2:25 PM on Thursday

That’s the last thing I remember on Thursday afternoon. This is my 7th surgery in three years. I make it a habit to know what time it is when I go under. I burnt a CD for my doctor to play while performing my operation. We were on the second cut, “Bad Day,” by Daniel Powter. The first cut was “Hey there Delilah” by the Plain White T’s. The next thing I knew, it was 5:40 PM and I was in the recovery room. My doctor enjoyed the music selection. There were about 5 people in the operating room when I went under.

The surgery was a success. My doctor removed the two small tumors (each about the size of a dime), got clean margins, and didn’t impact my facial nerves. I was in substantial pain in the recovery room, mostly my throat and tongue areas, not the surgical site. They said it was probably from the tube they put down my throat. They gave me two shots of Diladid to ease the pain. The nurse said it is 10 times more powerful than morphine. She also said I shouldn’t have any more because it could keep me from breathing. This worried me in my fuzzy, post surgical mind. She probably shouldn’t have said that. We spent the night in the hospital. Always a pleasure. They wake you every 30 minutes during the night to see how you’re doing. It is definitely not a place for a good night’s sleep. I got a chest CT at about 1:00 PM on Friday and was released at 2:00 PM. It is now Saturday afternoon and I’m still quite sore. This includes my throat, tongue, and surgical site areas. I’m taking some additional pain medicine to help me through this period. So, my new worries are the results of my chest CT, which will probably come back negative, and my throat/tongue pain. I’m not so sure about these areas being clean longer term. I will see my surgeon in about a month for a post surgical follow-up. All my stitches are either stiri-strips which will fall off within two weeks or are dissolvable. The incision is in front of my left ear and about 5 – 6 inches long. I can’t see it because of the stiri-strips.

Now onto the longer term plan. In 3 – 4 weeks, I’ll see my chemo doctor and begin more chemo. He’s going to review what I’ve had to date to see if he wants to try any of the same drugs again. I don’t view my prior chemo as a failure; it just wasn’t the overwhelming success we had all hoped for. He has a new drug in mind, one already in use for this type of cancer, and we’ve been researching it via the web. If we can find the right drug, it will kill this beast. That’s the “hope” part of all this.

That’s enough for now. Take care and stay well.