My even more recent emergency surgery

Well, I'm finally out of the hospital and have been home for a few days now after a having emergency surgery to repair my newly-installed ocular implant.

To recap from my old blog post from a couple of weeks ago, I had my left eye removed at the beginning of the month, and in its place was an implant to try to make an artificial eye look as real as possible. The surgery wasn't bad, I was home just after one day, and I thought all was well on the road to recovery.

During the week after the first surgery, every day my dad helped me remove the eye patch and help clean the eye socket and put in some of the antibiotic ointment around the area to promote healing. I only had to keep this up for about a week, until my doctor's appointment on Tuesday, October 10. However, things started to get really interesting on Monday morning when I woke up. Although the area around my eye never really felt all that great, I felt something totally different than I had in the previous days. It was almost like a sharp, tingling discomfort that just felt really gross and awkward. I told my dad, and he decided to remove the eye patch and see what was going on.

He put on his latex gloves and started to remove the tape around the patch very slowly. As he pulled away the gauze, my eyelid was exposed and closed (when there's no eye in the socket, the eyelid cannot stay open, so it will be shut until I get the acrylic eye made, or a temporary outer layer to help support the eyelid). He noted that it looked a little swollen, and when he raised my eyelid as he had done several times before, something happened that we totally weren't expecting. I felt something slide out of the eye socket and dangle on my cheek. I couldn't see what it was, but knew it couldn't be good when my dad's face turned immediately scared, and said "holy fucking shit!" Blood started to ooze out of the eye, and I felt one of the sharpest pains I've ever experienced in my life.

It turns out that the thin membrane covered over the implant to protect it didn't stay in place, and 3 of the 4 muscles attached to the implant had detached themselves, and so the implant was dangling out of the eye socket with one tiny muscle strand.

I started to get very dizzy from the pain, so my dad immediately laid me on my back and "pushed" the implant back into my eye, put the patch on as good as he quickly could, and yelled to my mother to call the valet station to retrieve our car. He then went and got all of my medicine and supplies and put them in a Ziploc bag. My parents helped me get off the floor and walked me down the hall to the elevator. As we were approaching the lobby, some of the valet attendants and other employees helped carry my stuff and get me in the arriving car (we still are using the rental car, since mine was totaled and haven't looked for a new one yet).

We began the 25-minute journey up to the hospital, although I think we may have made it a little quicker than that. My dad said he drove much faster than he should have, and had his hazards on, so he was lucky he didn't get pulled over. Traffic wasn't bad, and the only time we had to slow down was going through the toll plaza. On the way to the hospital, my mother called my surgeon and told him what happened, and he said that he would come in to the hospital as soon as he could. We didn't call an ambulance or anything because we knew it would take longer for them to pick me up and then take me to the hospital. There's a public hospital down the road, but eww, I wouldn't go there unless I really had to.

Once at the hospital, some of the assistants put me in a wheelchair and luckily enough, they allowed my mom to stay behind and handle all the paperwork at triage, and immediately began to work on making me more comfortable until the surgeon arrived. I undressed and got into one of those skimpy hospital gowns, and a nurse was there to put an IV in my arm. He gave me something to relax me and to help ease the pain, and damn it knocked me out before I knew what was happening to me.

I don't know how long it was between when I got to the hospital and when my doctor finally arrived, but I was just waking up and hearing him talking to my parents. He had taken off the bandage and was examining what happened, and was afraid that my body was rejecting the implant. He wasn't sure why the membrane (to hold the implant in) broke/detached, but he thinks it was because I didn't have the conformer (a clear acrylic placeholder for the outer prosthetic). He originally didn't put one in because he felt that it would put too much pressure on the implant and stunt its healing process due to all the swelling I had. He also was afraid that my body was just rejecting the implant all together, and would have to go with one of the old-school glass eyes that people used until the implants were developed. The old eyes were completely stationary and didn't move with your other eye, whereas the new implants should have a fairly good range of movement.

He felt that his original diagnosis was correct, and even though he didn't like all the swelling he was seeing, he would put in the acrylic conformer and closely monitor me to make sure it doesn't pop out. A short while later, the operating room was ready, and I was given a nice dosage of anesthesia in my IV, and again I was out in just a couple of minutes.

