3 weeks post surgery - June 23, 2017

I am now 3 weeks out from my last surgery. Things are going good, I am slowly making progress.  I still do a lot of sleeping and laying around the house! I do leave and do things, but my max is usually about 3 hours! After that, I need to be back in my home! I've done a few outings longer then that but as long as I am sitting I can handle it. Too much walking or standing around is still hard for me to do.

Made it to the bridgefest parade!
I sat on the curb :)  And take note -
this is my bad side!

My face is slowly making improvements, I can smile no problem with my mouth closed. I do still need to use a straw to drink anything. It looks kinda silly when I am at a restaurant and ask for a straw to drink my coffee! But gotta do what I gotta do! A fork is needed still too, or I need the food ripped apart to eat. If I try to take a bite of a burger or pizza, my bottom lip that is numb and doesn't move at all, gets in the way and I bite it! So a burger is hard for me to eat, but the pizza I can obviously cut up!

Not quite ready to smile with my teeth
 showing, but it is getting there.

Closed mouth smile is fine, as
you can see my left eyebrow is
higher then the right.

Can't pucker my lips yet.

My eye is still a problem but it isn't as bad as it was in the beginning... For the most part, it  almost closes all the way. My lashes make it hard to tell that it is open a little bit.  If I am tired though, my muscles slack and that accentuates the problems. So by the evening, usually my eye won't blink correctly or close all the way. And then things get blurry! I've been dealing with some itchy eyes from allergies lately too. I hate to itch my "bad" eye because it feels so delicate but sometimes I can't help it!  And I don't want to be itching my good eye either though, because then I have two bad eyes! Haha. It is a lose lose situation! Some days, I don't have many problems at all. But other days, my eye feels like sand and bothers me all day. I can't handle being in the wind right now either and the sun is hard on my eye too. So lots of hats and sunglasses when I am outside! I can't let my incision be in the sun either. My neck area is harder to hide. I usually need a big brimmed hat.

As good as my eye gets when closed.
Still not normal looking, but better
then it was before. And this is in the
morning when I am well rested!

Boating day with Stace.

Took a break from a hat because
it was cloudy!

Got the wide brim hat covered. Haha

My right nostril and eyebrow do not move at all yet. I hope that eventually my eyebrow does, but I guess that isn't as important to me as my mouth moving is. The last I heard from the doctors is that the eyebrow won't move. But hey, you never know. None of the nerves were cut, so we will see as time goes on.

Trying very hard to raise my eyebrows

My neck has been okay. The skin is tight around the incision. And trying to turn to the right is a lot harder for me then the left because of the muscle that is not there anymore. I can only turn a little bit to my right and that is as far as it'll go. Once in a while my neck hurts and sometimes the incision is itchy. But every week I see quite a bit of improvement!

My ear - now that is a problem. I had told you before that it is numb, which it still is....but the feeling is so weird. Kind of like I have a hat or something on it at all times. I can not hear out of it at all yet, I do hear ringing inside it but it is completely blocked. I still get drainage out of it but it isn't blood anymore. If I am in a loud place, it's really hard for me to hear anything. And my good ear, everything seems so loud! I can't lay on that ear, the feeling is hard to explain, but it doesn't feel good at all.  If I am desperate to lay on that side for a bit I will take a blanket and make a U shape out of it so my head is on it, but my ear touches nothing!  And because of the front being shaved, I have a head band or scarf tied on to hide it, and that bothers my ear too. It starts to hurt after a little while of having it on. My head around the ear is still sore so maybe as that heals more, the headbands won't be as bad.  Most days if I do leave the house, I can not even wait until I get back to remove the headband, I usually rip it off in the car on the drive home! It is definitely frustrating. The corner of the plate is not there anymore but now my ear is the problem!

The body is truly amazing. I love seeing the progress that is being made. Visual progress being made within a few days is so gratifying for me. Knowing that the healing is happening and that each week I got closer and closer to feeling better. It blows my mind that a body can be put through so much trauma but still wants to bounce back to how it was before.  Now that the stitches are out and the scabs are gone, it is a bit harder to see a change in how things are. The nerve healing takes so many months. What I need to do now is take pictures every few weeks to compare the difference. It isn't a night and day change for me anymore. That is a little harder for me, but I do still see the slow changes.

 Below are pictures of the incision healing. These are all less then 3 weeks apart!

