So when I woke up from surgery #2, it seemed like a good time to take stock of what had happened to me over the past week, physically. Let me relay it to you.

So in the original surgery, they took the bone, some muscle and the blood supply out of my shoulder/back – the outside of my scapula. That had given me a lot of pain. I hadn’t seen the extent of it yet at this stage, but when I did see it, it’s actually smaller than I was expecting. It also stretches up into my armpit. Geez, what’s with these surgeons doing such good job that I don’t get the huge battle wound I wanted?!

To make up for it though, after the second surgery I had a decent scar forming on my lower left leg.

I also had an impressive throat slit, from just near my ear to pretty much the centre of my neck. It’s quite hidden by my chin though (but that might be somewhat due to the swelling). My surgeon considers the aesthetics important, and makes an effort to fit scars in with natural lines. So this one would sit where a natural neck line would, if I had any. Of course I also have the scar from my arch nemesis, the tracheostomy.

I was incredibly happy to find that they had managed to do the surgery without cutting my face or my nostril at all. Apart from the massive amounts of swelling which should eventually go down, I should have no obvious outward differences.

These guys are seriously amazing.

Of course this isn’t mentioning what was going on in my mouth and nose, but we’ll get to that in due course.