30 Days After 23rd

Today I celebrate one month since my last surgery. I am not sure the word celebrate is the proper adjective to use for one-month post-surgery. However, I am healing and have had zero complications, minus one minor setback that I will explain.

 

About the minor setback... 

This Tuesday morning, as my mom was cleaning my wounds and changing some bandages, she noticed that two of my stitches had popped, and the wound had begun to open. She washed the area and told me to contact my medical team. My mom also took some pictures to send to Dr. Patel and his team to see how the skin flap looked. After emailing my medical team back and forth, I was scheduled for an appointment for Wednesday at 3:20 pm. 

ARNP Krissie cleaned my wound and explained that Dr. Patel was in surgery, but he had been paged and would take a look at my skin flap. Once Dr. Patel looked at the skin flap and the stitches that had popped, he instructed Krissie to remove the remaining stitches and that he would be replacing them with thicker thread. And so, I am now the proud owner of 12 new blue stitches and four steri strips! Once the local anesthesia wore out, I immediately felt horrific pain. I literally could feel my face swelling again. Due to the pain, I did not sleep much during the night. Therefore, I spent all Thursday in and out of sleep and taking pain medicine. Thankfully, Friday, I felt better, and at night I was able to sleep, only waking up once throughout the night. I have a follow-up on the 28th of this month. 

saying goodbye to 2021

You may be asking yourself why the stitches opened. Well, the answer is quite simple, gravity. As Dr. Patel explained, the skin flap is heavy, and now that the swelling is going down, it has less pressure holding it up, so gravity took over. The 12 new stitches and steri strips pull the skin flap upward, and the pressure bandage I have around my head provides support. 

And so I find myself one-month post-surgery, and I still have many more until I am fully recovered. I honestly have a lot to celebrate because I am healthy and healing, my mental health is also stable, and if I start feeling unstable, I know who I can turn to for support. I am sleeping better throughout the night, eating more, and my leg is getting stronger. The swelling on my face and the droopiness of my right cheek will take much longer to normalize, but at least for now, there are no signs of facial nerve damage. 

 Let the healing continue!