As my body moved through the fog of the remaining anesthesia, my thoughts and dreams predominately centered around me having a steak with french fries, a slice of pepperoni pizza with extra cheese and a slice of double chocolate cake. Oh....and of course some salad to balance it all out. I talked about my dream a lot with Cláudia yesterday. We even shared this precious dream with one of the nurses. Her
no-nonsense response was that I could only have a bitoque if it was pureed. It would be too harsh for me to swallow. But what about the pizza nurse? Nurse? Shattered dreams!
Actually, by this morning, I no longer felt hungry . That worked in my favor because after the nurse assistant had asked me what I wanted to eat and I asked her what she was offering, she simply preceded to ask if I wanted bread with butter and coffee with milk. She must have remembered what I had on Tuesday. From our exchange, I am assumming that what is on the tray is always the same....rolls, butter, the instant pureed type of cereals. In other words ...baby cereal. I told her that the bread and coffee would be fine. If you ask me, though, that crusty bread is not any easier to swallow than a well-cut steak. If she asks me tomorrow what I want, I am going to ask for pancakes, one egg over medium, and two slices of bacon. Don't forget the coffee!
Anyway, enough about food or lack thereof. I feel great overall. Just waiting for Cláudia to arrive to spend the day with me. She can visit from 12-8pm. She is already ten minutes late...hmphh.
The surgery itself was strange. Right before going down, the nurse gave me this liquid to hold under my tongue for a minute before swallowing. I remember being in the
pre-op room and talking to this other woman from Zimbabwe. I had asked one of the nurses about taking a photo of my thyroid so I could show Evan and because I also wanted to see it. BUT that is all I remember. I don't remember having a mask placed on me or speaking to the surgeon or anything. It was weird. I am sure didn't get my picture.
If my calcium level does not go down too much, I should be able to get out in a day or so. My analysis from this morning showed that it was a bit low but nothing to worry about as of yet. I don't have any real dfficulty swallowing and my voice is a bit hoarse but I can talk pretty much normally. However, it does take a bit more effort to speak. The good news is that I can already tell that I don't have any adverse effects to my vocal chords.
I asked the nurse who was changing my dressiing this morning if I could see the scar. She rolled my chair up to a mirror. She wanted to bring my chair along with me because she was afraid that it may make me sick to look at it and that I would need to sit down. I explained to her that I held a hand-held mirror when my orthodontist was insertng my implant so I didn't forsee any problem. It actually did look pretty nasty, especially as it was all stapled shut. The scar was also a bit longer than I had expected. I had taken a look at the scars of three different people over the last few months. It is probably a bit longer because of the having to remove the lymphnodes as well. Either way, I don't care. I know it will heal well. Most of the scars I looked at were not noticable unless you were really looking.
I just want to say thank you for all the well wishes and support that have been pouring my way throughout ths whole ordeal. Feelng so much love has definitely been one of the biggest perks to come from it all.