Surgery: Before and After...

Well, for those of you who really wanted a visual, here's some pictures of my surgery. For those of you who didn't want to see...sorry :-). It's kind of hard to see in the before picture, but if you look close you can see the marble sized bump behind my ear that I had to get removed. They thought it was a cyst, but from the surgery they realized that it was more like a tumor because it was much more solid. My doctor is confident that it's benign, and we haven't heard any different from the biopsy results, so so far so good. I'll probably know for sure what the results are on Monday at my appointment, so I'll let you know then. With how small my incision was around my ear it's amazing that my surgery took over three hours. My facial nerve was attached to the tumor, so they had to carefully scrap it away. Because of that I don't have full mobility on the left side of my face, but that should return shorty. It's weird not being able to close my left eye all the way or move my nose and mouth very well. It's a little annoying, but I guess it could have been worse! I just get to look like a freak for another week. Then hopefully things will be back to normal. Thanks for everyone's concern and prayers. It really means a lot! When I'm feeling better I'll write more and keep you updated on my progress.

Before...

After...



Here's the gross drainage tube I have attached to my ear. That will be removed Monday (hopefully)!