Since I'm officially over "the hump" now, I get to ice as I please. I've been experiencing more pain today than I have all week. I think its because my nerves are starting to regenerate and I can feel more of my incision sites and where they actually broke my face. The bruising is starting to go from a dark purple to a yellowish color and is sliding down my neck. I've upgraded, once again, to taking pills rather than the liquid Tylenol (thank God!). The pain only dulls though, from like a 7, to a 4 or 5. One the the blogs I first read about had said to prepare yourself for one of thee most undignified recoveries ever. Its day 4 and I think I can back this up by now. I've started doing this totally awesome thing where I drool non-stop and I can't feel it. Its really quite the party trick. Today I started wearing a baby burp rag like a bib... along with this I also handed over my dignity card. I feel like an infant, or a really really old person who can't control their bodily fluids. I have no pride left and have given up on caring if my family sees me in my decrepit stage. So that's fun.
On the positive side of things, my nausea has been gone and I've had quite the appetite! This is great because I can start to gain some of my strength back. It's really hard though because I'm still on a liquid diet and haven't even graduated to soups or shakes yet.. My calorie count is still extremely low and I can feel it in my body when I try to walk around the house. I weighed myself and I've already lost 6lbs (yikes). The downer about finally having an appetite is that I want to eat EVERYTHING. I now spend my days avoiding the kitchen and turning the TV off when food commercials come on.
Its only day 4 of 42 and I'm already planning the day where I eat anything and everything I want. :)
Cravings
Pizza
Meatball Sub
Bread in general
KFC chicken
Peanut butter Kiss Cookies
Hot dogs
Sushi
I also laughed really hard for the first time today. It hurt my poor face muscles so bad, they havent tried to move at all since surgery and to jolt them out like that. It was awesome to laugh again, but wow my face is sore already. Maybe this will help me get the feeling and movement back though, so I will continue to laugh and smile until I can't take it anymore. No pain, no gain right?
I love the way you write about jaw surgery! Been reading since "WELCOME". It's super entertaining and makes me feel a tad bit better about having to go through all this :)
ReplyDeleteKelly! Thank you so much for keeping this blog, I’m finding it SO helpful and only wish I had thought to look for it sooner. I’m having a bit of a twilight zone moment because of our parallels. I just had my surgery on 12/20/17, so reading this right now is blowing my mind as it’s really mirroring me. I have just skimmed through a few entries but you have hit on so many things already that I’m experiencing at the same time two years later. I’m so glad you talked about the drooling and it’s not just me. That has been such an annoyance and I have been dirtying up a lot of towels - baby rags is a great idea! And I am also currently being tortured by all sorts of food cravings ESPECIALLY those peanut kiss cookies that are sitting in my family’s kitchen in a Christmas tin. Well, I thank you so much for this thoughtful and thorough account of your experience. It will be an invaluable resource for me of my healing process and a comfort just to know what I’m experiencing is what other people went through too. Thanks a million!!
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