What we thought would be a three hour surgery turned out to be a seven hour long procedure. It was soon discovered that 1. four lymph nodes had contained cancer cells 2. I do not tolerate morphine well, if at all. I came out of surgery feeling like I had spent the last three days swinging from a rocky boat by my toes as someone had forced a handle of Jose Cuervo Gold down my throat. I've never been more nauseous in my life. To thank everyone who sat in the waiting room for me throughout that seven hour period, I threw up and they all got to watch me. At this point, I was too busy worrying about tearing open the brand new stitches in my neck to even be embarrassed. My mom stayed with me that night, because she didn't trust that the nursing staff would take good enough care of me. It was really late, but I hadn't eaten all day so she tracked down some jello and spoon fed me. I was back to being her toddler again. She probably got a total of four minutes of sleep before heading home to shower only to come right back to the hospital. Over the next few days, we waited for pathology reports to hear that the skin on the scalp was clear. It wasn't until that Thursday that I was able to get my head closed up, they even brought in a plastic surgeon to do so. In case you were wondering, asking if they could perform a little nip and tuck while there at it is kind of frowned upon. I tried. After four days in that place, they finally let me go home to my family, dogs, and clean bed. My neck drain and I were beyond relieved to get out of there. I would have this drain in over the next four days to prevent fluid from backing up in my neck where the lymph nodes had once been. Luckily they took it out when they did, because I was quickly running out of shirts with chest pockets to stash it in. As for the neck stiffness, it's definitely improved over the last two months, but my whippin my hair back and forth days would be long gone. The options for pain pills were pretty limited. I didn't like how the pain meds made me feel so I decided to just stick it out and eventually the pain got better with time and bi-weekly physical therapy appointments. |