Pictures

This is what my head looked like the morning before the surgery.




This is me in ICU. Apparently, I sat up in a chair for 2 hours. Don't remember it at all.




Lovely bandage on the back of my head. Looks like a feminine pad.




What is this? No one seems to know. My back started itching and when my husband looked, here's what we found. Looks like a contact burn of some kind. One person said it was probably the grounding patch. Another said it was a patch that they put on you that helps to pull the skin taunt. All I know is that it's healing but STILL itching.




Lovely stitches.




Preparing to get the stitches out.





This picture and the one below are right after I got home from having the stitches out.





Since we took these pictures, I've had a haircut to even out the back. The scar is healing nicely. It's even getting hair on it! My shaved hair is also growing back quickly. It just itches like crazy now.

I still have a lump on the left side of the scar that's really tender. They did a CT scan and found that there's no leak so I'm trying not to worry about it. It's just very tender and makes it hard to sleep on my back.

I've been out and about several times now. We went to my parents house for Thanksgiving lunch and I was wiped out but yesterday, we went to the mall to look at refrigerators and I did really well. I was super tired but feel good today. I'm enjoying being out of the house. Just have to make sure that I don't do too much.

I go back to the doctor on December 8th. I'm hoping that he clears for me to drive and go back to work. I don't know if I can work for a full 8 hours straight but I'll just work myself into it.

I've really been pleased with the outcome of the surgery. As strange as it sounds, I feel different. I'm much more emotional than before (for those of you that know me, I can see how that's hard to believe...). My head is really clear except when I'm tired. Then things seem to get fuzzy like before. Sleep remedies that. My hips hurt but I think that's because I'm walking normally now. The hip was used to dragging a leg, not propelling one. I still get headaches but they're different and move from spot to spot. Today, it's on the left back side of my head where the lump is. I'm sleeping a bit better than before but still can't get to sleep until several hours after I lay down. I'm not taking any more pain medication but I am taking a muscle relaxer twice a day. It helps my neck not be so stiff.

All in all, I'm really happy with the results. Time will tell if the changes are permanent.