Thanks, y’all, for your good wishes. The crankiness appears to be subsiding, slowwwwwwly, helped by a good night’s sleep.
Part of the issue is and what has me so cranky – a little panicked, really – is that although my neck looks much better than it did before surgery, there’s still some sagging under my chin, and I think that it’s really sagging skin rather than swelling. While I know that final results from a neck lift aren’t generally seen for 3 – 6 months after surgery, I don’t think I should be seeing sagging skin.
Yes, I’ll be addressing that with the surgeon when I see him, but I’m not scheduled to see him again ’til the end of April.
I know that, worst case scenario, I’ll need a “touch up” (or whatever they call it. Revision?), but UGH. You know? I wanted this to be done and over with!
When I took my head compression garment off to take a shower Tuesday, I found what feels very much like a swollen lymph node under my left jawline. After discussion with Fred, I left the garment off all day Wednesday, which made no difference in the swollen spot. I finally called my surgeon’s office and talked to a nurse, who told me it could be a swollen lymph node or a pocket of swelling, and in either case it should go away. I’m to continuing wearing the head garment, and keep an eye on the lump, and she’ll call on Monday and check on me – at which point I’m going to ask about the loose skin under my chin and see what she has to say.
(I very well may be a looking-for-trouble drama queen, but I don’t think so.)
Sights from around Crooked Acres.
While I was recovering from surgery, Spring done sprung.
Jake and Elwood, through the window.
Due to the longer days, the hens are laying eggs like crazy. We’re getting close to 2 dozen eggs a day!
George (right) and Gracie.
Silly pup.
Pretty boy.
“Hallo, you has snack for me?”
Tufted Titmouse.
I was sitting at my computer Wednesday afternoon, and something out under the big pecan tree caught my eye.
“JOE BOB,” I grumbled to myself. “What are you doing out of the back yard?” I got up to go out to yell at him to get his butt back inside the back yard (he’s a pro at slipping out of his collar from time to time, and goes wandering. Luckily, he’s never gone too far.)
Only, on my way to the door, Joe Bob said “Were you talkin’ to me?” I looked down, and there he was, curled up on the cardboard scratcher by my desk. I looked back out under the big pecan tree, and realized that I wasn’t looking at a gray and white cat, I was looking at a BLACK and white cat I’d never seen before.
I stepped on the side porch and called “Kitty kitty kitty!” to him, and he ran right over to me.
There’s something going on with his right eye, but other than that he was in really good shape. I showed him the food bowl (on the porch), and he ate a little to be polite. He let me pet him, and talked to me a little. He hung out on the side porch for a few hours, then wandered off and I haven’t seen him since.
I’m hoping that he (and yes, I checked – he’s a he, but I honestly am unsure whether he’s been neutered or not.) belongs to someone around here, but I’m sure if he doesn’t, he’ll be back around. I’ve temporarily dubbed him Newman.
For comparison purposes, here’s Joe Bob – I think you can see why, when I first saw Newman at a distance, I thought he was Joe Bob.
And THEN, yesterday morning when he woke me up for his morning kiss before he headed off to work, Fred announced “There were two new cats out on the side stoop this morning.” He told me that he’d only gotten a good look at one of them, that it then ran around to the front porch, and when he followed it, it was sitting there with a black cat, not one of ours. The black cat ran off, but Fred emailed me from work to tell me that when he’d left the house, the other cat was sitting on the side stoop.
When I got downstairs a couple of hours later, there was no strange cat to be seen, but a little while later I glanced out and saw a cat running after a bird in the side yard, and there he was, the new guy. Or girl.
S/he has a rounder face and smaller ears, but good LORD is that cat a dead ringer for Reacher!
Reacher, for comparison purposes:
The one thing I can tell you about this cat (who Fred has dubbed “Rufus”, despite the fact that we don’t know whether it’s male or female just yet) is that s/he really likes our cats. Elwood and Corbie were in the back yard watching the birds, and Rufus was rubbing up against the fence trying to make friends.
Rufus did NOT act like a cat in heat, but that’s my concern, that Rufus is a she, and either pregnant or about to go into heat. So Fred’s shifted into high gear to try to charm Rufus into believing that we’re A-OK. If s/he keeps coming around, we’ll assume s/he has no home, and if we can get our hands on him or her, off to the vet we’ll go.
(Obviously, if Newman keeps coming around, he’ll also get a visit to the vet, but given how friendly he was, I very much suspect he’s got a home.)
Sheriff Kara says “Obviously they didn’t come into the back yard, because then I would have kicked some SERIOUS tail. Sheriff Mama keeps the back yard SAFE.”
