Hi everyone and let me start by saying THANK YOU so much for all the good wishes and prayers! It feels so nice to know there are so many people pulling for you and I truly appreciate it!
I came home from the hospital on Saturday after my 7-12 jump surgery on Friday. As Jan mentioned in one of her posts, I do feel like I've been beaten up and run over, but I guess that's to be expected. I guess I just wasn't expecting much pain, since the AN surgery and the BAHA were completely pain free, but this is certainly manageable.
The doctor said it went as planned, he was able to make a smaller incision than planned and it doesn't look so bad at the moment. I have some bruising on my neck and in front of my ear (and also the 9000 locations they tried to get an IV in me before the surgery! Ouch!). I just have a row of steri-strips and a little band aid from where the drain was. The best news is that I'm allowed to wash my hair! Ahhhh....
I'm a little more swollen than I'd like, but I have such a hard time with the decodron they give you for swelling, that I have to be off that before I come home from the hospital, plus I'm allergic to aspirin so I can't take a lot of anti-imflammatories. The first think I said this morning when looking in the mirror was "I look like John McCain!". Oh well, works for him I guess!
Other than that, I've been feeling good, but sooooo unbelievably tired. Chewing and swallowing are a task, but I'm figuring it out. After nearly choking to death on chicken broth, I'm more careful and have figured out where the straw needs to be to avoid that! And I found that if I break Reese's peanut butter cups into very small bites and shove them into the far back of the good side, I can actually taste and enjoy them! After a few days of jello and mashed potatoes, I'm getting creative! I don't think it will take too long to get the hang of things again. Then I can start the waiting game all over again. The doctor said it would probably be 6 months before I see any movement and then as soon as it starts, we start doing lots of PT and biofeedback to get things working.
On the bright side, I thought that once the facial nerve was cut, it would look even worse and droopier until things started working again, but at rest, I really don't look that bad, Which leads me to believe that I really looked like crap before!
Thanks again to my AN family! I know if it wasn't for all of you, I'd be ready to throw in the towel by now!
I hope everyone else's surgeries and procedures went well too, and plan on trying to catch up with what I missed one of these days.
Lori - looking forward to some zaps, zings, tingles... whatever....
