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My Experience Was Great
I had cancer in my parotid gland for 2 years because the Doctors thought it was Bells palsy. When tumors started to show on my neck they realized their mistake. I had surgery to remove the tumor in August of 2023. It destroyed my facial nerve and I came home with not only my sagging cheek and drooping eye, but one ear smaller than the other and sticking out from my head at a 45 dree angle. The surgeon had to take out a lot of cartilage along with a muscle in my neck and one from my shoulder. I didn't want to leave the house for 10 months. I did go to the grocery store and shopping with my wife, but I was always aware of how I looked to people.
The first reconstruction procedure Dr. Patel performed was on March 8th, 2024. I got his name from the University of Kentucky Health Care site. There were only two surgeons listed for facial reconstruction but his bio spoke to me. Among other things, he had studied sculpture and brought his eye for human aesthetics into his surgery practice. For weeks after I made the appointment for a consult, I heard from several sources that he did excellent work. I read multiple reviews, all of them good. The one that summarized them all was a person whose review ‘voiced’ regret the satisfaction scale only went from zero to five. Five was not nearly high enough. It has been 10 days since my last procedure and I cannot agree more.
It wasn’t until my second surgery, April 24th, 2024 that I felt like I got a big part of my life back. He raised my eyebrow, put a gold weight in my eye lid so I can now close my eye, tightened up my lower lid so that tears could be closer to my cornea and lessen the possibility of it drying out and losing my sight, shaped and moved my ear back, tightened my cheek up so that there is no visible sagging and my top lip no longer curls around my top teeth which distorted my speech so much I had to physically lift my face to be understood. The second surgery took the curl out of my lower lip so that I could stop biting it when I ate and made my speech even more understandable. I have informed the church that I am ready for jobs they may have for me and next week I plan to walk into the Hospice office and announce that I am back. Thank you more than I can express, Dr. Patel.
But my story does not end there. For the things that surgery gave me, there are numerous things that cancer took away that no amount of surgery of any kind will give back. The right side of my face will always be seen in high contrast to the left, (wrinkles on one side, no wrinkles on the other). Half of my mouth will never move when I talk. My right eye will never open as wide as my left, will almost always be watery making it more conspicuous. With no muscle tone in my cheek I will always have trouble eating, will never whistle again will always have some degree of speech impediment. There is more, but you get the message. Life will never be the same but that does not mean that it can’t be as good or better than it was.
If you are reading this you are most likely looking for answers to any number of questions. I would like to offer my e-mail address to anyone who would like a more personal and in-depth conversation. I am a retired school teacher and Hospice volunteer. This kind of service is in my blood. Eventually I would like to start a group consisting strictly of people with facial deformities (for the lack of a better word) caused by anything. This experience was sudden, undeserved, and permanent. I never had (and still don’t have) anyone I could talk to who has gone through it. I think it would help those who are just now dealing with it and those of us who have past the last surgery hurdle and those who have lived with it long term to actually see the different stages and hear the differing stories. It may not ‘take a village’ to survive it but I can see the benefit of a village making it easier. If you would like to contact me, go through Dr. Patel’s office for my contact information.
The first reconstruction procedure Dr. Patel performed was on March 8th, 2024. I got his name from the University of Kentucky Health Care site. There were only two surgeons listed for facial reconstruction but his bio spoke to me. Among other things, he had studied sculpture and brought his eye for human aesthetics into his surgery practice. For weeks after I made the appointment for a consult, I heard from several sources that he did excellent work. I read multiple reviews, all of them good. The one that summarized them all was a person whose review ‘voiced’ regret the satisfaction scale only went from zero to five. Five was not nearly high enough. It has been 10 days since my last procedure and I cannot agree more.
It wasn’t until my second surgery, April 24th, 2024 that I felt like I got a big part of my life back. He raised my eyebrow, put a gold weight in my eye lid so I can now close my eye, tightened up my lower lid so that tears could be closer to my cornea and lessen the possibility of it drying out and losing my sight, shaped and moved my ear back, tightened my cheek up so that there is no visible sagging and my top lip no longer curls around my top teeth which distorted my speech so much I had to physically lift my face to be understood. The second surgery took the curl out of my lower lip so that I could stop biting it when I ate and made my speech even more understandable. I have informed the church that I am ready for jobs they may have for me and next week I plan to walk into the Hospice office and announce that I am back. Thank you more than I can express, Dr. Patel.
But my story does not end there. For the things that surgery gave me, there are numerous things that cancer took away that no amount of surgery of any kind will give back. The right side of my face will always be seen in high contrast to the left, (wrinkles on one side, no wrinkles on the other). Half of my mouth will never move when I talk. My right eye will never open as wide as my left, will almost always be watery making it more conspicuous. With no muscle tone in my cheek I will always have trouble eating, will never whistle again will always have some degree of speech impediment. There is more, but you get the message. Life will never be the same but that does not mean that it can’t be as good or better than it was.
If you are reading this you are most likely looking for answers to any number of questions. I would like to offer my e-mail address to anyone who would like a more personal and in-depth conversation. I am a retired school teacher and Hospice volunteer. This kind of service is in my blood. Eventually I would like to start a group consisting strictly of people with facial deformities (for the lack of a better word) caused by anything. This experience was sudden, undeserved, and permanent. I never had (and still don’t have) anyone I could talk to who has gone through it. I think it would help those who are just now dealing with it and those of us who have past the last surgery hurdle and those who have lived with it long term to actually see the different stages and hear the differing stories. It may not ‘take a village’ to survive it but I can see the benefit of a village making it easier. If you would like to contact me, go through Dr. Patel’s office for my contact information.
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