great check-up.

Yesterday Mike had his six-week post-surgery check-up in St. Louis with Dr. Bruce Haughey. It was great to hear the positive things our wonderful doctor said. "...Healings look excellent. I am very happy with what I see. You are a good healer." Later on in the conversation Dr. Haughey added "I am very impressed by quickly you are healing" and added that he thought that Mike was in the 90% of healing this well and rapidly. I told Mike 10x on the walk and Metro ride back to the Vespas how proud I was of him for how hard he had worked to eat well and take care of himself.

Mike told Dr. Haughey tongue-in-cheek that he was disappointed with the scar to which Bruce said "because you're not getting any sympathy?" Dr. Haughey skillfully and amazingly places the neck scar in the natural creases of the neck and if you have seen Mike you know you have to strain to see the scar even 2 weeks out of surgery. Dr. Haughey said that he tries to teach his interns the same, but I am sure it takes a while to reach that level of skill. (Wouldn't it be fun if we could see his amazing surgical skills on the inside of Mike's body?)

We learned that it will be six months to one year for all the feeling to return to the left side of his neck (ear to clavicle) but that some areas would remain numb. We were also told that his shoulder strength would return within a year. Mike will start physical therapy in earnest to improve his shoulder & arm mobility and strength. After talking with the doctor we understand the importance of PT for Mike. Mike talked about the "shooting pains" he gets in the vicinity of the neck wound and Dr. Haughey explained that deep muscles contract when they heal and he is in that stage of the healing process, and will be for several months. It was really helpful to understand some of these things.

Mike also asked the doctor if there was a chance that I had contracted brain cancer from him. A reference to the fact that we actually missed our flight and had to take a later one into St. Louis because Karen did the simple math wrong for what time we had to leave for the airport. (Note: A sure sign of how tired I am after the cancer journey + graduation party run.) We were half-way to Blair before we realized the error of my ways. I stared at the clock in the car which read 9:15am and thought "wow... our plane leaves at 9:55am. This doesn't seem right." I left out the "arrive at the airport an hour before your flight" part. Hopefully it is just post-graduation-party-fatigue and not brain cancer. Mike wasn't mad at all and the doctor's office seemed glad we arrived later. Thankfully it all worked out. I still feel dumb, for real.