My next memory was disturbingly familiar: waking up in a dark recovery room with my parents and girlfriend staring over my face. Again, I didn't have my glasses and couldn't really make out anything, but it was great to see that they were there with me again. I was also pleased to see that they had given me enough anesthesia so that I didn't wake up until after they had taken out the breathing tube (during my last surgery, I woke up early while the tube was still in, and they had to tie my arm down to prevent me from tugging on it).

I drifted out of consciousness again, and woke up later that afternoon in a hospital room. I don't remember much, but I do remember being very, very thirsty. My girlfriend put the straw to my mouth, and I took a couple of swigs, and I immediately had this very unsettling feeling in my stomach. Within seconds, I spewed out chunks of my breakfast (and probably the previous night's dinner) all over the hospital bed and the floor. I now know why they tell you not to eat anything before surgery. We pushed the call button on the remote control, and a nurse came in and helped get me cleaned up and put new sheets on the bed. I got a comfy new paper gown along with a new pair of those socks with rubber on the bottom of them.

I tried drinking some water about an hour later, and I immediately got that feeling in my stomach and threw up the remaining contents of my stomach. Luckily I had a bucket to throw up in, so I didn't make a mess all over myself. The on-call doctor didn't seem to be too concerned at the time, because I was being given fluids through the IV. He said to give it the night and see how the next day goes. I didn't care if I was drinking anything or not, because I was so strung out on the pain medicine I didn't really know or care what was going on.

The following morning (Tuesday), I tried to drink some more fluids and again I threw it up. I knew I didn't feel like eating any breakfast, but tried a Jello square anyways. It came back up shortly after, too. The doctor on call was starting to get concerned a little, noting that this behavior was highly irregular. My family and I were all like, "no shit." Anyways, I continued to rest in bed until later that morning my eye doctor came in to check on me to see how I was feeling and to see how the implant is holding up. This time with the plastic eye placeholder in, he noted that things were going well, and that I was even able to open up my eyelid (something I hadn't been able to do before). He took out the conformer to examine the membrane surrounding the implant, and said things were looking good. He put the conformer back in and put the pressure patch back on the eye. He also said that in terms of the eye, I would be ready to go home, but that I should stay a little longer until I can start taking in fluids by myself without throwing them back up.

Later that afternoon, I still wasn't able to keep any solids or liquids down, but I started to pee a lot. Every 20 or 30 minutes, I had the huge urge to drain my bladder, and was urinating much more than what was going into my body through the IV. The doctors were becoming increasingly concerned that if I couldn't start drinking soon that I may become severely dehydrated. They also told me I wasn't going to be going home that night.

I was still drugged up on pain medicine, and the doctors thought that perhaps I was having a negative reaction to the medication. They decided to cut back on it, even though I would feel a little more discomfort to see if I had any improvement. I didn't, and in fact I started to feel worse. Later that evening, I started feeling really sick on my stomach and nauseated. My stomach was completely empty, so my attempts of throwing up ended in painful dry heaves that came every 45 minutes or so. I was given some medicine for nausea, and something to help me relax, and aside from getting up to pee once an hour, I had a relatively good night, until early Wednesday morning.

Early in the Wednesday AM I woke up extremely cold and my body completely numb below my chest. My fingers were also tingling with the 'needles' you get when your arm or leg goes to sleep. My girlfriend who stayed the night with me called the nurse when I woke up. She came in to see what was wrong and immediately asked if I had to pee. I didn't, but she told me to try, and the pee was an orange color. She said that I may have a kidney infection or something along those lines, which would explain why I peed so much throughout the evening and night. They gave me a shot and by lunchtime my body started to feel better, and I warmed up a bit. I don't know what they gave me, but I really started feeling better! My eye doctor also came in, examined my eye, and said things were looking good in that area, too! They decided to keep me one more night to see how my condition is.

Later that afternoon, I continued to try to take in some fluids, and over time I was able to drink a couple of ounces. I even was able to keep down a single, wonderful, lime Jello square.

That evening, my dad and Elena went back to my apartment, and my mom decided to stay with me for the night. I still couldn't see anything because my glasses wouldn't fit over the eyepatch, but damn it was good to be feeling better.

The following morning, the on-call doctor came in to check on me, and was happy to see that everything was going well. The eye doctor came in an hour later, changed my bandages, and cleared me for discharge from the hospital.

