Labor-Intensive Life

One of the things I have found out post-op is that things that used to be easy take extra time.

Like swallowing.

Thanks to the way this surgery is done (anterior cervical corpectomy, remember?) I have had numbness on the left side of my tongue and throat. Along with the natural swelling that occurs following anything like surgery. As a result, well, I'm Mr. Numb Tongue. If i take too big a swallow of a too thin liquid I can start to choke.

Therefore it takes longer to drink a glass of tea. Hours, in fact. Or eat. S-l-o-w-l-y. Which for any who know me is like saying do the impossible.

But at least all appears to be moving in the right direction. It has been a full week now. In fact as I write this it is almost exactly the same time today as it was last Thursday when I started the gurney journey into the OR. The surgery itself was a little more involved than originally thought- more arthritis in some of the spinal area that required a little more scraping. But if today my biggest issue that life takes longer, let's go for it.