FFS +5 Days

[the_fantastic_ms_fox]

Progress.

Small children stare at me. Men offer me their seats.

On Saturday I went to see Iron Man with Ruby and Scott. Ruby was nice enough to hold my arm as I held the other out in a gesture that could be read as either "My face is too swollen for me to see you beyond where my hand is" or could also mean "Pardon me. I could lose my balance."

Good movie by the way, and my gratitude to Ruby.

On that day, I was slurping my food because I couldn't actually chew anything.


On Sunday, I could close my mouth enough to move food around in my mouth without spilling it, so My Mum and I went out for food. I had soup and mashed potatoes. The possibilities of mashed potatoes will have to form the crux of future investigation.

Today (Monday), I can now eat my food, rather than mushing it. I still can't chew much, so  bread has to be soaked in soup. My lower face has de-swollen enough that I can use my voice - the one that sounds like me: it could be female or unisex or maybe like a T-Boi who just shot a little T, depending on who you ask, but it sounds right. I didn't realize how good it would be to have that back, or how hard it would be to use it.


The nerves in my scalp and lower lip are re-connecting.

They're numb usually, but can feel cold, prickly, or really itchy (while scratching does nothing because the area is numb - so how can I feel the itch?). Sometimes there's a sharp pain in the stitches that run across the middle of my forehead, like the skin has just worked out some kinks and is only now tugging on them. In the interim, when I hold a glass to my lips, it feels like there's a circular hole in the brim - that's how my brain interprets the lack of sensation in the penny-sized area on my lower lip. My scalp is ringed with prickly, but on top, it feels more like a tight fur-covered hat - this is how my brain reconciles its absence of stimuli - one points to an absence in the object being sensed; the other to the falsity in the object doing sensing.

This is disturbing. I reminds us that our bodies are fallible. It scares me that because my body fails in one way, that it will also fail to change as promised, or at least forecast and strongly hoped.

It's hard to tell right now what the final results will be. I can feel that the bone has changed, but trying to find my face amidst the swelling is not easy.

Comments

[ex-sonjaaa.livejournal.com]

Get well soon!! Was it in Chonburi or?

[hundun.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

I don't understand your question. What's "Chonburi?"

[ex-sonjaaa.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I meant to ask who was your surgeon (and what city)?

Were you able to take time off work for extended healing and rest?

[hundun.livejournal.com]

I went to Spiegel, in Boston. My Mum's a nurse and says that the stitches look good.

My contract ended about three hours after I wok up from surgery, so I was able to take time off, in a way. I'll have classes when I return, but I can do those while all bruised up - not that it's that bad now.

[sciencequeen.livejournal.com]

I hope you making a prancing appearance when you're all healed up!

[hundun.livejournal.com]

Prancing? Like reindeer?

Enjoy your new job. I hope orientation went well, and that no one got lost and eaten by a bear. Or was this one of those sissy white collar "orientations" which involves neither compasses nor bush navigation?

[sciencequeen.livejournal.com]

Sure reindeer could work! Though when I said it, I was first thinking of those little girls that would be holding hands or linking arms and skipping along in a playground singing songs...like Ring Around the Rosies or something. It wouldn't need to involve a playground, or other people really, but that was the image I conjured up when I first said "prancing".

However, if reindeer is what you first saw, then by all means, do it. Then you can teach me to fly, right?

It was Orientation, not ORIENTEERING. :P It went okay...I found it interesting, but a little over my head just because it's so much stuff that you're taking in passively; it won't really gel til I get down to it. The last board meeting was epic. Not exaggerating. There was shouting and crying and it went for 3.5 hours!!

[hundun.livejournal.com]

Yeah, orientation was overwhelming. I think that I remember about half of it.

Which board meeting? On the 30th with the old board, or has there been one since then?

[sciencequeen.livejournal.com]

The one on the 30th with the old board. Hell it was so epic The Peak (http://www.the-peak.ca/article/3496) did an article on it!

[plaidalicious.livejournal.com]

*squishes* Get better soon!

[osmie]

I can't wait to meet the new you.

I also can't wait to read your bestselling published memoirs of transition, just as soon as you get them published & bestselling.

[hundun.livejournal.com]

I don't know about the new me, but perhaps I can introduce you to my new skull?

I've been thinking about putting some words on paper in a make-money kinda way. I have an idea in this respect. We'll have to talk more about this when I get back.

[darthmaus.livejournal.com]

You write extremely well, and your perspective is unique. I'd love to read that book.

I'm looking forward to seeing your revised face :)