My dad showed up at the hospital to help get me home, and my parents accompanied me alongside my wheelchair and the nurse pushing me to the pick-up area. My dad said he was going to go get the car, but I remembered what happened last week when we got in a bad wreck. I suggested a taxi, so my dad whistled for a cab and when it came near, the license plates said Fresh and it had dice in the mirror. If anything, I could say that this cab was rare, but I was like 'naah forget it. Yo holmes, to Bel-Air."


















































Just kidding

The trip home on Thursday morning was uneventful, and the valet guys were kind enough to help us get all of my stuff into the condo. I was so weak from not eating anything for 4 days so I crawled into bed and slept. The pain medicine also helped keep me nice and sleepy, so no complaints there.

Over the next couple of days, I started to get more energy, and was eating and drinking more every day. By Saturday, except for this huge pressure patch on my eye, I felt pretty normal. I still look like I got beat up by a bunch of thugs, so I don't like looking at myself in the mirror yet I did have a little problem with anxiety, but that's due to me not taking my medication properly while in the hospital. I don't know why they didn't want me to take Prozac while hooked up to IVs and on pain medication. Maybe there were some possible adverse reactions...

Once I got my appetite back, I've been having these really really strange cravings. I had my mom fix me a tuna and peanut butter sandwich, and at the time, was one of the best sandwiches I have ever had in my life. My tartar sauce craving came back, and I ate like a whole bottle of the stuff with a few Fillet O' Fish sandwiches from McDonald's. Yesterday I wanted some pizza rolls, but also something sweet, so I dipped them in chocolate syrup. Heaven. Today I Beenie Weenies mixed with mayonnaise and honey mustard. My mom almost threw up over that combo, but damn it was so good. I'll probably take some serious craps here in the next day or two, given that all this medicine hasn't made me constipated as hell.

I'm also hoping that my sex drive will pick up soon. I'm sure it's the medication and the recovery, but I haven't had any sexual thoughts or desires since my first surgery on 10/02. I can't even get a boner

As for work, I'm still taking time off, although I'm going to be swamped when I eventually get back. My supervisor came by again yesterday to see how I was doing, and told me to take as much time as I needed. I was scheduled to give some more interviews late next week, but he said he would find someone else to take my place. I think the real reason he came by was to resume his argument with my father, whose political views are somewhat... hypocritical. He hates GWB with a passion, but will always praise him because he's saved him a lot of money over the past few years. But anyways, he and my boss got in a heated discussion last week, and got into one again yesterday. They both enjoyed it, though, and sat on the balcony smoking cigars and drinking whiskey for over an hour.

As for what's coming up in the next week or two, I will be visiting my eye doctor regularly to make sure everything is still going well, and have scheduled an appointment during the first week of December with an ocularist who is going to take a mold of my eye socket and begin the procedure of fabricating the outer part of the prosthetic eye. I also hope that my sleep schedule will return to normal as I start getting off of the pain medication. I've been sleeping a lot during the day, and so I'm waking up at 3 and 4 in the morning and can't go back to sleep.

This weekend, we're going to start looking at buying a car to replace the one that got totaled a couple of weeks ago. I have no idea what I'm in the market for, but it will be good just to look around and see what's out there. My parents also mentioned going home sometime. I'm being selfish in saying that I hope they will stay for at least a few more weeks. There's no possible way I could have gone through all this by myself (or even with just my girlfriend), and I am eternally grateful for anything and everything they have done for me.

My surgery among other things

The reality of my eye-removal surgery set in when my parents flew in from San Francisco to take care of me. When I first greeted my parents at the airport, I could tell they were already "saddened" in their own ways, for they knew this wasn't going to be a pleasure visit. My mom was crying and my dad was very quiet, and we had a very emotional drive back to the condo. My girlfriend, Elena, is also very emotional, and started crying when she saw my mother crying. I had made some reservations at this really nice restaurant, so we got dressed in our formal-wear and decided to walk to the establishment rather than drive.

I think my mom took some sort of upper, because her mood changed dramatically from the time we picked her up at the airport to when we were at dinner. That's a good thing. Dinner was great, and my mom got into one of her "shopping" moods to drown away any problems she is having. She decided that she wasn't happy with the appearance of my condo's kitchen and living room, and she wanted to do a partial renovation of it.

