Well, it's now three and a half days since the surgery. This is by far the clearest my head has been in that time. I nearly made a decision earlier, but pulled out at the last second. The pain, however, has been ramping up steadily, though I hope it's either reached its peak this morning or will do in the next day or so. Pictorial update time:
Sorry for blurry, but you get the idea I hope
So, how am I getting on? Woolly Head Syndrome (WHS) first. I'm sure it's a combination of the general anaesthetic, the codeine, and the physical trauma of having the back of your throat all slashed up, but it's certainly had me orbiting a different star the last few days. Even the simplest of questions from Siri (my wonderful wife/nurse/handmaid) has met with a blank look and dead-fish eyes. What kind of soup would you like? Cup of tea? Window open or closed? I can remember what it's like to have an answer to that sort of thing, but whatever part of the brain does 'decisions' must have been connected to my tonsils because it's just not happening at present.
WHS is also probably not helped by my sleeping patterns since surgery. Thursday, Friday and last nights have been a real struggle. The pattern seems to be: fill up on codeine before getting into bed, manage to drift off after a while, then come round when it wears off about three hours later. That's the really unpleasant part - throat and mouth all dried out, head throbbing, either shivery or too hot. So it's another round of painkillers, then back to sleep, and repeat somewhere between 6 and 7 in the morning, by which time it's not really worth trying again. I can't lie on my back as that lets me breathe out through my mouth (but not in) or in through my nose (but not out). Yes, technically there's a combination there that should work, but trust me, it's not workable. So it's a case of building a sort of seat-back with pillows and sleeping bag and propping myself up on that. Which works fine, but my back and neck don't thank me when I come to.
Finally, the pain. This afternoon's not been so bad, but over the last 48 hours I've had some pretty unpleasant spells. The internal swelling now extends from ear to ear to base of neck, and all points in between. That means jaw-ache, ear-ache, throat-ache, tongue-ache, the whole works. It comes and goes, it's manageable most of the time, and the painkillers do help, but it's not nice when it all comes along at the same time. It's also not very helpful that they cut my lower lip in a few places during the surgery. They did warn me it was possible so no complaints, but they're now half-way through the journey from 'cut' to 'ulcer'. So there's that to look forward to as well!
Managed a couple of visitors today - cheers to Spumes and the Jizzler for coming round this afternoon. Also helped that England had a good day in the Ashes and United won the Thingybob Shield at a canter. So, there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful, and I know that the end of it all is in sight. Like they say, pain is just weakness leaving the body. So all of this is good stuff, I just wish I didn't have so much weakness inside me.
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