Not everyone is OK with seeing incision sites, so I censored my steri-strip sutures for the good of the order. If you’re curious about what my incision looks like three days post-op, click the image for the uncensored version.
The strips on my incision actually look quite a bit less gnarly now that I’ve taken a proper shower (and ever-so-carefully patted them dry afterward). I feel less gnarly in general, too, with the remainder of the adhesives and whatnot finally scrubbed off of my skin.
I’m feeling closer to normal overall. My throat no longer hurts when I swallow, although the surgical strips still pull on the skin of my neck, and the swelling and tenderness is starting to subside. It’s hard to tell through the swelling, but I think my trachea might be moving closer to its normal position, now that there’s not a goiter in the way. The base of my skull still hurts like the worst cramp ever whenever I have my neck muscles engaged, though, and I developed a mild rash on parts of my face and neck last night after taking a dose of Oxycodone. Dealing with histamine reactions is old hat for me, thanks to my ultra-severe sensitivity to urushiol (poison ivy, et al.), so I just popped a Benadryl. Medications don’t seem to touch the muscle tension, though — only relaxing my neck and applying ice seems to do anything for it.
On the subject of my neck: I was a little surprised to find nothing in my discharge instructions about neck mobility exercises. Maybe my surgeon is planning to give me those at my two-week follow-up? At any rate, I’ve researched it myself, and have been doing some simple neck rotation exercises: up and down, left to right, ear to shoulder, and chin tucks (which my chiropractor has been having me do, anyway). Some internal tightness is keeping me from looking upward, but I’m only kept from looking farther left or right by the surgical strips pulling on my skin.
Yesterday, I did my best to get laundry done (with help) and make dinner, but I definitely overdid it a little — even with the two naps I took. I’m taking today and tomorrow off of work to rest and recuperate. I did have to get up at the usual time to get Connor out the door this morning, but then I went straight back to bed and slept for another few hours. Once I rolled out of bed and showered, the rest of the day has been spent researching, stretching, blogging, eating, and scheduling follow-up appointments.
And nerding out on the details of the surgery as found in my chart online… but that’s a post for another day.