The next day, I went in to work, and left early because my mom called and wanted me to accompany her and her shopping assistant as she shopped for new kitchen appliances. She wanted to get a new countertop, refrigerator, microwave, dishwasher, stove, oven, and possibly new flooring for the kitchen and foyer hallway. I dreaded it, but knew she would appreciate me being there, so we went shopping all over Atlanta to find the perfect appliances. She sent my dad out to buy a new TV, but I wasn't allowed to go with him, probably because she knew I would have more fun with him (he was going to play some golf, too)

My mom's emotions were a problem on Saturday, too, when we went to visit some of their friends in Duluth, GA for dinner. She ended up taking a tranquilizer when she got home so that she would fall asleep.

Sunday, things were real quiet, relaxed, and I wasn't too concerned about what was going to happen the next day. I went for a run, and we just had a nice, quiet day at the condo. I wasn't supposed to eat any real heavy foods or drink a lot of fluids, so we just snacked on junk food all day. The cutoff time for any food or drink was at 6pm, although the doctor said if my throat got real dry that I could take a couple of sips of water. I ended up staying up pretty late online, and went to bed around 1am. I was told that I needed to remove any piercings, etc that I had before the surgery, so my Elena helped pry open and remove my nipple rings. I scored some last-minute pity sex before we fell asleep,

I had to be at the hospital at 7am, so we got up at 5:30, showered, dressed, and packed a little overnight bag for me. The drive to the hospital wasn't bad because we were heading outside of town. It was amazing how crowded the highways were at 6:15am. I'm glad I don't have to drive to work!

I got put into this little room where I had to strip down and put on only a thin gown and these little socks with rubber on the bottom so I don't slide around the floor and fall down. They had a little TV in the room, and I was hanging out there for about 20 minutes with my family and Elena, until a nurse came in to put an IV in my arm. I've heard horror stories about doctors removing the wrong eye, so I had Elena draw an arrow pointing to the bad eye and write 'BAD' with a sharpie marker on my forehead. The doctor came in and just laughed, and said that I didn't have anything to worry about. He said that it's procedure for two doctors to examine me and identify which eye was the bad one. A few minutes later, and a nurse came in and put something in my IV, and that's all I remember.

The next instant, or so it seemed, I was in a dark room with my arm tied down to my side. I had a tube down my throat, and couldn't talk or see. The nurse tried to calm me down and I drifted back into unconsciousness. I woke up again, this time with my arm untied, and the tube out of my throat, and was greeted by Elena and my parents all smiling at me. My face was numb, and I couldn't feel anything other than this huge pressure feeling on the left side of my face. The pain medicine must have been really strong, because I remember I was feeling great. My vision was super blurry because I didn't have my contact in, or my glasses on. I was told I couldn't have my glasses because they wouldn't fit over the thick bandages covering my left eye. The nurse later apologized for having my arm restrained, but apparently I had woken up early and tried to pull out the breathing tube, so they had to tie my arm down to keep me from hurting myself. I don't remember doing that!

A short time later, I was rolled into my hospital room for the night for observation, and still drowsy, I slept for a good while afterwards. The doctor came in a short while later to tell me how the surgery went. He said things went very well, and that he decided to go ahead and try the ocular implant. He also said that my eye was a real mess from all the infections and surgeries I previously had, but felt that the eye would be able to support the implant with what he thought to be a 60% probability of success. If not, he said it's no big deal to remove it, and can usually be done under local anesthesia. He left and said he would check up on me the following morning before I was discharged.

I vaguely remember my dad saying that he had to go run a few errands, and that he would be back later that evening. Elena and my mom stayed in the room with me the whole afternoon, and watched about 8 hours of Murder She Wrote on one of the hospital's special channels. I remember trying to watch a little bit of it, because I love that show, but unfortunately because I couldn't see clearly, Jessica Fletcher was nothing but a big yellow blur on the screen. I love the theme song. A few hours after being placed in my room, the general anesthesia wore off and I started having some discomfort where my eye used to be. I called in the nurse and she shot some stuff in my IV, and I was fast asleep again. My mom really was doing good, and I was proud of her for being so cheerful and upbeat throughout the whole day. My dad came back later that evening and brought Elena some dinner, and my parents soon went back to my condo downtown for the night. The hospital food service brought me some nasty hospital food. I don't remember what they brought me except for some green Jello and a carton of milk. I didn't feel like eating anything, but did eat a square or two of Jello to help my sore throat from the breathing tube.

