After a couple of episodes of nasal regurgitation I had a follow up visit with Amanda, Dr. Mehra’s nurse practitioner. She was wonderful. I got to explain the emotional trauma of the bleeding episode the first night in the hospital to her and then we had a good long talk about recovery and healing. I spoke my mind and I felt heard. 

So much about my mouth feels foreign right now so it is very hard to know whether I am actually healing. She helped me understand that, within a matter of weeks or months, my brain will recognize the new landscape of my mouth as normal. It is possible that the hole in my soft palate will heal itself!!!!  they’ve pushed the appointment where they’ll decide what to do about it out to 12 weeks. First they’ll let everything heal and let the tissue mature and then we’ll decide what is needed. Options are:

1. It healed itself and nothing more needs to be done.

2. A one day procedure where they stitch it up and i should heal quickly

3. More extensive reconstruction which they are highly doubtful of being needed.

Dr. Mehra stopped in and was so excited by the progress I’d made in a week. I feel so encouraged and relieved and I believe in my team at Yale again. That in itself is nothing short of a miracle.

I also spoke to a nutritionist this week. Don’t be jealous but I have to eat Hagen Daz twice a day as it is essential to keep my caloric and protein intake up while I remain on a liquid and puréed diet. I will start speech therapy soon as well.

The bottom line is that I can get back to the business of resting and recovering without worrying about further imminent surgery.

Amanda also said that soon we’ll get to the point where they'll put my Thyroid Cancer on the front burner and this will be put on the back burner. That will be the next leg of the journey.

Thank you all for lovingly being in this journey with me. Please remember that if you’d like to respond, the best way is through the dedicated email address: Susansrecoveryteam@gmail.com