3 months on

Three months on and things have really settled down. The itching has finally stopped. It is a little sore still, towards the right hand side, but overall it feels much, much better. I have stopped wearing the scarves now and stopped trying to cover it up, I seem to feel better about it, the more that it starts to feel better. I am looking forward to when it stops hurting altogether.

I am pleased with the progress I am making. I still put the Bio-oil on day and night and I am sure that it is making a difference, although I guess we will never know what it would have looked like without it, still I like to think it works. Next check in will be at 6 months and we will see how things are going then.

One month on

I had my operation a month ago and while there have been some ups and downs, basically it is all going well. The scar seems to be healing and I have a lot more head movement now. It is still very numb and I have been told this may be permanent due to nerve damage, but to be honest this is the least of my worries. It is only a small area under my chin and around my neck and how often do you really need to feel that part anyway?

So, overall I am pleased with the way things are going. My blood is normal again, so it was definitely worth having it done. The funny thing about the scar is that I don't think I mind it, however, every time I go out I make sure I cover it with a scarf, so I obviously do mind it a bit. Perhaps as it settles I will feel less self conscious, and at least it is winter so the scarf doesn't look too out of place. I will be going back to work soon - probably next week - so we'll see how I feel when I have to stand in front of a whole room of people who can see it.

Anyway, I will report back on things in January, as it will have been 3 months by then. Hopefully, there will be a big difference.

Complications

Ok, so I had a bit of a complication last week. On Thursday I went to see my GP and she said that she thought my scar had a bit of an infection because it looked quite red and puffy and I was still in quite a lot of pain with it, so she prescribed me some antibiotics. I've never had any problems with antibiotics before, so I wasn't really worried too much. However, I woke up at about 1am and I felt like my throat was closing and it was really difficult to breathe. I was sweating and my heart was hammering, I got up but still felt really bad and was still struggling to breathe. My thought at this point was that something was happening internally - perhaps bleeding or swelling - I was absolutely terrified and I was so scared, I honestly thought that I was about to die. Anyway, I woke my hubby and we went to A&E, where they ran loads of tests and took loads of blood. They kept me in overnight and eventually came to the conclusion that I had had a bad reaction to the antibiotics. They gave me some more tablets to counteract the effects of the antibiotics and eventually sent me home.
That was 4 days ago now and I feel fine again. I think I probably scared myself more than anything else, but it was a very scary time nevertheless. However, at least my neck is starting to feel a lot better and I am regaining quite a lot of head movement, which is good because I have to drive this weekend and looking left and right will be quite important!

Two weeks later

Two weeks after the op and all is going well. The scar is starting to settle down now and the movement in the neck is starting to return. It is still very numb and it has been through a couple of different phases of pain, for a while it felt like the cut was going to re-open, that was a particularly unpleasant feeling. Then it began to feel very tight, with a dull pain, for a couple of days it just felt like an actual cut would feel and now it just aches and itches - it's strange how it keeps changing, but I guess that's just the healing process - or so everyone keeps telling me.

Anyway, I saw the specialist today and got some good news. My calcium levels have returned to normal, which means the operation was a success and I have been discharged - it's all over! It's a huge relief, I was worried that they would want to operate again. So, that just leaves me with a visit to the surgeon on the 1st December, then I should be back to normal again.

I haven't returned to work yet, I would like to have a bit more feeling and movement in my neck before I do that, but I feel like I am making good progress, so it shouldn't be too long. I will post another pic after the first month, just so you can see how it's looking.

One week on

After one week the pain is starting to change. It feels less like someone is pressing into my throat, but more like every time I move, the wound is trying to come apart. This is a really gross feeling and quite disturbing at times. I am not too sure how much of it is psychological either. I have a bit of a rash where the tape came off, but at least it is clean now. The area around my jaw is still very numb and this is still the most painful part as well. Things like yawning and sneezing are quite painful. I am getting tired a lot and the GP said this may be due to the calcium levels still adjusting themselves, although I think it could also be down to the fact that I have to concentrate to keep my head still and this just makes everything a bit more difficult. Still, every day does get a bit easier, and I am looking forward to feeling completely normal again. It is still hard that I felt fine before this operation, so at the moment I feel worse than I did before, but then this was never about the immediate future, it was always about preventing the long term side effects.

Day 5 - Removing the tape

So, day 5 arrived. The day to remove the surgical tape. To say I was a little apprehensive would be quite an understatement. I was also a little excited in a very weird way, as this would be my first opportunity to have a proper look at my scar. I was really unsure of how to remove the tape, I had asked a nurse when I had been for a blood test, but she had no advice and just wished me luck. You can see from the last 2 pictures just how tight that tape was, I had showered a few times and it wasn't even starting to give.

Eventually, I plucked up the courage and made a start. To say it was painful would be my second understatement. It was incredibly painful and made me feel really, really sick. In total it must have taken me about an hour of pulling at it a bit, leaving it a bit and then coming back to it again, but eventually it came off. At this point I was just so happy to have it over and done with that I couldn't face cleaning the sticky bits off.

It felt very strange with the tape off, mainly because it felt like the tape was still on. I had wrongly assumed that the tightness was due to the tape being stretched against the swelling, but it actually still felt like that after the tape had been removed, which was weird. The good news was that the scar looked smaller without the tape on it and it was incredibly neat, so I am quite hopeful that it will fade and become almost invisible in a few months time.

48 hours later

48 hours later and this is how my scar was looking. By now it was beginning to swell up and really starting to pull against the clear tape that was covering it. It felt very tight and uncomfortable, like someone was pressing their fingers into the centre of your throat all the time, I have always hated anything tight against my neck, so this feeling was particularly unpleasant. I also had very restricted head and neck movement and this just made everything difficult. You really don't realise how much you move your head around until you can't.

On a more positive note though, the pain was starting to ease and, although I felt incredibly tired, I was starting to get back to normal, albeit very slowly. So, if I felt like this after 48 hours, then it was a positive outlook for the next few days. I still had day 5 to face, and as the tape continued to get tighter, the thought of removing it felt less and less appealing. Still, the hospital would not have left me to take it off on my own if it was going to be that difficult - would they?