Relieved to read that you are home and procedure was completed as planned.

Hoping recovery goes smoothly for you,
Lottie

Wishing you all the very best with a speedy recovery, Paul. be well!

Another wish for a speedy recovery!

Good to see your update!! Wishing you a speedy recovery..
Kathy

Yeah you're home - feel well... And that's an order!

I had my surgery on Thursday around 1pm. Anesthesiologist had to go through the nose again because of the limited mouth opening from trismus. My ENT said in post-op, you know there is 5% chance of stroke, I guess to get my approval, and didn't mention 5% chance of death too lol. I saw it was 25%, in another study, so was feeling confident at that point lol. Was in post-op around 5pm. My ENT said surgery went well, then corrected himself, and said very well. I had more pain than my usual dissections, and still took the morphine when I could, but didn't get to my room until 2:45am, so that didn't help. I was put in Step Down, Head and Neck, type ICU. I don't think I slept much that night, and anyway, by the time I was settled it was late.

I woke up to pain in the head, neck, shoulder, which I was given morphine. I had all the doctor's studies come see me that day, and had a visitor most of the day. The speech and language Therapist had to see me for swallowing issues. At some point they took me off morphine, and was given Percocet, which eventually makes me sick vomitting, and did so for the next day or so.

I didn't have a headache like I did on Saturday, which I say could have been caffeine withdrawal, but still did in the neck and shoulder ateaI had a slight fever, and when my ENT visited I was in the chair wrapped in blankets shivering, so he ordered blood cultures, chest x-ray, and antibiotics. This was the first time I saw him since post-op, and said how is the miracle man doing. He was happy with his findings, and told him my eye (my blinded eye) wasn't dropping like it was. He said that may be Horners syndrome due to the vagus, sympathetic nerves being taken out, and if that's all, were doing good. He said everything was so twisted up around the carotid from the radiation, fibrosis, he couldn't differentition the difference in

Turns out I had beginning of pneumonia, so was given a few IV's of strong antibiotics for a few days. I did have an incident with my vision later in the evening where I couldn't make out anything. I couldn't even operate the phone with disappearing, and moving display, and told the nurse, who I really couldn't see clearly, and everything else was a blur. This happened at every object I looked at. That went away in 15 minutes, and no one could say what from, and hopefully doesn't come back.

I was discharged on Tuesday, came in at 191lbs a few weeks ago, but went down to 175, they weighed me. Feeling weak and tired still, but feel better than yesterday, and so this will go on for a while, and taking oral antibiotics, tramadol for pain. I guess the two surgeries, and occlusion procedure in a week got to me.

Next steps will be all the follow-up visits starting next week.

You remind me of an armor clad Energizer bunny, banging the drum while on tour on the battlefield, only to return a bit scuffed and tired. you are the man!

I can picture that Don lol.

Little steps Paul and 1 day at a time. I think you are doing incredibly well. Be kind to yourself, let yourself rest and recover.
Here's to your good health.
Tammy.

My voice is still low, coughing, left eye closing (Horner's Syndrome) probably from the vagus nerve cut, which involve these. Time will tell if these will come back, and what information I get moving forward.