A Look Inside My Head

Hello, Everybody!

I had an appointment with Dr Movahed yesterday.  It went really well.  He still says that things are well on track and that I'm doing great.  He seemed especially happy with how well the sutures lines on my neck are healing and took photos for documentation.  Here are some of the high points we talked about.

After seeing me and poking around the area of my bionics (what I've started calling my prosthetics), he's pretty darn sure that the infection is not in that (thank goodness!).  He said that if it was in the bionics, there would be swelling, redness, tenderness, etc. and there's none of that.  He's sure it's in that screw hole and that there is nothing to worry about.  So I'm feeling better about that.

Apparently I have a suture in my nose that is keeping my nose from widening as things heal.  This is why is hurts to touch my nose.  I mean hurts.  Even putting lotion on or wiping it.  It's a dissolving suture and some day there will be a ping; no more suture.  That sounds like it'll be weird.

It's been almost a month now since James has been at work on a regular basis and both he and his coworkers are ready for that to change.  But I'm going to so many doctor's appointments and can't drive myself because of the narcotics.  So we're trying tramadol which is a non narcotic pain killer.  I just started it this morning so we'll see how it goes.

He said to stop treating the suture lines on my neck with antibacterial ointment and start with Mederma (scar reducing gel).  He's pretty sure that those are going to heal with little or no scarring.  The belly wound may need a scar revision procedure.  I have a flap of skin that's hanging off part of it and will need to be removed to keep it from being constantly irritated by clothing.  He says they can do it in office in a couple of months post surgery.

Also while I was there, the surgery nurse, Iryna (isn't that a cool spelling?) gave me a CD with some of the images that have been taken post surgery.  Shall we have a look?

My first thought?  Holy crap, that a lot of metal!  I'll be worth something in recycling someday!  And I'm pretty sure my MRI days are over.

And the image quality is pretty spectacular.  I find things that I can see that are inside me to be fascinating so I spend a lot time studying this. Is that narcissistic?

Also noticed that I have no curve in my neck what so ever.  Let's compare.

Normal Neck Curvature

Heather's (lack of) Neck Curvature

This actually is related to a lot the neck and jaw dysfunction and pain that I've had most of my adult life.  We can't say if one caused the other, but they certainly fed off each other.  And it's also why my head thrusts forward.  I need to talk with Shawn (P.T.) and my chiropractor it see if there is anything we can do to improve that.

OK, I think that's all for now.  Hope everybody out there doing well!