Yesterday was my third day post surgery.  I had a rough night the night before.  I took all of my evening meds together right before bed and I guess that wasn’t a good idea.  I was slightly queasy, and didn’t sleep well at all.  I opted to go without the CPAP one more night since it would be difficult to fit the head gear over the bandage anyhow.  I woke up many times and was still slightly queasy in the morning.  My mom was planning to head home yesterday morning, but wanted to wait until I felt a little better and also wanted to see the big bandage come off.  The unveiling happened around 9:15am.   We had to cut some of the bandages out of my hair because it was stuck in places, but eventually I was “free” of it and we were all amazed at how small and neat the incision is!  It is covered in steristrips, but they could tell that it is a nice neat little line that basically goes directly behind my ear.  It is truly amazing that they can do all of the work they did from such a small incision!  My hair was pretty gross, but it felt good to have that thing off!  My stomach settled down after I ate some breakfast, and mom headed back to Oklahoma.  I got showered using a shower cap to keep the area dry, then Chet helped me shampoo my hair in the sink.  We used a plastic cup to cover the ear and incision as suggested and it worked great.  I can’t tell you how good it felt to have my hair clean!  I look like myself again!  I have been amazed at how little pain I have had.  They warned I may have muscle soreness from positioning on the operating table, but I haven’t.  The numbness in my thigh is gone now and I really have only had a minor headache at times and occasional minor pain in the ear.  I am so thankful!  I felt well enough in the evening to go out to dinner with some friends.  I had some moments where I still feel slighly off balance – like things are a little bit “floaty.”  Not much, but enough that I need to touch a wall or something to feel steady.  This is minor, but is happening occasionally.  I enjoyed the time with everyone last night.  I felt fine, but was pretty tired when we got home.  I used my CPAP last night to sleep and spread out my meds.  I slept great!  I got nearly 8 hours and was sleeping very deeply when it was time to get up and get ready for church.  My sweet hubby once again helped me get my hair washed and it felt great to assemble with my church family and hear about the Russian work we participate in.  I am amazed at how well my recovery is going.  We ate lunch out afterwards, and then I came home and crashed.  I did fine, but it did wear me out.  I fell asleep in front on the tv today and slept for the better part of 3 hours or so.  It was nice to veg.  I feel like the congestion in my head and chest is loosening up some and am hoping it will be gone soon.  Chet took some time off work to be home with me and it has been so nice to spend some time with him and to have him here helping take care of me.  Tomorrow I will have a blood draw to see how my INR number is doing.  That will let us know how we need to dose my warfarin.  I am hoping the number will be good and I won’t need to give myself anymore shots!  i’ve been injecting Lovenox to bridge the time it takes for warfarin to start being effective in your system (I had to discontinue it for 5 days before surgery, so it takes a few days to be effective once you resume taking it).  That is really all that has been happening.  I am resting when I need to and trying not to overdo it, but am also trying to ease back into normal life a little at a time.  It is important that I move around at least every couple of hours to help prevent blood clots.  I have been wearing my compression stockings, too.  They didn’t really talk to me about doing that, but it makes sense to me and makes me feel better to wear them at least until the risk of clots from surgery is gone.  I think that is about a month, but will check with the doc on my next visit.  Thank you all so much for checking in on me and for your kind words and all of the prayers.  It makes such a difference!