like this update on Grandpa Jones is a bit tardy, but I was just too tired late yesterday to come back to my rather heat-challenged office and fire up my dragon of a computer (which takes about 20 minutes to connect to the internet) ... so I opted out of it altogether! As family members called to find out the news, I asked Sabrina to write a brief note on Facebook hoping that some key people in our lives would at least know all was well.

For those of you who were unaware Grandpa Jones was having surgery at all, I'll just give you an update. We noticed a "sore" on the side of his nose quite a few months ago that was not healing. After a physician examined him in October and tested the area, it was discovered that he had a basal cell carcinoma and ... it had to go! Yesterday, the lesion was excised in a two-step process (with the physician checking tissue under the microscope to make sure all edges were "clean") and then in the afternoon, he had to have the now quarter-sized deep open wound skin-grafted and closed by an ocular (because of the close proximity to his eye) dermatologist/surgeon. This surgeon originally was going to harvest some skin from behind grandpa's ear ... but the wound was larger than he expected, so he changed his mind and used skin from between the eyebrows and kind of pulled, twisted, and stretched the skin all around to cover the wound ... 25 stitches later.

Grandpa has his wounds covered with a 4 x 2 patch that is taped tightly to his face, covering his entire left eye. So he can't wear his glasses, he can't drive, and regular living is a bit challenging. That patch can be removed Thursday at noon. We'll examine the area ~ meaning ... Grandpa Jones and I will take a look at it ~ and hopefully all the stitches will be intact and not oozing! Next Monday, he is scheduled to have all stitches removed. The surgeon said that within about a year, it should be difficult to even notice where on his face all of this trauma occurred. Excellent.

My sister and her husband cared for Nana and Roy the last two days. Tomorrow I'm going to split the day half and half ... it kind of feels like I am a nurse in training ... but I have absolutely NO (zero) interest in pursuing any medical careers at this point in my life.

Thursday, my soldier/son (Jesse) is scheduled for some serious surgery on his knee far away in El Paso. I wish I could be closer to his location so that I could be of some help to them ... but 1600 miles is quite out of the question. Hopefully, they will keep everyone informed about his progress.

I appreciate everyone who is praying for us. We surely need it.

" ... let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish." Hebrews 12:1-2

3 comments:

loisgroat said...

Thanks for the update. I will pray for you both. If I was in his shoes I would be very cranky, so I would want someone to pray for my spouse, as well as for me!

judy hand said...

I agree entirely with lois. Excellent comment. Am praying for
all Carol.

Sabrina said...

Praying for all of you mom. I know from experience that people aren't always great patients! Hang in there! Call anytime you need to!