Status??? Are you still alive?
Kind of you to ask, George, thanks!
Short answer: I'm alive, thriving, arrived home late Friday after a month away, 1 week in hospital, 3 more weeks in the hospital guest house a half-block away from my followup visits, an ideal plan by my talented surgeons. Massive thanks to my sister, Denise, who was my caregiver throughout. Unaccountably but happily, I still have no pain or discomfort.
Longer answer: I could not have asked for better care and had a "dream team" of surgeons. Even the hospital food was outstanding. All locally sourced, organic, and high-calorie/high protein for healing. Favorite dish: Large green dinner salad with marionberry dressing topped by a plank of grilled wild-caught salmon straight out of the Columbia River. I still lost 7.7kg/17lbs over the month.
I received some extensive tissue and skin grafts. The largest came from me, some smaller ones were cadaver grafts. I'm very grateful to the donor and their family.
My body is surpassing benchmarks. At 2 weeks, I matched the expected ideal for 6 weeks of healing. Just past 4 weeks, I'm showing signs typical of 8-10 weeks as the grafts epithelialize (heal at the cellular level).
I'm encouraged! That said, I've got a ways to go...
Recovery/rehab tasks are pretty intense in these early days, taking a few hours each day, plus longer walks and naps. When I "hit the wall", I'm ordered to respect fatigue and nap when needed to aid healing. That's expected to ease in 3-4 months and a full return to my pre-op state should take 12-18 months. At one year, we'll see if I need a revision, plus another corrective procedure is on the books and one more face rebuild to correct some past developmental defects/traumatic damage and reassemble correctly.
Whew!
I wandered out to my garage today to greet my bikes. Oiled a couple chains, applied a thin skim of Proofide to one saddle, spun the Roloff hub on my Nomad and dreamed of riding, forbidden till at least 3 months have passed. I think that is realistic, so will wait and see. If waiting produces a better result, I'm happy to do so, longer if needed. Everything is moving forward nicely and I just don't want to backslide.
Best, Dan.
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