2 Weeks! The good news and the meh news

Having made it to the two week mark, the time seems to have gone faster than I'd have thought.  Probably that's at least partially due to medication-induced haze, but when you're filling your days with TV and twitter, that's about as good as I could have hoped for.  I'm due for a follow-up appointment tomorrow to check on the progress of my fusion (hazy Xray here I come!) and I'm still holding out a wee hope that he'll say I'm doing so well, I can take off the neck brace.

Unfortunately, my progress in terms of mobility and pain seems to have plateaued.  While I don't have any real pain per se, I'm quite stiff and achy in the upper back, near my shoulder blades.  I'm sure its because of how I'm holding myself to avoid flexing my neck.  Unfortunately, it woke me up last night and I had to take some meds to calm down the spasms.   

Today after the shower, I walked around a bit getting dressed without the neck brace.  I thought I was doing pretty well until I accidentally only slightly flexed my neck backwards.  Owie!  Immediately put that thing right back on.  Even if it is just to remind me not to move too much, I guess I'm glad its there.  Starting to be concerned about "spaghetti neck" after wearing it for 6 weeks but maybe that's what PT is for? 

So here is a shot of my scar on day 14:


Scar day 14

The little scab at the end is from where the drain was stitched in (yuk!).  The steri-strips came off yesterday altogether.  The rashy looking areas are from where I broke out due to my allergy to surgical tape (oy).  The skin around the scar is still an odd combination of sensitive and numb.  There's definitely some scar tissue lurking in there.  Overall, its better than I had hoped it would be.  Thanks Doc!

I can still feel some constriction in my throat when I swallow - it feels like my esophagus is still swollen somewhat although its not affecting my ability to eat, unfortunately.  The only other issue now is my jaw and teeth are sore from having to fight the neck brace under my jaw.  Overall pain and discomfort rating:  1 out of 10.