On the 17th January at my visit with Mr X I had dressed the toob with googly eyes and pink ears, I drew on two nostrils – I was ready for school and then my appointments – to review the medication and surgical review.
Both Mr X and Sue were thrilled with the result of the toob (though not entirely surprised to see it dressed as a pig) and how well my tummy scar is healing. As the impatient patient I thought it should be completely healed not red and livid still. The toob was one of the best that Mr X had seen and it felt/feels so much better than the wretched cannonball. The next stage would be to have a nipple and Mr X said he’d add me to the list and in a few months I’d hear and have an appointment.
Now the NHS has many naysayers but not I. I’d had my appointment on Friday and the following Monday just before year 9 were going to be ushered into my classroom my phone went and as I was on the threshold I took the call. It was the plastics team, there had been a cancellation and could I come up for a nipple reconstruction the next day. I thought I could, the boss said I could and so I got prepped by viewing a you tube reconstruction that evening. Nipple surgery (a bit graphic)
Tuesday morning, school as usual and at 11.30 Nick took me up to Derriford to the Freedom Unit.. only I could buy some lunch first at M&S as this was a local anesthetic procedure. I made my way past the smokers, some who appeared to be on drips, through the concourse and followed the signs to the Freedom Unit. I paused to eat my sandwich and then got a bit lost – so I asked for directions and was asked if I was a Doctor or Patient, how funny, must have been the school uniform and lanyards.
Once in the Freedom Unit I was booked in quickly and given a gown, but could keep my bottom half on. Mr X, the young South African registrar (who’d helped with the DIEP) and a trainee (but not work experience person) came through and I was invited to be marked up in an office. A submarine shape drawing was added to the pig’s snout – the wings were going to make the edges of the nipple and the conning tower the top. I was very insistent this must not be as big as a malteser or Lindt chocolate. I asked if I was allowed to talk during the op and the answer was yes! I had to wait an hour or so as there was a lady ahead of me so I got my marking out, completed marking year 9 assessments, checked my emails and did a bit of planning as I’d brought my chrome book. No point in wasting time.
I was called in… final checks and I was in the theatre. I was introduced to everyone including the student nurse, former fitness instructor, who had a job as a theatre nurse on finishing her studies. My bag and marking were deposited, I reclined on the theatre bed, was scrubbed up with some form of iodine solution and covered in a blue theatre sheet which was stuck on allowing free access to my chest. Mr X injected the snout with lidocaine – but I couldn’t feel the injection on the toob and then he made incisions around the submarine and stitched up a new nipple for me. I chuntered on to anyone who’d talk to me, we talked about the cost of training to be a doctor to what it was like to teach and how well my year 9’s had done… not that well, I blame their teacher! I was amazed at the size of the theatre and all the equipment around, the light was not as good as the one at the dentist as I couldn’t see my reflection in it to check the nipple was not malteser sized. A big dressing on the wound to finish it and then… into a wheelchair to go to recovery. I told them all I could walk to recovery but they were insistent on the wheelchair. A cup of fruity tea and a couple of biscuits later Nick came to pick me up – had arrived with one nipple and left 6 hours later with two. Another step on the path to looking more “normal”.
The dressing was to stay on for a week to ten days and then it was back to the Primrose clinic to have it removed and the stitches out. What a result! Perfect. Sue cut the stitches and used tweezers to remove them. No malteser, definitely not a Lindt chocolate but a really good match for the original one. Phew! Next stage a tattoo in 4 months or so for an areola. Thank you Primrose, Onco-Plastics and Derriford.
The Impatient Geography Patient 