surgery opening infornt of ear

The surgery to remove my tumor

On June 7th, 2012, I had a surgery on my face to remove my tumor. The tumor was under my left parotid gland.  Surgery required them to cut from the middle of my ear on down the back side of my jaw line and down to about an inch or so on my neck.  This would allow them to peal my check skin forward to access that area.  The surgeon had to carefully lift the branches of my facial nerve, being careful to not cut any of the nerves or I would have paralysis in my face. Awesome right?!?!

Well, one part of my face is paralyzed from here on out and I was told it would be.  That is the nerve at the bottom of your ear lobe. It always has to be cut in order for them to pull the cheek back.  Now you will be warned that it will just feel weird; and trust me, it does.  My left side of my face by my ear feels like the dentist shot it full of Novocain.  It is annoying to say the least.

If you are facing this surgery, start prepping yourself to sleep on the other side of your head. Laying on the one side to the pillow will just bother you with the Novocain ear always in the way.

The surgery itself is an out patient surgery and I think it’s considered kind of mild.  Mine lasted approximately 6 hrs. It was the 2 weeks of recovery that just sucked!Grab some Ensure and prepare to have no energy for a few weeks.  In my case, I was up the very next day after surgery and felt great.  I was actually working on client projects and hanging out visiting with people.  Remember this…. that is just a false sense of energy. Everything I did that day, came back to haunt me.  My body paid a price.  I was so wiped out the very next day that I could hardly move. If I had to do it all over again, I would have stayed in bed and rested,

NO matter how good I felt.       -Travis