Shelby Cass's Weblog

Here it is…4am on Monday morning.  My dear dear laptop hath passed away RIP.  I am waiting til my next dose…which makes me feel like a junkie until I realise 1. a junkie wouldn’t wait and 2. I am in PAIN!

I wonder if Dr. Li is going to refill my prescription.  I sure hope so.  I have been good about administering but when it hurts…man it hurts.  I feel like someone split my lip open to the bone in the chin…oh wait, they did.  And my ears seem to be affected somehow by this whole thing.  I have to ask about that.  I have to plug my ears before I swallow to help prevent some of the pain.  I don’t know if it actually prevents any pain, but at least I’m distracted because my fingers are in my ears and I am trying to swallow?  Who knows.  It still hurts.  But yes, less than a few days ago.  I am, in fact, on the mend.

My friend Duncan said I am probably not getting enough protein with my 1 ensure a day, so recommended I order this stuff he says is NOT chalky…so either it’s not chalky and I get more protein, or he just inherited another container of it

On the upside…or is it downside?  I have lost about 8 lbs.  Of course the day I actually EAT something 1/2 of that will come back, but I’m still pretty happy.  Go surgery diet!

Ugh I have a feeling Dr. Li is going to make me open my mouth.  That will suck.  I really cannot move my lower lip much without horrible pain.

Okay I’m done complaining.  I will now return to my lump on the chaise lounge.  Bye bye.

PS My car Rira snores.  Should I worry? 

Woohoo!  That’s a sound I am certainly not making…since swallowing my own spit peaks me to close to a 10 of 10 pain scale.  But I am now officialy recovering, right?  Who knows what the final results will be…with all this swelling I’m sure it will be dramatically different than how it feels right now.

I’m only writing a quick note to let you know I survived.  Dr. Li hid in a corner of the OR while I was getting my drugs (because he was slinging plenty of garbage across the room that morning), so he might not survive when I have my strength back…  ah I tease.  He’s a great doctor.  Came to see my twice while I was in the hospital.

I did NOT have ANY idea how bad this was going to hurt.  Oh my gosh…seriously.  Now I know why some people get the UPPP and then never go any further even though the MMA would help/cure…this surgery is a doozie!!!  I don’t think the oxycodone made a dent the 1st 24 hours, but I’m sure I’ll be pounding the aloe vera and prune juice to make up for the doses I painfully got down every 2 hours like clockwork.

My friend David came over and brought me ice yesterday.  That rocked.  Now my daddy is coming over and I aksed him for ice too.  Who knew this would swell so much?  My gills from the tonsils and my poor poor chin from the re-cutting and re-moving of the screws.  Yes. I kept the screws.  To be posted later.  Now off to try to get some semblance of calories…ensure…blech.

Ah…I shy away from the blog when it’s important…don’t know why.  And this is important, so of course I ignored the blog for 2 weeks because that would make it all too real.  Unfortunately, it’s still real whether I write about it or not, so here I am.  Writing.  And tomorrow, I get surged.  Again.

Last update I found out the 34.8 sleep index and broke Dr. Li’s eardrum with profanities (ok really just one profanity).  The following Monday I had a meeting with Dr. Li and this is how it went:

Dr. Li enters room “Shelby!  How ya doin’?”

“I’m good.  Tired…”  Sad look.

Dr. Li gets out his fave tools and stretches my nostrils to see into my airway.  Then shines the light down my throat and turns his back to me.  He looks at my pictures on his computer and I turn around in the chair and say “Whatcha thinkin’?”  And he mooshes his face like an unhappy muppet and I say “Don’t make the muppet face!  Are you thinking ‘reverse Stanford Protocol’?”  To which he nods…and still has his lips all pressed shut.  “UPPP? I ask.”  “No, I don’t do that” he says.  “You keep your uvula.”  “So I can still speak French?”  He stops a sec…and smiles.  “Exactly.  So you can still speak French.”  “‘Cause that’s important” I say.

He explained to me what he would do: the tonsils and the soft palate lift thingamabopper.  I ask “You going to take my adenoids?”  “You don’t have adenoids” he says.  “Oh.  I didn’t know that.  Why not?”  “You don’t have adenoids ever since you became…a girl.”  I paused.  “Hm.  I never knew girls didn’t have adenoids.”  “Everyone has adenoids, but they shrink when you hit puberty.”  Another pause and I say, “I think you should know, I was born a girl.”  He looks sideways at me and shakes his head.

As we are parting ways, I tell Dr. Li I am so stressed about this whole thing I found a white hair IN MY EYEBROW.  And he looks up at my face and says “I see that.  I think you have more than that ONE.”  Smart ass.  So I hit him…on the left arm.  And I am sorry if it affects his surgery, but he deserved it.  I happen to have ONE white hair on my head that I see every so often when I part my hair a certain way and that was IT until the rogue eyebrow hair.

Anyway, I went out to the front desk and found out they could get me in on the 16th of July so they whisked me back into the office for my pre-op.  I figure I’m sofa city sweetheart until I get this fixed, so sooner is better than later if I want my bed back.  Dr. Li gave me my prescriptions and all that jazz and said to me “With this surgery…AND you losing more weight…I will get you and Courtland in the same bed.”  That’s a mighty promise since we’re kind of spoiled with our 2 queens pushed up next to each other…but same room would suit me juuuuuust fine!  As we shook hands, I looked at Dr. Li’s full head of hair and said “I’m pretty sure you have WAY more gray than I do.”  And he stood there for a sec, mid-shake, then said “I can’t say anything.  You’re right.”  w00t!

So, tomorrow morning 5:30 am check in and 7:30am surging.  Tonsils out, soft palate lifted, and screws from chin removed…I stay one night and then go home for 3 weeks of a wicked sore throat and then…  dare to dream …sleep.

Nighty night.