Well That's Nice

I had my follow-up doctor's appointment for my surgery yesterday, and I got the all-clear to resume normal activities. Well, what were normal for me anyway. I still have to wear an earplug in the shower and keep the ear dry, but I was doing that before surgery anyhow. I can work out again though, which is good because after 3 weeks I'm feeling pretty soft and doughy.

After the surgery, the doctor had put some dissolvable packing in my ear canal to hold the graft in place so it could heal. There was still some packing left on the eardrum, so he put some fluid in my ear to soften things up and then removed the packing. Between the packing removal and the suction to remove the fluid, there were some hurty moments and I had to stop watching what he was doing on the monitor on the wall, but in the scheme of things it was no big deal. Part of it might have been that the suction thingy (technical term) is super loud when it's all up in your eardrum's business.

Now I just have to keep the ear dry for 6 months or so and be diligent in my application of sunblock on my graft donor site on my arm next summer and hopefully I'll be done worrying about my ear problems. That's what I thought a couple years ago when I had the tube removed though, so I'm staying cautiously optimistic...with emphasis on the 'cautiously'.

I just want to be able to shower and swim and not constantly worry about ear infections like a normal person. Is that so much to ask? So far, the answer has been 'yes'.