Recovery week

Monday: my FIL mentioned that my incision area looks swollen; Mick agreed. I'm not sure what I can do about it. I left a message with the surgeon's office about following up.

Cassi brought me a present. In my kitchen. Yay for doggie doors?

Good birddog. Sigh.

Wednesday: my FIL offered to drive me around to my appointments. We started with the drug trial monitoring. L had a little trouble with the blood draw; she said I seemed dehydrated but she also seemed to be too far over the first time. It hurt, but the second try was perfect. It seemed like everything took a while but we were finally done after updating the meds list. She said she can get the hospital records for the rest.

Then we met L at Dr. M's office for the quarterly monitoring tests. I was surprised that he didn't say anything at all about my neck. My eyesight on the left is really terrible; I started on a pretty high line on the chart and then he asked me to read the next one down but didn't ask me to go any further down. He did add a little "memory" test at the end. He gave me three word to remember, asked a few questions, then asked for the words, which I remembered fine.

Next we headed to the surgeon's office for my follow-up appointment. I had my list of questions from Mick. I probably should have had FIL come in with me to talk with the surgeon but since he had declined earlier, I didn't think of it.

Before. Eww.

He took my bandages off, which I wasn't expecting but was very happy about. He said I had expected swelling but the incision looks very good. The gland was higher in my long neck. He was very happy with the surgery and I don't have cancer. What he saw was consistent with Graves disease. Graves tends to be improved by surgery. I wrote down: proctosis, ocular issues can still progress, lymphoytic. Yeah, all Greek to me.

After. It's puffy. Eww.

He recommended Auqaphor twice a day on the incision and follow up in 3 months.

After we left, we had to go back to get my phone. Fortunately, we had only gotten to the freeway, not all the way home!

I wanted to make something that I could eat for a few days so I made a split pea soup with leftover ham on the bone I had frozen after Thanksgiving. I thought it turned out fantastic. Mick won't eat it. But I'm home all day without him so that works out fine! He's off next week and my sister is coming to visit!

split pea soup