More Doctors

Plastic Surgeon

In view of the fact that the most obvious sign of my recent adventure is "Clarence" the clam (on my face), I was looking forward to visiting with the Dr. Snyder, the creator of the clam. Apparently, this was a pretty dramatic surgery, so the entire team at his office came in to check things out. Dr. Snyder was a bit amused at the fact that his handiwork had a name - he calls it a "flap", which is no where fun enough for me! All in all, he is happy with the way the clam - er - flap healed, but not so happy with how little it shrank during radiation treatments. He thinks it is a bit too soon to call it stable, since radiation effects can take months to complete. For that reason, we will wait until November to recheck things, and probably will do the "de-bulking" sometime after I get out of school in December. Durn, that means I get to face (clam) my students for the entire semester, which begins on Monday, by the way!

The donor site on my leg has healed well, but my leg is still a bit wobbly when I try to work it much. My walking goes fine, but if I try to jog, it is a bit nerve wracking worrying about it buckling and falling on my face (or Clarance).

Most of the hair in my mouth did go away courtesy of the radiation, but there is still a bit here and there. The recommendation is to get a nose hair trimmer and try that. Sounds weird, but no more so than having leg hair in your mouth. Such fun!

Overall, I am pretty happy with this team. I am finding that when Dr. Scholl aims you at someone, that someone is probably as good as you are going to find in their area! Dr. Snyder is an award-winning doctor who is becoming very well known in Austin (as is his wife as well!) I trust him to fix things as best as he can when we finally get to it. The current plan is to do a liposuction treatment on the "flap" which may well be done in his office. Hopefully, the final result will be more normal in size. I may need some makeup to even out the skin tone, but my walking has resulted in some tanning, so I may not need that.

Primary Surgeon

Dr. Scholl (aka "Top Doc") always has the final say in how things are going. "You are doing great!" he says. I am convinced this is a script everyone in the medical profession has to memorize and practice at least 100 times each day!. Dr. Scholl was very happy with the way things are going, and pleased with how I have healed so far. He also thinks it will be a few months before I am fully stable from the radiation, and we will be waiting until then to do the real check to make sure the cancer is gone. In the mean time, he wants me to watch for any signs of fungus growing in the area inside my mouth that I cannot feel. I may miss something because of that.

We also explored my hearing issues. I attended a department meeting the other day, and had trouble hearing things. My left ear is still pretty stopped up, although I can hear a bit through it. What bothered me is that my right ear seems to be having problems as well. However, we tested my hearing and found it to be just the same as right after surgery, so it may just be my imagination. (Maybe I did not want to hear those folks at that meeting!) In any case, I am to keep putting drops in my left ear until we do the de-bulking work. It is possible the swelling from that is affecting my hearing. Here is hoping that is right.

I will see Dr. Scholl again in six weeks, mostly to make sure the ears are clean. Nothing else is required until then.

Next Steps

So, I passed my exams with flying colors. I am as healthy as I can be, given the size of the bus that ran over me. All of my doctors think I did far better in all this than any of them expected. Glad to hear that! So, on Monday, I will begin standing up in front of classes full of eager faces hoping to learn a thing or two about computers. Perhaps I can make that happen. It has been a long four months off, something I have not done, well, forever as I can recall! It will take a while to fully get back into the swing of teaching.

Here goes!

BTW, thanks again to all of you who have followed this adventure. I will probably not have much to say about the medical stuff until we do the liposuction work. In the meantime, maybe I will conjure up a story of twoand post it on my blog! God bless all of you!

Roie