It is Sunday morning, the 3rd day after my SCDS surgery. High points to look forward to today:
- The giant bandage on the side of my head came off today, which meant my head got washed a little. That was nice.
- I’m midway through my 5 days of mandatory bed rest.
- I’m also hoping Beth will bring me a tasty espresso drink from a coffee shop somewhere – an iced mocha, for example.
Yesterday my recovery continued pretty uneventfully. I got a hot shower, with a shower cap to protect my head bandages from getting wet. I stayed in bed most of the day, as I was supposed to, and that gave me a lot of time to catch up on all my email and watch some roller derby online and play this weird video game I bought last week for my iPad.
I made it through the day on just regular Advil for pain, which was good. It was nice to not be loopy all day, but I did have Tylenol 3 (acetaminophen plus codeine) right before bed. The kind of pain I’m having the past couple days is like a common headache or earache. It’s not too bad. In fact, it’s surprising that I had three holes drilled in my skull last week and am having no more pain that a triple shot of Advil can handle.
Today will probably be more of the same, though I’m gonna try some video editing on my laptop (from bed). Beth wants to let the hotel’s housekeepers in to do their thing today, too, but it’s a bit awkward for me to be lying in bed with maids working around me. Maybe she’ll let me get up long enough to go sit in the lobby while the maids clean house.
I should point out my symptoms at this point, for others who are considering having this same procedure done. On the 3rd day post-op, I have a lot of ringing tinnitus in my left ear. I also have loud autophony; my voice is very loud in that ear and occasionally my heartbeat is very loud, too. When I do my vestibular retraining exercises, I can hear my eyes moving as they track targets. These are worse autophony symptoms than I was having before surgery, so obviously I hope these go away completely as part of the recovery process. Like I already wrote, pain level is pretty low. Compared to my first surgery, I would say there is less pain and I’m able to read and use a computer a lot better. Unfortunately, I’ve still got the post-surgery constipation and my stomach hurts because of it. I hope that changes today. I also had a little dizziness this morning, but not bad.
Click here to see all the other posts about my ear surgery.
If you’re in Vicodin, you’re going to be way blocked up. I would request Tramodol for pain. It’s much easier on the constitution, and it works better for pain relief, and is not an opiate. Also some Senna would be good for the constipation.
Fortunately, I haven’t had much pain and am just taking regular Advil during the day. I haven’t been on Vicodin or Percocet since I was discharged from the hospital. And I’ve been taking Senna and Colace for 2 or 3 days now. I’m sure it’ll all shake loose sometime.