That sharp, tingly feeling

Saw Dr. Blackwell this morning. The waiting room at UCLA Medical Center was chock full of people! Some were holding their X-rays or CT scans, others were obviously post-op like me. I wasn't actually able to see Dr. Blackwell until an hour after I checked in. And they were all so different, old and young, caucasian, african-american, hispanic, asian,... it was a rainbow coalition of cancer patients. One of Dr. Blackwell's nurses told me that I was his first off-campus patient. Hey, he's my first plastic surgeon!

The wound in my arm is healing nicely, he reported. Two more weeks, and I can stop changing the dressings on a daily basis and simply moisturize. I'm experiencing more discomfort on my arm, jaw, and ear lately. He said that as the swelling is going down and the nerve endings affected by the surgery are healing, this is only natural. So it's a good thing that my wounds are annoying. It's not really painful, more like my arm was asleep and now it's constantly at the pins and needles stage. He scheduled one more appointment for the beginning of November. I told him that I'm eating soup, and I had a square inch of pizza this past weekend. He said that it's good that I'm trying solid food, and that I just have to be very patient with myself. Same thing with talking. The best thing I can do is practice talking and eating and that eventually I'll be back to normal.

Afterwards, James and I hung out at the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf a block away. It was such a nice day. I scored a Chocolate and Toffee flavored Ice Blended... heaven! Beats the hell out of Nutren.

That's all for now. I'll see you guys at Cole's tomorrow night.