Elena really pampered me in the hospital, and did everything for me. She helped me get out of bed to go to the bathroom, fluffed my pillows, adjusted the TV volume and bed level. She wouldn't even let me reach for my water mug. She kept calling me Dr. Pirate Joe and said that I was her little pirate (in her sexy Italian accent), but that the bandages should have been black instead of white. The nurse came back every couple of hours to check me out and give me some more medication to help me sleep throughout the night.

The following morning, my parents came back to the hospital at around 6:30 to 7am, and my doctor came in around 7:30. He gave me a checkup, removed my bandages and inspected the eye socket and the implant. He said things were looking good, and cleaned up some of the dried blood that was around the area. He got a little too close to a sensitive area and I jerked back real hard and almost fell off the bed. He apologized, and put on a smaller bandage so that my glasses would fit over them. My vision was still blurry even with my glasses on, and he said that it should improve in the next 24 hours. My dad got to take a peak into my eye socket and made the generic 'ewww, that'sawesome' comment. The doctor just smiled and said it will look like a real eye once the implant heals and I get the cosmetic cover for the implant fabricated. He also told me to keep the pressure patch on for another week, until my next appointment, and then I'll have a smaller patch to wear for a few more weeks. He gave me some supplies for me to change it once a day, and some ointment to squirt into the eye socket once a day.

I put on some fresh clothes, and took some pain medicine, and a nurse wheeled me out to my car at the hospital's main entrance. We got into a little traffic on the way home, because we were heading into town with the rest of the rush hour traffic.

Instead of heading straight to my place, we got off a couple of exits early so Elena could pick up a few things from her condo in Buckhead. We were driving down Peachtree Road, and crossing over Piedmont Road, and all of a sudden I see a car ramming into the right side of my car. I don't remember anything after that, except waking up strapped down in an ambulance a few minutes later not knowing where I was. My mom and Elena were in the ambulance with me, and I got real upset because I didn't know where my dad was. They assured me that he was fine, and he stayed behind with the car and to talk to the police. I also couldn't see anything real clearly, and panicked, not realizing that my glasses had fallen off and broken during the accident. They told me that a car full of Mexicans had ran through the red light and smashed into the side of my Jeep, knocking the car real bad. Elena was sitting right behind me, and she got some of the impact, too, and is afraid she had broken her arm. They think my car is totaled. The ambulance was apparently going to take us to the public hospital downtown, which is kinda nasty and rundown, so we persuaded them to take us back to the hospital we had just come from, so my doctor could check me out. Elena and I went different ways in the ER once we left triage, and my doctor came down to give me a look over and make sure nothing bad happened to my eye. Fortunately, nothing was wrong, and another emergency room doctor said I might have a mild concussion because of my early confusion and unconsciousness, but a day of rest would be the only treatment I would need.

Elena, however, did in fact break her arm and we waited for her to be x-rayed and have her arm set and casted by an orthopedist. It was a hairline fracture along one of the bones in her forearm, and wasn't very serious. She just has to stay in a small cast for 3-5 weeks and she'll be better than new.

While we were getting ready to check out of the hospital, my dad showed up and got a taxi van to take us back to my condo. This time, we took a slightly different route and got there with no problems. The valet attendants were really nice and helped us get into the condo with all of our stuff. My mom got me my spare pair of glasses, and apparently the wreck knocked my vision back to normal, for I could see quite clearly now with my glasses. My dad escorted Elena and me through the house and towards my bedroom, acting as a guide to show us what all he had done the day before when he left the hospital. I noticed a gigantic new TV out in the living room, a new flat top stove, oven, and microwave, and that he had moved the old plasma TV from the living room into the bedroom. He also had the old TiVo installed in the bedroom so we could watch all our programs while recuperating. I gave both of them a hug and thanked them, and then they put us both to bed. It was time for me to take another percocet, so I was fast asleep. I woke up a while later and tried to watch a little TV, but because I kept dozing off, I must have played through Prison Break 3 times before I finally got all of it in.

My dad came in and told me that the insurance people had called and declared my car as totaled. It was a 2004 Jeep Overland Grand Cherokee that was a graduation present when I finished my BS's at NCSU. He told me not to worry about it, and to think about what kind of car I might want to replace it with. For the time being, he was provided a rental car from the insurance company, so that there was no real rush. Plus, I doubt I'll feel like driving myself anytime soon. I leaned over to see how Elena was doing, and she was still asleep from the pain medication she had taken because her arm was hurting.

