Friday, June 13, 2014

1-Week Post SLAD/R Surgery - Bruised


Today it has been a week since surgery.  Wow, I honestly did not think this day would ever get here!  It just seems that for so long it was weeks away.

This past week has been both exciting and challenging.  I have a voice, yes I do!!  Now that is exciting! 

My neck is still swollen and bruised.  Okay, I bruise easily anyway, if you are going to have this surgery maybe you won’t bruise as I do.  A year ago, I had ACDF (Discectomy/Fusion) in my neck and I was also a bruised mess, probably due to my pale skin.
Day before yesterday, a Costco chicken tamale was screaming from my refrigerator, “eat me, eat me” and so I did, transitioning to my first solid food.  Um, this was not a good choice.  It was just too spicy and the taste just stayed with me way too long, though I did not choke while eating it. 
 
I have been drinking Naked Green Machine Juice and eating applesauce, it was yummy but the juice never did quench my thirst.  Yesterday I tried carrot juice and immediately choked, though I tried it later and in tiny sips with a straw I was okay, it is much better for quenching the thirst, I also had it this morning and it was really yummy!

The strange thing is- in the hospital, I thought the Thick It was A-OK, it has a “cereal-like” taste, in a weird way, maybe it smells like cereal instead of tastes like it.  When I got home and drank the stuff, it almost makes me gag, it reminds me of the hospital and having to take pills, so buy the small container if you are planning on having this surgery.
 
I am taking two different antibiotics and I still have to cut these up to swallow them.  Right after surgery I had to have them cut into 8 small pieces, I am now to the point where I can cut them in half and take them.  Applesauce works the best to take pills, I know this is strange and I never would have done this, but a spoonful of applesauce will help a pill go down!   
 
The phlegm or mucus is just a crazy thing, ugh.  I go through 1-1/2 boxes of tissue a day, just spitting into a tissue every few minutes, it makes me wonder where the mucus comes from and where it has been all these days, months...  Living in the hub of the allergy area of Central California, 2-days ago I thought that maybe the mucus was really due to allergies and so I decided to take a Claritin-D.  This is something I won’t do again.  I did have about four hours where I was free of this annoying phlegm, though the Claritin-D kept me awake all day and through the night.  I slept 5-minutes here and there throughout the night and woke up feeling awful. 
  
A long nap, and a great dream, helped me to feel much better.  My dream was one where I was talking, I mean talking normal, with a voice!  I even yelled out to my dogs in my dream, in a normal voice and they came running.  When I woke up, I was shaking my head up and down and smiling that it was great to have a voice.
 

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