Day 2: Home with my HUGE head . . .
My surgeon, Dr. Egbert, came at 8am and told me I look great! Not sure who he was looking at because you really couldn't say that I looked great; I have an absolutely huge noggin' (think "So I Married an Axe Murderer") with equally gigantic lips that do not want to move. Similarly, my jaws are quite content not to move and anyway they feel like they are in a vice grip and are daring me to try and move them! Dr. Egbert told me that on a swelling range of 1 to 10, I am presently at 3 to 4 but by tomorrow, Wednesday I should expect to be at a 7 to 8!?!? How is that humanly possible? That just sounds utterly painful quite honestly so let's hope the ice works its magic!
He said that the surgery could not have gone any better and that he moved my bottom jaw forward 18mm which was a near record, 20mm being the most he has ever moved anyone. The top jaw had to be spaced and widened more than he originally thought but that everything went great. He was clearly very happy with the results. What is he seeing that I am not?
The nurse came in after he left and we made plans to be discharged. Given the many looks from people as I was being led outside to the car, I am guessing it is not just me that thinks my head is huge. Ah well, you cannot suffer from vanity if you have this operation can you.
Being home was great, much better than I thought it was going to be. We had warned the children that Daddy is going to look a bit freaky for a while and when they came in to see me after school, they were both clearly rather shocked and proceeded to leave the bedroom and cry because of how I looked. Poor kids, quite a shock. If it is any consolation however, my dog stayed by my bed all day so he wasn't too put off by me! The kids came around and once they were used to my face they found it most amusing watching me eat through a syringe, and trying to understand me as I attempted to talk to them . . .
I started taking the pain meds again this afternoon as the swelling is most definitely winning the fight against the ice and it is a really tight sensation if that makes sense. In terms of eating (i.e., syringing food through a whole in my mouth ) I had a strawberry carnation drink (half of one anyway, took me about 30+ minutes to get that down my throat), a yoghurt drink, and fruit punch. Messy, but doable. Have to keep hydrated!
The worst part of syringing has to be the pain medicine - absolutely disgusting flavour; they (the pharmacist) may say they have flavoured the medicine but it is a lie! The Lortab / Demerol are the worst, almost a burning sensation but at least the Ibprofen tastes like the orange flavour it purports to be. The trouble is that it takes a while to empty the medicine in your mouth and then you need to quickly syringe water in your mouth to get rid of the flavour.
I slept on and off for a while throughout the day but sleeping is most definitely not the easiest of things to do what with the general discomfort and inconvenience of it all. I decided to take a bath and that felt great I have to say. It is the simple things in life is it not that bring the most pleasure . . .
You can see additional photographs under the ‘Photo Journal’ section above
I took so much morphine and toradol in the hospital that I told the surgeon that the plan of Tylenol with codeine was NOT going to be enough. So she gave me lortab. I thought of what you said about the flavor and figured I'd muster it up. Dude, you were right'! It is nasty! I didn't know I'd be taking 20 ml of it every 4 hours!!! Obviously it is mixed in a pediatric dose so an adult dose is a lot of volume! Little does surgeon know that I have Percocet tablets that I plan to crush up and put into some liquid today. Ha!
ReplyDeleteLortab was soooooo nasty! I physically shook at the end of the first week just thinking about taking that stuff. So, so, bad. . . . I take it you are using a syringe to squirt it down? Let the fun begin :)
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