The Feed

After hearing about my surprise overnight scar improvement , my grandma tried my scar combo this morning. Now, I'm not taking care of her wounds, so I'm being told that now that she's started on my daily collagen and electrolytes regimen, her wounds have healed, and she's working on scar management now. Turns out, she was dealing with scabbing that was refusing to come off, and that she thought she'd have to go to wound care to have removed for her. I'm told the minute my moi

A few days ago, I saw a YouTube dermatologist say that topical Vitamin E doesn't do anything. Now, I recognize that this is anecdotal evidence and no scientific study, but I have to disagree... To be fair, there's the question of synthetic vs. natural, and percentage in the formula, and etc etc. Now, most naturally sourced Vitamin E is a soy derivative, so I have to be careful which Vitamin E products I use, and I generally stick to CocoJojo's Full Spectrum Vitamin E Oil (no

February was kind of tough, health-wise. I ended the intro post saying that I was transitioning from healing leg to growing hair, but I definitely had more leg to heal 😅😅 Not to mention two weeks of Fool's Spring gave me a preview of migraine season, and I wasn't about to get into scalp massages when I have inflamed dura mater right underneath. Or get into showering in general when I'm in that much pain 😅😅 I think I managed four full wash days and chebe treatments for the

I may not have an audience, but damn it, I have words and memes! I logged on with one more post-op update - I used my favorite cane for the first time since surgery yesterday, a single-point offset-handle aluminum model that's engraved so it looks like it's covered in shiny dragon scales. When my hip joint is fully functional, my left leg is my "strong leg" thanks to my balance issues and the foot drop in my right leg caused by the spinal cord injury. Which means that when I'

Funny story... They used Dermabond to close spine surgery 4, and it gave me the worst rash. Like, itching at an 11, it was terrible. So, I had my doctor put Dermabond on my medical allergy list. I pointed this out before surgery, and right before I went under, in the OR, the surgeon's assistant told me that they usually use Dermabond to close the incision based on where it is, and could they spot-test the Dermabond before making the decision on how to close the incision? And

Tomorrow is three weeks post-op, and I have two updates, finally: "Winter Storm Fern" (as a person named Katrina, I hate the practice of naming storms, but shared meaning and all that...) had me miss two PT sessions and my first post-op last week, so all of that has been pushed into this coming week. Since that was when I was supposed to be graduated from my walker back to my cane... I graduated myself. tbh, I've been walking around smaller rooms in my house unassisted. I fee

Today, at two weeks and one day post-op, is where this blog will likely stop having daily post-op reports. Why? I don't really have anything new to report. Today is day 2 of a 6 day blizzard, and considering I can't get into the boosted truck with the 4 wheel drive, and the Kia Soul is... not quite as good on the roads in these conditions, and also considering I have a history of fucking up fresh surgery in a freak accident.... today's PT was cancelled, Thursday's will be res

I took my walker into the kitchen last night to take my bedtime meds, and got halfway back to my bedroom before realizing my walker was still parked in the kitchen 😅😅 Guess I'm feeling better! That one muscle is still prone to tightening up, but frequent, gentle stretching and Robaxin loosen it up again pretty quickly. And, I'm off the Oxy! Down to just my usual pre-surgery pain combo, hooray!! Thankfully, at-home PT exercises are going well, because we're in the middle of

Woke up with this playing in my head... Complete TMI: The Activated Charcoal from Monday cleared out of my system last night before bed. I am now at the point where I am the least bloated I have been at any point since my most recent weight loss. It's... wild. I haven't been anywhere near this size since my spine went bad in 2020. I need to re-take my measurements. Today is PT, then a shower and hair treatment. It's a beautiful, sunny day, I'm in a great mood, and I'm honestl

I took this picture last night, right before putting my bonnet on. This is slightly damp hair, dry enough I knew it would finish drying in the bonnet, after a good wash, scalp oiling, chebe butter application, and steam treatment, plus 4 hours of air drying. I didn’t clump the curls after the steam treatment, but you can still see I have the entire range of the C pattern on my head. Also, I have significant shrinkage, when this is stretched it’s perfectly sitting at shoulder

My “I didn’t pass out!” face. The surgical dressing has been removed (forgot to do that Saturday, whoops), and the first shower has been taken! I even got a good scalp oiling and chebe in! I’m recouping from what I forgot was the most exhausting shower ever with a one hour steam treatment in bed. I’ve also kept down all food and meds all day, and cancelled my urology follow-up, because correcting my pelvic tilt cleared that problem up right away. I still have a little bit of

Y’all. I might actually shower today. FOUR doses of activated charcoal every two hours yesterday finally quelled the Mentos & Pepsi reaction in my guts, and completely soaking through my nightgown twice while getting that 15 hours of sleep on top of that got the rest out… Today, I’ve so far kept down two “sports drinks,” two mugs of electrolyte-spiked bone broth, and about five saltines with a little hummus. I’m about to try the white rice and cod I couldn’t hold down yesterd