Ok, thanks! I bought some regular Mederma cream with sunscreen but a few people have mentioned the silicon stuff (including the Mederma brand and Silagen Scar Refinement System). Do you think silicon is better?
The words of my surgeon were âthe scientific studies have proven silicon is the bestâ. But I think itâs all helpful.
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How was the follow up appt?
The post-surgical appointment was fine. Itâs going to take some time to tell which symptoms will go away. Could be some issues are caused by the right styloid that remains. I am healing well though and have not taken anything for pain in days. Only on prednisone for swelling. I was told it could take several weeks to really start feeling better. Obvious during ride home that right side is an issue with neck turning. I donât think itâs worse than pre-left side surgery, but it just stands out now since there is currently no matching left side neck pain. Still dealing with left side stabbing ear pain and stuffiness. It was explained that the euchastachian tube is just crowded now with the remaining swelling and is affecting hearing temporarily. I guess I have to give the pain and ringing some time. Residual neck pain is thought to be related to the breathing tube. Again, time needed for healing. My weird car sickness thing is back though today. Maybe this is caused by the right side. Too early to tell I guess. Happy to be going home tomorrow 
Goodness how we all grow in patience in recovery. A long drive tomorrow sounds like the last thing you want to do but your own bed is at the end of it!
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Hope that you have a smooth journey home, & your patience is very impressive!! 
How was the drive? Has your mom made you her famous soup yet? Youâre still less than a week out! 
I made it home ok with the aid of airport wheelchairs, a Percocet, Bonine, Afrin (suggested by Samjiâs PA to clear the ear) and door-side pick up service everywhere. It was ok, thank God. I was concerned about ear pain on the plane but either the drugs prevented it or the Lord was just merciful. Either way, Iâm relieved to be home in one piece (almost, lol). The Afrin did make things hurt for some reason but the Percocet kicked in shortly afterward and things were ok. The drive home from the airport was bearable. Struggling off and on these days with the âcar sicknessâ. I probably need to stop calling it car sickness though because itâs different. A better way to describe it is a combination of chest/heart and neck pain with head pressure and I only feel this way in the car. Itâs just an illness I get in the car so I call it âcar sicknessâ, which is confusing. Sometimes there is nausea associated but no vomiting, like with actual car sickness. The whole thing feels nerve relatedâŚjust havenât found relief from it yet. There is still inflammation in the neck thoughâŚand it could be the other side thatâs responsible.
Mom did cook a lot while we were in CA, thank goodness. She did make chicken rice soup which helps a lot of things feel better:) Nice just to be home though.
redbird773 -
So glad youâre home safe & sound. Now the real healing can begin. Rely on your family/friends to help you as much as you can for the first month post op. Add activities S-L-O-W-L-Y to âtest the watersâ & see which ones agree w/ your body & which ones still need to wait a bit to be added in. You will find you have better days & worse days. The better days tend to feel âbetter enoughâ that itâs easy to overdo things then feel lousy for a couple of days afterward. Most of us have fallen into that trap while healing from surgery.
Iâm praying that each day going forward brings you some sign of further recovery.
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Thanks, @Isaiah_40_31. I spent a lot of yesterday upright and started paying for that last night. Just woke up and the neck pain/discomfort is worse than it has been. Itâs going to be a fine line between moving enough to heal well and not overdoing it for a while. Carrying anything and bending down are still on the no-no list. Thank you so much for the prayers!
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2-week post-op update:
I am still at this point struggling with nerve pain in my neck on the surgical side, burning mouth, fatigue, constant ringing tinnitus (seems to be both sides), ear pain (both sides), headache, head pressure, and palpitations (without the beta blocker), but I am without the throat pain, the bone pushing in behind my tonsil, the left-side pain on turning my neck, and I also have a much stronger voice than before surgery. My eyes seem better (less red, less pain), but I am still wondering if this can be attributed to the prednisone. My last day of that is tomorrow. Still very numb above the incision and under my chin, but Iâm not expecting any improvement there for another couple weeks. I hope that time will remove some or all of the remaining symptoms. My incision looks good, but it is extremely bumpy. I suppose this is muscle, rather than skin that is bulged out in the image. It is a hard lump underneath the skin above the incision. I have to return to work tomorrow so I may cover it loosely with a bandage. Not sure when itâs safe to start using the silicon bandages. Do the little scabs all have to be gone?
Hey girl, looking great! Bumpy is normal. It will smooth out. I started the silicon patch at week 3. Youâre still dealing with a lot post-op! My numbness at the site gets noticeably better week by week. Hope youâre job isnât the person responsible for wrestling small animals getting shots at a vet or something like that.
@SewMomma thanks for your reply. Good to know you think this looks normal! I didnât remember this with my abdominal surgeries. Also good to know about your progress with the numbness. As you know, there are different levels of numbnessâŚmine is all the way numb still above the incision for about 2 inches Iâd say. Almost no numbness below it. I was going to start the patches tomorrow (start of week 3). Think I should wait another week? Ha, no wrestling animalsâŚmy job is 99% computer âŚsitting down at desk. However, 2 hours of Houston traffic can feel similar to a wrestling match! No problems (as of today) turning head. I might have something different to say tomorrow, lol.
@SewMomma, Regarding your comment about still dealing with a lotâŚmy goals are to 1) be able to drive safely to work and 2) exercise again without feeling awful. If I can achieve these things, I will worry about the other stuff later. Some symptoms could still be caused by the other side (same length). I also have some nerve medication (topiramate) my neurologist prescribed for headache that I havenât started using yetâŚwas hoping I wouldnât need it. Iâm going to give the recovery process another couple weeks I think before I start it.
I wasnât able to exercise properly until I had both sides done- both sides were compressing the jugular veins & while the symptoms improved alot after 1st surgery, but exercise put an extra stress on, so symptoms would return. So donât be too disappointed if you canât do everything you want until side 2 is done.
Hope going back to work isnât too painful, & that you keep seeing improvements!
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Hi! I should mentioned my follow up appt was three weeks after surgery which is when I learned about the patches. You could totally start now. Here I am this morning. The red marks are me forever scratching the area to see if more feeling has come back LOL. Same here, only numbness above the incision.
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I am 14 weeks out on one side and the numbness goes from my ear to my chin, above the incision, including the jaw bone. The Dr. told me 6 months to a year for it to return to normal - so I do my best to ignore it.
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Thanks, @Jules. I was hoping since my compression wasnât as bad as yours that I would feel enough better to exercise well again following removal of the one side. Guess sill see how things go, but sill definitely try to maintain realistic expectation. Going back today was not all that painful, but it was exhausting. My right side had just started to really bother me when I was pulling into the parking lot. I ended up taking a nap at lunch because I almost fell asleep at my desk (I never do that). Iâm going to the office again tomorrow, then working from home the rest of the week. This will allow me to rest more often so so donât get so overly tired.
@SewMomma, that looks really good! There is a tad bit of scab left on mine so I think I might wait just a couple more days. Iâm excited to try these patches though! I just wore very loose bandaids today. I started getting some itchiness todayâŚprobably part of the healingâŚtrying not to scratch until it heals a bit more:)
Wow, @sjlash! Seems like a long time but Iâm already getting used to it. Hoping you heal completely in the near future!