Holy Sleep! (and a gnarly incision picture!)

I've been working all week on a epic detailed post about the surgery/recovery/days in the hospital but it's taking so damn long because I have literally never slept this much in my entire life... at least not since infancy.

So far, this has been exactly what my surgeon and his nurse told me it would be -- and I know that sleep is the best possible way for your brain to heal -- but damn. My super energy and positivity on Monday were, I think, largely the function of adrenaline and just excitement to be home. The energy has definitely waned significantly since then. I'm sleeping (well, I'm in bed... consistent/unbroken sleep during the night has been pretty much nonexistent) for 10-12 hours a night. Then I've been getting up for 45 minutes or an hour and watching TV or talking to my dad, then I shower, which exhausts me and usually makes me nauseated. Then I go straight to the couch, turn the TV on, and spend the next several hours sleeping/dozing and generally just staying horizontal. I've had a couple great visits from some of my favorite people, but even an hour or two totally takes it out of me and - shock and awe - I'm asleep again within like 20 minutes post-visit.

I was told that the anesthesia would stay in my system for upwards of three weeks, so I still have a good two weeks or more of that invading my body. Along with that, I've been gently and lovingly reminded by several people recently that just because my incision is looking a million times better and I have a TON more mobility in my head and neck and my pain is really well controlled..... my brain was essentially "traumatized" and is going to need longer to heal. Oh yeah... keep forgetting that! It's easy to forget when I can't see it, and especially when I'm not having any cognitive or motor side effects at all... still, very good point that that slightly vital organ needs time too. I've learned pretty quickly that I'm an incredibly impatient recover-er and want so badly to be up and active and productive... luckily I have a lot of lovely individuals who keep reminding me to cut it out when I start trying to do too much. :)

Overall, things are still going really well. My biggest complaint is continued nausea and a pretty severe lack of appetite (better, but still pretty unimpressive)... initially I was thinking this was pain meds + anesthesia, but apparently this is a pretty common side effect of any cerebellar surgery and I should expect it to hang around for a good 4-6 weeks (ew). It's definitely improving though -- I'm at least eating enough to get some nutritional "stuffs" as opposed to my diet of crackers and applesauce earlier this week (my dad made a rockin' homemade minestrone soup earlier this week that was the "breakthrough" meal). I'm sure this will continue to improve once I'm more up and active as opposed to using all of my energy to watch really bad TV all day.

One of these days the uber-detailed post will appear... it'll be more for me than anyone else since I have a thing for recording every possible detail I remember about big (and even not so big) events in my life, but regardless, I swear it'll appear soon.

Also... this is from a few days ago (Wednesday, I think), so it's looking a LOT better already (and I'm surprised to report that my hair is already growing back over it -- I have somewhat adorable little peach baby fuzz!)... but check out the gnarly! Not gonna lie, it makes me feel pretty badass.