Scarface

I had surgery. 'Parotidectomy with tumor excision' is what the official paperwork said.  My first surgery ever . It was scary. But I am happy to report that a benign tumor sitting on my parotid gland along with the parotid gland itself was removed successfully.  A small muscle flap from my cheek was used to fill the 'hole' that was left by removing the parotid gland.  My incision is awesome. It's very similar to a facelift incision, which is great because I don't think people will notice that my ear was almost completely cut off. However, people might think "Wow, that poor 32 year old woman had a facelift and only on one side, weird!"
Surgery is a big deal. Talking about tumors and using words like benign and malignant is scary. But the results are good and I'm grateful. Thank you to my very supportive and loving husband, to my Mom for staying with me for an entire week to care for my boys, to my Mother-in-law for watching Henry on the day of surgery, my Dad for accompanying me to my post-op visit for suture removal, and to the rest of my family and friends for helping, listening, and supporting me through this difficult and scary time. This was a big deal for me and I'm so glad it's over! Here's the good stuff:

In the haze of anesthesia I forgot to take pictures of my incision on day 1 or 2. These are taken on post-op day #6. The sutures were removed the next day. I have to keep the incision covered with Bacitracin or Vaseline which is why my hair is greasy.