I’ve got a broken face!

For those of you who didn’t know (and I didn’t tell many people, so that’s probably most of you) I had some surgery on Monday. On my face. Well, neck. But it’s close enough for the Pixies reference in the title.

Several months back this gland under my right ear started swelling a bit, and then reducing back down to normal. I didn’t think too much of it, glands kinda do that, right? Well, shortly before Max was born, it started growing and not going back down to normal. Then it kept growing.

Due to Max’s hospitalization, followed by all the newness of a newborn around the house, I didn’t want to know yet about anything terrible. I couldn’t handle it. So I put off looking into it for a while. I know it’s stupid, but you just had to be me to understand I guess.

Anyway, a little over a month ago I finally started the process of getting it checked out. I first went to a ZoomCare near my house, they got me set up with some blood tests and an ultrasound, and then referred me to an ENT (ear nose & throat) specialist at Good Sam. After a visit with him (and a CT scan, which resulted in the image to the left) I was diagnosed with a somewhat common benign tumor in my parotid gland (one of the salivary glands). The tumor is more common with older folk than myself, but regardless, I had a tumor! Holy crap!

The solution to this was to have the entire parotid gland removed, which I had done on Monday. They had to make a pretty substantial incision to remove it (around/under my earlobe and way down my neck), and by doing so they had to sever some sensory nerve fibers that’s resulted in numbness of the right side of my face and neck, and my right ear is completely without feeling.

This surgery was my first time being put under, first time having stitches, being swollen, numb, misshapen and now groggy on painkillers. Stayed in the hospital Monday night and arrived home around noon yesterday.

Recovering OK now. Late this afternoon I had this drainage tube that was sutured into my neck removed, which had severely limited my movement and comfort. I was finally able to get cleaned up tonight, and I’m starting to feel more normal, but what with the swelling, and the concave area where my gland was, I’m feeling pretty deformed at the moment. My doctor assures me that in a month or two not only will I look pretty much back to normal, but I’ll have regained most of the feeling in my face.

I’m off this week from work, but will be going back in next week and will still be pretty misshapen for a few weeks, so when you see me, try not to be too mean with the Frankenstein’s Monster comments. 🙂

And now, for the Pixies song that inspired the title: Pixies – Broken Face