None the worse for wear

Surgery went just fine yesterday. Everyone was very nice at the hospital and things went quite well. I had a very slight sore throat when I woke thanks to a breathing tube, but that subsided within an hour. I had a dull ache in my nose, but no real pain afterward -- making the doctor's prescription of vicodin unnecessary. Claire picked it up (along with some prescribed antibiotics) at the pharmacy anyway, since it was only about $5 after insurance. Maybe I can resell it to a pusher in the Tenderloin (just kidding, any law enforcement web crawlers!).

Photo below: Me about an hour after surgery.

I woke up as I was being wheeled out of the operating room and said "That didn't take long." Someone, maybe my doctor asked, "How did you know?" "I looked at the clock," I replied, having been put out about 12:43 p.m. and waking up around 1:35 p.m. Of course, I was high on drugs, so there might have been no doctor, no clock and I might have actually woken up in the recovery room ...

As the photo above shows, I've got a patch of gauze under my nose to pick up any "leakage." It has to be changed every few hours, but hasn't been particularly disgusting. I also have some gauze shoved way up my nose, with a string hanging down like (pardon the analogy) a tampon. That will be removed by the doctor on Monday. How far up? So far up I can breathe well out of the affected nostril.

I'm feeling fine, with only some cottonmouth as a problem. I also have a slight taste of blood in the back of my mouth, as I was warned that I might. The gauze deep in the nose is annoying and the gauze under the nose is a problem when I eat.

I didn't cover a football game last night, although I think I might have been able to -- had I been driven to the stadium by someone else. I'm well enough to be writing this from work today, if that's any indication as to my health.