We're at about the 48 hour point after surgery, which is when it get hard: the thin streak of minor infection dribbles down the same part of my neck where healthy lymph drains into the throat. I'm on antibiotics so my gut bacteria (that are known to boost mood) are wiped out (shoulda banked them so I could do an, ahem, autologous transfer). Golly, I bet I had awesome gut flora. Hopefully they're hiding in my appendix, and will swiftly re-colonize next week.
With lots of tests to do on a big sample, we were warned that it could be days before we have results.
The lump in my neck seems about the same size as ever (wasn't expecting it to get smaller from a biopsy), and has an incision the length of a the smallest size Band-Aid that came in the variety boxes of our youths.
The stitches are actually under the skin, in the layer of "curtain muscle"from the bottom of the jaw to top of the collar bone (the vertical strands that pop out when you cheese-smile exaggeratedly) .
Usually, I think of surgical stitches as being like upholstery seams (particularly because they are done with upholstery hooks): tough cords hooked through thick leather to hold in all the stuffing (while one's innards sort things out). This is not the case on me.
With the structural work being done in a deeper layer, the skin suture only needs to hold itself together. To hold it, the surgeon applied what look like (from a distance) 1"x 1/4" strips of toilet paper, overlapped to form a white version of that "Band-Aid, Small"
It is a bit thicker than toilet paper and it is impregnated with something sticky and water-repellant, so you can also picture a fiberglass patch soaked in resin.
The visual effect is to suggest that I cut myself while shaving.
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