Previously
2010: Meet his brother, Mr. “THE FUCK YOU SAY!”
2009: Hail Stinky/ Full of Hate/ The Tom is with thee.
2008: The pigs reported that he tasted “Too humany.”
2007: No entry.
2006: No entry.
2005: Dumbass things I did yesterday.
2004: I think I need to go back to high school.
2003: “Well, good luck to Daddy on that,” I said.
2002: (You just shut up)
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.
A friend of mine had the neck thing done, too, and also had the skin thing. It DID go away. However, you are paying your surgeon ungodly sums of money and for this you should be allowed to go in, point to said skin, and say “Normal or not, dammit?” Because we can put up hundreds of “don’t worry about it” comments, but I think you’ll feel best if your surgeon says yea or nay.
Newman and Rufus are both just GORGEOUS. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for them!!!
Fred actually talked me down out of the watchtower last night. I’m going to talk to the nurse about it when she calls on Monday, but even if it isn’t normal, they’re not going to be able to do anything about it right away, so I’ll wait ’til my next appointment. (However, hearing that your friend had the skin thing and it went away actually does help a lot!)
I had a SECOND night of decent sleep last night AND was able to snooze on my side for a few minutes. Things are looking brighter! 🙂
Newman looks like a cat that showed up at our back door about 10 years ago (we named him Tux). As for his eye, we had a kitten show up on our deck (sense a theme?) one day with the same thing. We took him to the vet and he wasn’t sure whether it was caused by an injury or a virus. Either way, Rusty (the cat with the bum eye) never seemed to be bothered by it. We don’t think he can see out of it at all and he seems none the worse for wear.
Rufus is a beautiful kitty! He/she looks like a fuzzier version of Reacher.
We decided last night that Rufus looks like a cross between Reacher and a lynx! 🙂
Yes, I noticed the lynx right away. Pretty kitty.
Aw, the new cats are so PURDY. I have a tuxedo cat, so I’m partial to ’em, and Rufus looks like s/he would be so soft. Your pups are such cuties – they always look so happy!
Have a great weekend, Robyn!
I’m going to bet that the swelling you found near your chin is a hematoma. They just take a while to go away. But it will.
I love love love the picture of Jake and Elwood with the daffodils. Beautiful cats next to my favorite flower 🙂
All the cats that show up remind me of when I lived in Istanbul. There were two stray cats that lived outside the apartment building I lived in one year. They sort of attached themselves to me and my roommates, and were very friendly. Once those cats decided we were okay people sorts, it was like they spread the word across the city. Suddenly, every time I went walking to work or out shopping, random cats would come over to say hello. I dubbed myself “Cat Lady of Istanbul”. Soon the dogs started, too. There was one black dog who would sleep on his porch, curled up into a perfect ball (of course, he became known as Dogball), but would come running over to me whenever I walked past. He never did that to anyone else, even if there were other people walking.
The word about your kindness to cats has spread throughout the cat kingdom of Alabama. They know where you live and come to seek your help or just catch a glimpse to someday have a story to tell to their grandkitties! 🙂
Awww… this entire comment is so very sweet and awesome!
Funny, I was just thinking the other day that you don’t have a black&white cat among your permanent residents! I hope I didn’t “will” him there. He is a very handsome fellow, though I am partial to B&Ws. I like the “Newman” name–like the mailman in “Seinfeld” who kind of just comes around sometimes. Though the feline Newman seems to be much nicer than his human namesake!
Glad you’re feeling better. Maybe the new kitties just came by to give you something else to think about? 😉
Lisa
I would like to have lipo underneath my chin, or a chin implant…whatever they do to make me look like I have a neck. After you woke up from surgery did you feel like your throat was swollen? I’m scared to death I will feel like I can’t breathe.
Tina, I never felt like my throat was swollen. Someone else I talked to said that it was hard for her to chew for the first few days, and it was for me, too, but I had lipo on the area under my chin, and I never felt like I couldn’t breathe.
I’m torn between thinking that cosmetic surgery is expensive and you should get the exact results you want, and maybe one doesn’t want to look too “done” anyway. I wouldn’t want to end up looking like Barbra Streisand (her neck- yikes! She had it done too many times). It’s good to ask the surgeon, since he can be more objective.
Oh, Rufus is just beautiful. What a gorgeous coat. I’d be surprised if someone somewhere isn’t taking care of him/her at least part time. Rufus would still rather live at Crooked Acres, obviously. I mean, if you were a cat, wouldn’t you? 🙂
Rufus looks a bit Maine Coonish? I know I always think they look like a lynx, then I find out it’s a Maine Coon either purebred or mix. Beautiful anyway!
