Details, details...

D'Lee said in her comment that I hadn't mentioned if it hurt or not. I realized I hadn't said much about anything. Here's some brief details:
The surgery started promptly on time at 7:30 on Monday. I woke up in recovery around noon, but as soon as they told me I could go home, I immediately fell asleep again. I woke up again a couple more times, but both times got nauseated and sick, and the Phenergan they gave me would always knock me out again. At one point we managed, in between sleeping and being sick, to get my clothes on (then I fell back asleep). I finally woke up at 3:00, and my husband said, "Don't close your eyes! NURSE! Where's a wheelchair?!?!" (He said it half jokingly, half truthfully, but the truth of the matter was that if they hadn't gotten that chair fast, we would have been there all day.) So we stuffed me in the car and I slept all the way home. The rest of Monday was a blur of sleeping and throwing up.
I woke up Tuesday feeling OK...took my lovely turban off after lunch and was unimpressed to find a big old sticking-out ear, a swollen face and a bruised neck. I continued to take my pain pills during the day, and thankfully, wasn't sick anymore. Tuesday was my best day, except I looked frightful. The little girls came home from school and had a great time being grossed out ("Let me look, Mom! EEEEEEWWWWWWWW!! Let me look again! EEEEEEEEWWWWWWW!", etc., until the novelty wore off). Claire had a parent meeting that night (which I didn't attend) and cried because I wouldn't print her some pictures of my incision to take to show everyone.
Yesterday I woke up all excited that THIS was THE BIG DAY that I could shower and wash that nasty hair!! So around lunchtime Dicky slathered the entire ear, inside and out, with Neosporin, I covered it up with a washcloth, and emerged some ten minutes later feeling human again, with somewhat nicer-looking hair (still greasy around the ear from the Neosporin). The face was still grossly swollen...blech. I got back in bed and about an hour later, felt horrible...not so much pain, although I did have an earache, but horrible pressure and swelling all around my ear, (that horrible pressure you get when you're going up a mountain and your ears need to be popped, except I'm not allowed to pop mine) and bad dizziness. I briefly wondered if the nausea would return as well, but thankfully, it didn't. I fired off a quick e-mail to Joyce asking her if feeling so bad all of a sudden was normal, and she quickly e-mailed me back, setting my mind at ease. It is SO wonderful to have a support system of CI friends to call on when you need a question answered! She said that I would probably feel better today, which, thankfully, is true. I still feel a little dizzy and a little sore, but my face is closer to a normal size today, and the pressure inside my eardrum isn't quite as bad. As long as the dizziness stays down to a dull roar today, I may be able to string together a couple of coherent paragraphs to finish my Psych paper. Hooray!
I don't feel horrible pain so much, although, obviously, I can't lay on it or anything. I feel a bit of soreness, although it comes more from inside than the incision. The incision is starting to itch. I'm not taking pain pills so much for pain as I am to try to regulate when I sleep (last night I just took some ibuprofen and slept fine). The pressure and dizziness have been my major complaints, and some people don't even have that. I do have a fairly common side effect...everything tastes salty. Occasionally some of the nerves in the face can be affected by the swelling, and in my case, my taste buds were affected (this is usually temporary). I also cannot feel the top of my ear (a strange sensation!)
I will now open the floor to questions.... ;)

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