Recovery from forehead flap nose reconstruction

Hi Mike. 

Glad and to hear things are progressing well. I hope subsequent dressing changes are easier for you, now that there’s no honey involved. When I was at that point in my recovery, the main “discomfort” I had was itching around all the stitches. No real pain to speak of, which surprised me. I was also feeling sensations in my forehead whenever anyone did anything to my nose - that was weird! That seemed to stop after the pedicle removal, but I still have some numbness in my eyebrow. When I touch it lightly, I feel it up into my forehead. 

Did a dermatologist do your surgery or a plastic surgeon? My dermatologist is Moh’s certified and he was able to do everything. I am very pleased with the outcome, except I have what looks like a vertical dent from the inner part of my eyebrow up to my hairline, where he harvested (?) the pedicle. It seems logical to me, and I’m only a little self-conscious about it. 

Oh, let me just add this here...

I am a retired RN, so I’m used to seeing all manner of nastiness and gore, but I could not look directly at my wounds until after the pedicle was removed. I could only look in the mirror when I had bandages on. My husband (the saint) would take pictures at each doctor visit, and I could look at those. I guess I felt like I was just looking at a patient. Strange reaction, I think. 

Anyway, glad you’re doing well. Keep us updated. 

(Your first post was on my brother’s birthday - 5/27. His name is Mike too, but he was killed in an accident over 20 years ago now, but it was nice you brought him to mind. :). )

Hi,

Fine thanks. Dressing changes at the hospital every two days at the moment.

My surgery was performed by a consultant plastic surgeon.....who is unfortunately out of the country for several weeks so the next stage(s) of surgery will be passed on to someone else at the same hospital. Nose stitches planned to come out today at dressings clinic. I'm also seeing the on-call surgeon on Friday when I go for the next dressing change after todays and presumably he will decide then what happens next and when it happens, according to whatever his assessment of the wounds etc is at that time.

Know what you mean re looking at your own wounds in mirror. I eventually reluctantly did it for the first time one week after the surgery but have no real problem with doing it now.....though am still in dressings most of time so tends to be photos I'm looking at lost of time. My wife is also an ex degree qualified nurse who was a sister in midwifery wards (she now works as an independent clinical risks consultant regarding implementation of new informatics systems in hospitals). She was all over the wounds (including taking photos etc) right from the get go. I've talked her into letting me go alone for dressing changes now in case she's intimidating the younger newly qualified lasses there lol.

Quite a blow to lose a sibling young. Time only heals so much.

Lack of golf is what is doing my brain in lol.

Take care

Mike

Just in case anyone new is seeking more info about personal experiences, I'm going to update what has gone on in my case. I think it's important that folks new to the forehead flap procedure get info that isn't necessarily all totally positive (as far as the time involved etc) as well as the positive things.

It's now 9 weeks since my first forehead flap surgery and unfortunately I still have my pedicle attached. I had a second surgery 7 weeks after the first but unfortunately they could not go ahead with division/separation of the pedicle at that time as there was a lot of debulking of the nose and insertion of cartilage (taken form the back of my ear) to be done and they were concerned that this would put too much strain on the blood supply to the area. They therefore decided to simply cut and lift the area they were working on, then resew it into place and to leave the pedicle attached .

I have further surgery booked to happen in about 4 weeks time from now (that will be a total of about 13/14 weeks after my first surgery) at which time they presently plan to do further reshaping of the nose section, remove the pedicle and stitch me back up at both ends where it has been removed.

The original opened up are of my head from eyebrows to crown is healing quite well and the stitching scars are fading with the help of E45 cream. The replaced right half of my nose is healing reasonably well considering it has been cut open vertically at both sides twice now and there will be a third set of cuts and restitiching in 4 weeks time.

Not going to pretend that the time involved hasn't been disappointing but can't do much more than grin and bear it. What will be will be and I do still count my blessings that I have been luckier in health than many others.  Fingers crossed the next surgery is the last. Good luck to anyone else going through this type of surgery.

Mike.

I am 9 days from having forehead flap surgery to fix the tip of my nose following mohs surgery. I just looked at myself for the first time today and am feeling defeated. I don't see how my nose tip is going to look normal or like my nose used to look. Does the appearance of the skin change after the separation surgery? I still have bad headaches and find it hard to sleep through the night. Does that improve? Also, how many days does it take to feel comfortable showing your face in public after the separation surgery? Besides the forehead, are there a lot of scars on the nose? Not feeling good about going along with the forehead flap. Hoping that I'll see some major improvements following the separation procedure in 2 weeks. 

I felt the same way. If you would like me to send you my before and after pics I can. Believe me, it’s amazing!i can give you my personal email if you would like the photos

I’m glad you got forehead flap surgery. I saw a study where participants were more satisfied with the appearance and function as opposed to the cheek flap. I just had my fifth surgery and an honest kid said “wow it looks normal, but of course it’s swollem up two weeks later as expected. Nose tips I read take 1 to 1 1/2 years for all swelling to go down more than the other parts of the nose. I just had dermabrasion to lessen surgical scars, including a scar I actually liked kind of from a car wreck and the redness is supposed to lessen so I’m just avoiding the sun as much as I can & exertion. I had a shield guard put in on the fourth surgery to balance the nose and strengthen the collumella & because part of the tip was removed & I was too afraid of them preferring to take the whole tip, but realized later it was to make giving me symmetry easier & if I had to do it again to better up my chances of balance without going through five surgeries, I’d do the forehead surgery. Five surgeries to breath my best ever finally after over one year. I learned also that as far as bumps blacking air or creating an unbalanced looking nose, they can replace the scar tissue with transplant skin from my nose or ear. The color in me slowly got better, but then they gave me a painful steroid shot in the nose to quicken and take down the swelling & they said they can fix that too. For me, I’ve had to wait 3 months at least between surgeries, waiting for it to heal enough before I could go through the next step. Nose tips take the longest. You’re getting there. Don’t worry yet, it’s a process. This will become routine for you. I’m sorry you’re going through this. 

Sorry, about the earlier post. I mean.... I am not happy about you needing surgery and concerned and I feel similarly about myself, but am glad to see you have better chances with the forehead flap surgery over the cheek flap in terms of balance, asteroids, and function. 

hope everyones doing  well ive just had my surgery dates through and have my mohs on 26th and forehead flap on 27th Sept, can I know i will stay in hospital inbtween the 2 but is anyone able to tell me if i will have to stay in the night after the forehead flap also or are you usually allowed home same day? just tryimg so sort out logistics with kids etc! 

thanks ! 

No idea, just wanted to wish you luck. xx

Thanks :-) xx