Healing

So, it has been roughly 16 days since the surgery (I am still uncertain as to whether or not you count the day of). I sent my OS an email yesterday asking him if I can eat cottage cheese. I am so desperate for soft food. I think he will say yes to the cottage cheese so lets keep our fingers crossed. I am sure it will get lodged in my splint though and I really don't want any dairy getting funky up there.

I go back to the OS on Tuesday and I think he will put me in lighter elastics. I am under the impression that I have one more week in the splint. I am not sure how I feel about that. I do like it because it keeps me from grinding my teeth, but I think I would feel much better with it out. All in all it really doesn't bother me that much!

I have been reading a lot of other blogs and people are talking about how terrified they were of the anesthesia. I have to add, that I have had anesthesia before and I was still petrified. My surgery was 4 hours which in itself is scary. I also have a tendency to get VERY sick from anesthesia (as in puking) which was a huge concern of mine as well. I did get sick, but I was so doped up that it did not bother me to badly, it just disrupted my rest.

When I woke up immediately after surgery I felt FANTASTIC. Apparently that was the dilaudid that did that. When the narcotics wore off I was feeling less than stellar. They gave me liquid percoset which tasted atrocious and was puked up. I also ate one crushed Motrin which is something I won't do again (I have sensitive taste buds). I managed to swallow the antibiotic so I just when out an bought small Motrin (instead of the 800 mg they set me home with) and took 4 at a time. It worked fine. I requested vicodin instead of percoset because I took that before when I broke my knee and it worked well for me with little side effects. I would swallow one at bedtime and use a phenergan suppository and that seemed to make my life much easier. Now I just pop some motrin in the morning and a few at bedtime to dull the pain and keep the swelling at bay. It seems to work well.

I still have a lot of swelling on the left side, and some on the right. My chin is still numb and throbs with the most irritating sensation, and te left side of my mouth does not smile yet, but I have a lot of feeling. At my first follow up, five days post-op my Doctor was blown away at how much feeling I had in my lip. I have had an inflamed nerve there (from an old piercing) which just looked like a tag of scar tissue. I had asked him to cut it off and he ended up taking out this huge chunk and having it biopsied. Well, he gave me a good deep stitch there and when I went for the follow up I could feel everything! He was poking around and I kept trying to tell him he was hurting me, but I think he was in denial because I should not have had feeling yet.

Anyway, that is a little disjointed random post regarding my experience with surgery. More to come!