I felt like getting out of bed and was really hungry. I had a really strange craving for KC Masterpiece BBQ chips and Oreos. It makes a perfect sweet and salty/spicy combination if you eat a chip right after an Orero. They were simply Heaven. My mom then drew me a nice bath, and I soaked in the tub for over an hour until my fingers were all nice and wrinkly. I wanted to wash my face and hair (or what little bit of it I have), but was afraid to get my bandages wet, so I just used a soapy cloth. After my bath, I glanced at myself in the mirror for the first time. I looked AWFUL. I had intentionally avoided a mirror because I wasn't sure when I wanted to see my new face. My cheeks were all swollen, and my eyes were black. I look like I had gotten in a huge fight and gotten my ass handed to me. Even though I knew the swelling and bruising would go away, I started to cry, and got really, really sad. My heart then started to pound, and it got difficult to breathe. My anxiety had started to get to me, and I started to panic. I sat down on the edge of the tub and yelled for someone because I thought I was going to pass out and fall on the bathroom floor. Elena came in and got some of my anxiety and depression medicine that I hadn't taken in 3 days, and also a Xanax that my doctor had given me for anything immediate. I climbed into bed, counting numbers until my breathing returned to normal. I decided I would stay away from a mirror for a few more days. I was glad to see that Elena was feeling better. While I was in the bathroom taking a bath, she had gotten up to talk to my parents, and check her email. The pain wasn't that bad anymore she said.

The Xanax combined with some of my pain medicine knocked me out, and I slept through most of the night. I don't remember when Elena came to bed. I don't remember waking up any during the night except once to use the bathroom. I was still drowsy, so I didn't take anything else to help me sleep.

When I woke up on Wednesday, I noticed that even with my glasses that my vision was again pretty blurry. I saw some red blurs on my pillow case, and Elena said there was lots of blood on the pillow and lots of blood on my face. I called up the doctor and told him that it bled, and he said that this was actually normal for some reason, and for me not to worry. He just said to continue to use the healing ointment and the saline cleaning solution to wash off all that dried blood inside the eye socket. I had my dad help me take the bandage off, clean my eye, and re-bandage it. After the bandage was re-applied, it started to get really sore again, so I took some more pain medicine. Elena's arm was doing fine, and didn't take anything stronger than an over-the-counter Tylenol or Ibuprofen. The delivery men brought in a new refrigerator and dishwasher today, so the parents were working on getting that installed, cleaned, and transferring all the food from the old one to the new one. I lounged around on the couch for a few hours, playing with the new TV my dad had gotten. Other than being bigger, it really isn't any better than my old one, except that it will support the new 1080p HD format.

After lunch, my vision started to clear up, and I could read the small print on the TV, and eventually could read the text on my laptop screen to check my email. Being upright for so long started to make my eye have that painful throbbing feeling, so I decided to lay down on the bed, and I fell asleep for a few hours. I woke up later in the afternoon to more delivery guys bringing in new sofas and coffee tables. I loved my old leather sofa, for I had gotten it broken in just perfect. This one I'm going to have to start over again with

Around 7pm, I got a knock on the door, and it was my supervisor from work. He came by to see how I was doing, and to drop off one of those giant get-well-soon cards that was signed by hundreds of people, most of which I didn't know. It was a kind gesture, though, and it made me feel pretty good. He stayed for a while, and had a few drinks and snacks while he and my dad got into a fairly heated but light-hearted discussion over politics, the war, and whose financial dicks were bigger. (also, BigMan157, I gave him a copy of your resume and cover letter, and told him to take it to whomever he felt it would receive the most immediate attention. When I get into work sometime next week, I'll go make sure it was accepted by the HR folks).

After my boss left, I went to take another long bath. I didn't look in the mirror this time, and went to bed around 9pm. I took my medicine and a pain pill to make sure I have an uneventful night tonight.

And here I am, early Thursday morning, having gotten up at 4am not being able to go back to sleep. I've been playing on the Internet for a while, writing this, and doing some research about how my new eye will fit into the implant, and what the process is like. I also watched the Lost season premiere. I might try to see if I can get my parents to take me driving around today, to get some fresh air and to get outside of the house for a change.

Overall, I think things have gone pretty well, except for the nasty car wreck. Other than some general discomfort, the pain hasn't really been intolerable, or something I can't control. The doctor saying that the surgery was going to be a "walk in the park," wasn't exactly true, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the jaw surgery I had a few years earlier.