The Cold hard Ruthless COLD!!!!!

Why is it when you're feeling like things MIGHT JUST be getting back to normal, something like THE COLD comes along filling your head, throat and nose with utter misery?

I guess if I had truly been paying attention I might have noticed some small inkling of ill coming and about to take charge of my physical well being    Well, perhaps I didn't see it coming because we were watching over our daughter as she had very quickly become ill, a sinus infection and tonsillitis, but as of yesterday was feeling slightly better.   That she was beginning to feel better only makes sense that I should then begin to feel ill.   Oh well how long can it last?   Oh dangerous of me to have put that out there.

Well, all the ammunition lined up and working to eliminate, diminish, or at the very least numb the effects of feeling these ills.   I feel especially desperate after just recovering from recent surgery, which even yet has left my head and neck feeling quite compromised!    Oh woe is me.
Ruthless, cold, heartless and unfeeling cold!

Thy bedtime cometh much earlier this night.

Those Funny Little Things...

It's amazing the weird, quirky little things you don't think about until they are the very things you are missing or perhaps not missing but realizing you just can't do!

Two weeks ago today I had surgery for a Parotid Adenoma, or a benign tumour, tucked in along my Salivary Gland and just below my jaw line!    The only true visual that would give away the fact that I have had any surgery is the impressive scar I now don, strategically zig zagged to follow along the base of my ear and then my jaw line.    For the first few days there was some swelling of course and the scar was looking rather angry, but with bandages removed, poly sporin care and air it's looking much better.   Facial nerves and muscle have been affected, most likely temporary but either way presenting challenges I've never met before!

Now, it's those funny little things that continue to make everything so interesting.   For example, the numbness from below my ear lobe to half way down my scar and it feels oddly hard in that area and the top end of the scar is quite raised.     So many weird little "feelings" and then the really quirky things, like spitting... something we totally take for granted.   We all spit every time we brush our teeth, but presently my spit has no power behind it and even if I try, no direction!   It's a very disappointing result!    Chewing is challenging, doing most of it on the right side; the opposite side to the surgery.  With every bite taken and even on the right side, the salivary gland immediately reacts as if I were eating something sour, the reaction a sensitivity that goes into super overdrive and if I chew on that side it is even worse; actually painful.   Drinking is manageable until the cup is near empty and then apparently I lack the muscle to properly maneuver the last few dribbles available and end up ...well, dribbling!  Straws are helpful though there too depending on the straw size lack the ability to fully engage my lips with the straw!   Smiling too has a new personality, now my smile appears a little crooked, off centreat times!    A little Jim Nabors-esque, or a tiny bit Mary Lou Retton.

 

Talking...crazy as it is this has affected my talking.   Not that I talk any less, but in talking the movements of my mouth/lips may be a little awkward looking as the muscles or lack of presently,
work to form the shape of the words.   After talking for a bit my lips actually feel rather tuckered ...like they've completed some prescribed workout.   They feel like an elastic pulled to it tightest.When I haven't spoken in a while it feels like my jaw simply locks up and it's most uncomfortable and leaves my whole face feeling incredibly tense, which then follows in a massive headache.

Then just when one looks forward to tucking into bed, I lie down and yes usually beginning on my left side only to jump from the instant pain and being reminded that "oh yes, there's a scar there and it's sore and no I can't lie on that side of my face"...well, not without some very strategic thought in doing so!    It hurts from below the ear down to the base of the scar from about half way from the chin.

I know I'll be gaging whether or not some of these "Quirks" dissipate with each week passing and hope indeed all will return to "normal", whatever normal was!   I was already a Quirky sort so now I'm simply more interestingly quirky!
Those funny little things.

Scarred For Life and How sweet it is!

A NEW SCAR....I hear in my head just as though I was on Price Is Right!   It is sweet because it was a benign little tumour!   More surgery behind me, some soreness and uncomfortableness remains but really doing very well.    Being Thanks Giving weekend what I am thankful for is something I needn't even have to think about, it's just so right there in front of me and incredibly evident to me!  I will include the new scar in what I might be thankful for as it reminds me too.

I am ever so thankful for my family, all of them and even for their sometimes crazy ways, for good friends and always making more friends, food and shelter, my work, good medical care/doctors/nurses...so very much to be thankful for!

I know this scar will fade but my appreciation of all that it stands for never will!
Happy Thanks Giving everyone!    Let your heartfelt thanks shine through!   :)

P.S.: I'm not amazing, just thankful because this could have been so much worse!  This new scar really is nothing....though a great reminder of just another little bump in the road!    Now; once again I go forward!   :)