It feels good to leave home though. I like doing my hair and makeup, and putting clothes on. And obviously it is nice to be around people too! I am very much a home-body and I have no problems being here, but I think it's good to get out and about sometimes! Change of scenery. Haha. And then the minute I get home and climb back into bed, I am in heaven!


When I met with Dr Kassam on the Tuesday after surgery, he had said everything looked good and he was surprised with how quick my eye was recovering. He had seen me in the hospital when it was super swollen and didn't expect it to go down so fast. He also said I was allowed to get the stitches taken out at home so that I didn't need to come back down a few days later. But they also talked to me about radiation. I will be starting a 6 week course of radiation in Marquette and they want it to start about 5 weeks out of surgery. Ugh. I didn't see that coming. I thought maybe if we did any radiation, it would be the same kind called cyberknife that I had last time. My radiation oncologist in Milwaukee, Dr Bastin, knows the Marquette radiation oncologist so that makes me feel good! He said he will personally get all of his notes to him.

Love that they are voted a best
hospital and Dr Kassam is on
the front. 

 After the appointment we grabbed some food and headed home! Luckily this appointment was early in the day so we got back at a decent time and my kids came home to me that night.  I was a lot better looking to them after this surgery then I was with the last! I had no new surprises for them.
The kids had a half day of school left and that was it! I would say it was a good and bad thing! It was always nice to have the days to myself to sleep and recover while the kids were at school. But I also like that they don't have to be in bed early, and if we want to sleep in we can. Makes life easier. No homework to worry about or lunches to make!

The kids last day of school

My lovely friend Joanne that keeps my house together while I am gone, redid my kitchen table for me! She had it finished for when I got home and it is great! I had a ugly dark wood table that was worn out. I had asked her to turn it into a farmhouse table for me and she did just that! It is soooo much nicer now then it ever was!! It brightens up my whole kitchen! I feel like the table is brand new.

She also made the gather sign and
painted the brick behind it. 

Radiation is going to take a lot longer to get started then I expected it to. The Marquette doctor was out of town for a few weeks so they wanted to wait until he was back for me to come in. He is also backed up because of being gone so I won't be seen for my consult until July 6. At that appointment we will go over everything and I believe set up my schedule for radiation too. They said the appointment is 1-2 hours long so we must go over a lot of things! I also think I come back a different day to get my mask made.  For those of you that don't know, the mask is basically a plastic sheet that they heat in warm water to soften it and then it is put on my face, and as it cools it hardens again and it is shaped to me. Every time that I come in, the same mask will be put back on. It gets pinned to the table so that I don't move  at all and I am in the same position every single time. It is also used as a "map" to know where to go with the radiation.

The mask before it is put in the hot water to soften it.

The reason I am using a different radiation this time then the last time is because last time we were aiming at one small area. So I had a single big dose shot to that one spot. This time, we are radiating a much bigger area and the best way to get to it all is by a bunch of small doses to cover the whole area. Just to make sure every cell is killed and hopefully does not come back.

I am not sure how radiation is going to go, or if I will be working while getting it. I plan to go back in the beginning of August, just a couple hours, maybe two days a week, but now because of radiation, we will see about that.  I have a lot of weddings in August and September to attend and some to do hair for. I hope that radiation doesn't affect any of that! But, only time will tell. And maybe I will get some better info on my scheduling and how I will feel after the consult with my Marquette doctor.

I am still getting meals delivered which has been great, I truly appreciate it! The meals are coming to an end, I have enough energy to make them and run to the store now. It will probably go back up once I start radiation for the first few weeks until I get into the groove of things and figure out how busy and tired I am.

I got my stitches removed by a close friend/ family member and it went really well. Everything was getting really itchy and I was so ready for them to be gone. Dr Kassam had said to wait two weeks, but my NP had told me to check them around ten days and make sure I wasn't starting to heal over the stitches.  I thought on day ten that it looked good and the incision was closed so I had them removed.

Stitches coming out!

Took a quick break when we got to my ear

Done! Stitches are out! Christiann and I were
both sweating once done. Haha

All in all, I would say things are going well. I am getting a little less tired, taking less naps. I like the warm weather days. Sitting outside is easy to do! I love going to Twin Lakes with my family too. Summer is the perfect time for a recovery!

I've got a pretty funky hair do right now!

And that is the reason headbands
are always worn!