Day 8- Stuck on You

Today was my follow-up appointment with Dr. Amirlak at UT Southwestern, Dallas. I was really excited at the possibility of having my staples taken out- and being able to hear about the surgery from Dr. Amirlak. I had a little anxiety about having the staples out, even though EVERYONE and their mother says it doesn’t hurt- I just wasn’t sure I believed them. I woke myself up this morning scratching one of my staples in my dream… that will wake ya up! So the staples were still kind of sensitive to a touch, so I could not see how it would not hurt even a little to have them removed. Sean drove me and we made it to the appointment. After the obligatory med list check Dr. Amirlak came in. I just wanted to hug him!- but I settled for a handshake- lol. He came in and his nurse handed him tools to do something- I panicked-, I was like,” WAIT! what are you doing?!?!?!” He was like, “I’m just looking- and going to trim the stitch in your eyebrow.” I was like “Oh, sorry.” I guess i was a little on edge. He spent the next 20 mins going over the surgery pics from the endoscopy. He had gone over them with my family but none of them could remember all of the details post my surgery. It was nice to go over them with him. He was very excited about them and said things like, “These are great pictures- they would be great for presentations.” Which is ultimately what he and I want. I could only hope that when he went in during surgery, that he would find causes of problems. He was able to see a couple of places where arteries were wrapped in nerves, and each time the artery pumped it would signal the nerves. In those situations, he went in and took out some nerves, decompressed some muscles and padded nerves with fat from my cheeks. This all allows for pressure to be decreased from different areas. Sean was able to show Dr. Amirlak a video I took 30-40 mins post op. He was very excited to see that kind of documentation. He believes that change in the medical field comes from patient advocacy and information- as do I. We discussed a small amount of muscle relaxers for my neck. I have had some neck/pain/strain/irritation (don’t know which one I would say) mostly from holding up my head to keep the pressure off of the incisions. The Dr. says I will start physical therapy in 2-3 weeks to help restrengthen the neck. I do not feel like my neck strength has changed  very much, it just gets tired more quickly. He also suggested i put silicone steristrips on my neck incisions starting next week and fade-away cream on my forehead scars. Dr. Amirlak gave me permission to post the pics and videos of he and I pre-surgery when he was making his markings. I don’t know if I have mentioned it yet, sorry if I have, but Dr. Amirlak had UT Southwestern’s professional videographer videotape the entire 9hr surgery. This was done in the interest of using it for research, information, teachings, future patients- etc.  It has been so fantastic to have a surgeon who is like, “SURE! WHATEVER- for the good of science, research, furthering the surgery, etc. I don’t know if you can tell I like him a little bit 😉 Long story short, I am happy to report (kind of sadly because sometimes I  like drama and to worry) but I could NOT feel the  staples at all!