Post-Op Appointment

I had my post-op appointment with Dr. Rice today. I left the South Bay at 12:30 for a 2pm appointment, not knowing how the L.A. traffic would be. I arrived at about 1:15, so I decided to go to the 1500 building to pay my surgery bill while I was there. It gave me an excuse to work up my endurance, as I've lost that from the effects of the surgery.

It wasn't a long walk, per se, but it was scorching hot, so I was out of breath when I got to the front desk to ask where billing was located. The front desk clerk made a comment about how I didn't look like I had just had surgery. That made me feel nice!

I went to the admissions desk and was helped by a nice woman wearing green in spirit of St. Patrick's Day. It seemed as if there was a problem with my FSA card, but it turned out that she had identified it incorrectly as a VISA card and that is why there was an error! I was in no hurry so it was no big deal. A coworker pointed the mistake out to her so she's most likely going to be made fun of for quite a while!

Before going back, I went to the nearby cafeteria to get ice and I ended up getting a chocolate pudding with whipped cream. One of the benefits of a soft food diet. :-)

I walked back to building 1520 and went to the 4th floor head and neck department just in time for my 2pm appointment. Unfortunately, Dr. Rice was held up in surgery. This gave me an opportunity to look through 2 Cooking Light magazines and read some of the book I brought, "Reaching for the Invisible God" by Phillip Yancey. I waited about an hour and a half, but I was fine. I mixed the whipped cream in my pudding and had a snack. Although it was chocolate, the pudding tasted more like hazelnut. Don't know if the whipped cream had anything to do with that. I never eat whipped cream, but I do like it mixed in pudding. This time off has seemed to calm me a bit because I usually get frustrated at waiting.

I was finally called into exam room but I had to wait another 15 or so minutes. I used this time wisely by doing some leg lifts, calf raises and squats. I was sitting too long in the waiting room and my muscles were turning to mush!

Dr. Rice came in with a nice smile on his face. He started joking with, "You survived!" Yep, I faired very well. He took a look in my mouth and said that I was healing nicely. Before coming in, I had looked at my throat in my car's rear-view mirror and my throat looks like it is trying to form another uvula (punching bag). It looks very strange. I asked Dr. Rice about this and he said, "That's normal. That's the way the wound swells."

He instructed for me to see him once a month. He said that scar tissue can form which creates an obstruction, but by coming in regularly this can be fixed by steroid shots if needed. I asked him about my diet while I was there and he said that if I try it and it doesn't hurt, I can eat it. I told him about my banana fiasco and he said that most fruit, except for watermelon, are not a good idea! Yeah, the thought of oranges in my mouth makes me cringe. Now I look at a banana and shudder.