Convalescing

No, not the girls.  It's me, recovering from neck surgery.  On Monday, I had neck surgery for a thyroglossal duct cyst.  "Huh?" you say?  Well, yeah, I said the same thing.  The surgery is called the Sistrunk procedure, where they remove the cyst or cysts, the thyroglossal duct tract, and a piece of a bone in your neck called the hyoid.  Why you don't need this bone is beyond me.  To get out the duct, they cut up from the cyst in your neck to the base of your tongue.  (Sounds gross, huh?)  I'm left with about a 4 inch incision across the front of my neck.

So, why did I have this?  It's a congenital abnormality that arises from the area of your neck where your thyroid grows from.  The duct should completely close off after the thyroid moves to it's final position in the neck (in utero) and if it doesn't, it can give rise to this ridiculous problem I've been dealing with since August.

I'll keep the gory details and pictures out of this post and dedicate a new one to my experience with the cyst, procedure, and recovery, so I can spare those of you who are just here to see my usual cute Emmie and Rosie updates.  But I will share my experience with this, because there's a lack of real-life adult patient experience about thyroglossal duct cysts on the internet.

In the meantime, I'm convalescing.  How am I doing that?  Being waited on by my husband who has become expert at measuring out liquid medications and fluffing pillows just right to hold my sore neck.  Laying on the couch. Receiving deliveries of homemade food and groceries from my parents.  Endless babysitting of the girls by Nana and Grampy (not that any of the involved parties mind).  Sipping broth, sucking on popsicles, and if I'm feeling crazy, eating some pudding (although I just referred to the rice pudding as, "a real challenge").  Whispering because I have no voice.  Looking straight ahead because it hurts to turn my swollen neck.  Explaining to the girls over and over why I can't pick them up.  Figuring out the magical balance of painkillers and visits from my sister that keep my spirits high.  It's not exactly how I wanted to be spending the weeks before Christmas, but just having the surgery behind me is such a relief that even though I feel physically worse now, I actually feel so much better emotionally.

Just what the doctor ordered.