Healing Well But Still Recovering

Healing is going well from this last surgery.  I still have some pain and when I try to do stuff that I think I'm ready to do, then I really have pain.  I'm just not completely ready to do certain things yet.  Still recovering.  I have trouble lifting my right arm to even level height of my shoulder.  I just don't have the strength back yet from having surgery there.  So dressing and taking showers and even cutting my food has gotten harder since.  I thought this surgery would be a lot easier than most of the others but the recovery is proving to be almost as difficult.  I still have four stitches in the front corner that will come out when I go to my post-op follow up appointment in Portland next week.  They did dermaglue on the rest of it.  I have also started wearing my soft collar during the morning hours and take it off at lunch (which is a total of about 6 hours a day) right now.  I tried wearing it for the first time at night and through my sleep but when I woke up the next morning my neck hurt SO bad.  I mean, so bad that I could barely move my head in any direction.  I think I strained it wearing it too soon and for too long.  So we have cut back to just wearing it when I wake up and until lunch until I'm more healed and recovered.  Then I will try wearing the watusi collar, which is absolute hell.  There is no give in it and it can be pretty painful and horrible.  But this flap went so well and looks pretty good that I want it to work.  Well, I always want my surgeries to work but this is my 5th release and 6th surgery concentrated to the right side of my neck in a matter of 8 months and I don't want to try a 7th.

So, I'm still doing a lot of resting in this recovery of surgery #38 but all is looking good so far.  We'll see what the doc says next week.