I agree – word has gone out amongst the cat population in Alabama that your house is the Place To Be!
I hope you are wrong about your neck & that the crankiness continues to wane away.
You know, that’s a good point, I think I can see some Maine Coon in him/ her!
Thought you might enjoy this. What it means to be a Mainer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9wV4OQOmbX0
New rule: When you reach a critical mass of cats in your house, their doppelgangers show up.
(It happened to us, too!)
I’m glad you’re less cranky. Still, if it doesn’t look right to you, I would get cranky at the surgeon. It seems like the jawline/necklift should be the procedure most likely to turn out exactly as you wanted/expected, and he should fix it gratis if necessary. (I’m sure his business has gone down in the recession, and I’m also sure he makes a sh*tload of money off his patients. So don’t be shy about insisting on getting what you paid for,,,)
those were supposed to be dots, not commas!
Heh – I figured that those were meant to be dots. 🙂 I am definitely going to get cranky at the surgeon if I need to. I’m a little less stressed out about it than I was – because stressing out about it at this point does no good anyway, right? – but if it needs to be fixed, it WILL get fixed!
Robyn, I had to pop in again to tell you that I made some of your all-purpose cleaner today and it works FABULOUSLY well. I’m all a-squee cuz I thought I’d be stuck paying 4-5 dollars a bottle for Martha Stewart’s glass cleaner for the rest of my life because every other damn thing I tried leaves streaks on my windows. Here in the sunny desert, every tiny streak or piece of paper towel lint looks enormous on my windows. Your cleaner left NO streaks and NO lint.
It got my counter tops really clean too – I finished them off with a coat of Pledge and they are nice and shiny. Windex can suck it.
Thanks, Doll!!
I’m glad you like it, Devil – it’s my go-to cleaning spray for just about everything!
I’m about to drive down to Alabama and grab up Rufus, OMG, s/he’s gorgeous!
~Juby
Good luck getting your hands on him/ her. 🙂 S/he’s currently on the side stoop, but if either of us open the door, Rufus goes flying across the yard. Of course, Coltrane was like that at first, too, so I have hope Rufus will come around!
Rufus looks just like my Packer, except for something around the ears – can’t quite tell what. And my best friend in high school was nicknamed “Rufus” – we were taking Latin together and I nicknamed her for her flaming red hair, which she hated. She nicknamed me something in return that I have forgotten, but was basically the Latin version of “jerk” or “asshole.” (Our Latin teacher was most excellent. He taught us dirty jokes and cusswords in Latin, then had us memorize the account of Jesus’s birth from Luke chapter 2 for extra credit, to – as he said – even things out.)
So a female Rufus is quite all right, although if she turns out to be a she you could always feminize it to Rufa or Rufina.
Good luck on the lump/sag thing – I don’t think you’re being a “drama queen” at all, but I also do think it will all come out right in the end. (c:
Your Latin teacher sounds WAY cooler than mine was! 🙂
Newman looks exactly like a cat we had minus the black nose.
Daffodils…are you serious! We are still looking out at snow. ARGH,, the only time it drives me nuts to read your blog in March when you’ve got daffodils weeks ahead of us!!
Don’t you just love the friendly kitties who just come by to say hi and have a chat. Lovely kitty in the black and white but my gosh that Rufus is so beautiful it makes my eyes hurt.
Glad to hear you are feeling better. Sometimes you have to hit really low before you feel good again. I had one week about 3 weeks into my recovery where I hurt everywhere . I had been feeling fine so I stopped taking the pain meds and it caught up with me. Plus I got pretty grumpy and depressed. Thought I was gonna feel crappy for the rest of my life. It will go away though. Hang in there. Just imagine how beautiful you will look when you are all healed up. More beautiful that is!
They saw the blinking sign on the front of the house that says “FOSTERS VACANCY! SUCKERS INSIDE!” I don’t know if it was the camera angle or what, but Rufus looked like s/he had a big belly. I hope it’s not full of kittens. They are both pretty cats. Hope you can catch Rufus to check for gender and then get spayed if she’s a she.
Good luck with the saggy neck!
My Dad used to say that animals know who will take care of them. It seems like word has gotten around about you and Fred. 🙂
The picture of Jake and Elwood in the daffodils is great!
I’ve seen daffodils come up in January before and lots of times in February. This year they are just now coming out around here also.
I think our weather is similar though this year at least you are getting a lot more rain.
I’m glad you’re feeling a little better and something tells me that the cat sightings are helping! I think you’re one of the stops on the Underground Railroad for Cats. They rearranged some rocks out front to point the direction for a little sanck and a sip of water. 🙂
HaHa! That is funny!