Second Surgery
So here I sit again after having my second surgery to remove a mucocele. This time my doctor said he went a lot deeper and found a larger duct that was semi-filled with saliva and he cut it out. My lip looks really awful right now even worse than last time so i'm terrified about it. I'm hoping it will come out looking okay in a few days and hoping so much that I won't be going through this again. All this started in November of 2007 a few days after a regular cleaning dentist appointment that is when my lip started swelling up and down never bursting. I asked the dentist about it they said they didn't know, I asked my family doctor about it and he didn't know, and so finally in July of 2008 I went to an oral surgeon and he knew it was a mucocele. Then I didn't even have my first surgery until September of 2008. Now here I am again March 2009 having my second surgery and it better be my last! Thank you so much for starting this forum because although this is my frist time ever signing up and posting i've read through and learned alot over the past year. I was going to add a picture I just took after the surgery but it is taking too long to upload so I will try adding it later. If any of this post sounds weird sorry the medicine hasn't fully wore off I got put to sleep and just got home an hour ago.
Here is the picture I was talking about trying to add earlier. It finally attached. Sorry it's so gross but i'm sure this is nothing compared to what it will look like the next few days while it's healing. It always gets worse before it gets better.
So it has been 8 days since my surgery. As far as swelling and bruising it is so much better than my previous surgery. I bruise very easy so this time my oral surgeon gave me a shot of steriods in my lip right after surgery to prevent swelling/bruising also I used lots of ice the day of and after the surgery and it really helped. They should stress how important that is. My stitches have almost all disolved and where the mucocele was removed there is still a swollen bump but i'm hoping it's just from surgery and that I don't have another mucucele. My follow up appointment is next Wednesday. I'll update. Not sure if anyone is following but I see a lot of posts on here where the people never come back so I wanted to keep mine up to date so someone could see what it's like from start to finish. I'm putting a picture with this post to that I just took a few mins ago.
It's been 13 days since my surgery and I had my follow up today. My stitches still hadn't disolved so the nurse went ahead and took them out. The doctor came in and said everything looks good but I still have another follow up in two weeks just to make sure everything is going to be okay this time. The area on my lip where the mucocele was is still a little numb and tough which it probably will be for the next few months because of the scar tissue. I just took a new picture and hopefully my lip will only look better after this because I can't handle another surgery. I'll update in a few weeks or so.
Thanks so much for sharing your progress! It looks like your mucocele was pretty close to the outside of your lip. I know mine was enough on the inside that you couldn't see the stitches. It looks like you've healed up nicely, though. How do you feel?
Yeah it was right on the line of my lip like halfway in my mouth and halfway on my lip. I have most of the feeling back in my lip now but it's still a little swollen and hard from the scar tissue. I'm happy right now but it's hard to be too happy because I want to make sure in time it's going to be fully healed this time because this was my second surgery. I just don't want to have to go through it again. I will post an update in a little while and hopefully by then some of the scar tissue and swelling will have went down. I'm still having monthly follow ups with my oral surgeon just because he wants to make sure this time it won't come back. In 6 months if my lip is completely healed and there is no lump I will be the happiest person ever lol. It sounds so dramatic but going through this can really hurt your self-confidence because everytime I talked to people I would feel like I had to explain what was wrong with my lip.
