Monday, June 4, 2007

Can you See it?


I'm enclosing a picture of my neck prior to surgery - the nodule is on my left and it would be on the right in the picture. Evidently it jumped out at both my family doctor and the endocrinologist, but didn't jump out at me.

I plan to include pictures of the incision post-op as well, as I've heard the incision and the resulting scar are the biggest concerns many have who are undergoing this treatment.

I'm not planning on hiding my scar at all and already consider it to be a future "beauty" mark that makes me one of a kind.

4 comments:

Glenda said...

Nope, didn't jump out at me either!

Mine didn't either--at least to me. But it did to the regular MD, the endocrinologist, and the plastic surgeon. They could tell it was "huge" just by feeling it.

Although my daughter and I can see my scar pretty easily, no one else seems to notice it. Not even those that knew I had the surgery.
It's only about 3 1/2 inches long and is kind of in a fold in my neck. People that I've deliberately showed it to have said they hadn't noticed. If I could figure out how to post a picture here I would.

Last summer I didn't wear a lot of tank tops or low cut tops out in public, mainly because my daughter found it so gross. I'm not very vain though. I'm glad you're okay with that part of it. If that was something that had been bothering you, I would assure you that the scar is not even noticable less than a year after and I'm sure will be even less noticable as more time goes on.

I guess my biggest concern prior to surgery was PAIN! Now I have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but I just KNEW that having your throat slit open would hurt really badly. Actually, the pain was minimal and probably the least troubling aspect of it. At least until the end of Sept and early October. And then it was hurting and burning really badly! Not on the incision, but around the incision. The Doctors had all said it looked really good. A nurse at the ER told me to try Benadryl. I bought some cream to put on it immediately that did help and then I started taking Benadryl tablets since that was supposed to work bettr. Don't understand why or how it worked; but it did. (You're not supposed to take the pills and the cream at the same time.) Even the pain pills I had gotten after the surgery (that I didn't take very many of at the time) wasn't helping the pain.

I look forward to hearing your comments after the surgery and I'm sure they're going to be that everything went well, you're doing fine, and will be back to work in a week! Know that someone in Wyoming will be thinking about you on Thursday and every day thereafter until I hear from you again...and wishing the very best for you!

Elle said...

Glenda - Thanks so much for all the advice - I think I know what to watch out for and be aware of.

I'll make one more post on my blog either later tonight or tomorrow morning.

"Talk" to you soon - thanks for all your help - ELLE

njm said...

Glenda,

You certainly have a way with words and in my opinion you have taken a very scary situation and made a little less scary. Your posts have been informative yet comical. Thanks for the enlightenment!

njm said...

Elle,

Nope I can't see it! Not even while wearing my high powered glasses.