Okay so it's only day four and I have already slacked with the posts. Today I'm just going to do a wee recap of the last few days and then tomorrow hopefully I can get on with the daily (ish) updates as things seems to be moving pretty fast
Day zero - Surgery Day
Went into hospital for 7:30am . Before theatre I was asked to sign a consent sheet as well as being quizzed about my general health/any current meds etc. Just before I was called to surgery I was given
some (sexy) surgical stockings to wear that supposedly help minimise the risk of blood pooling in your legs - yum. I walked round to the anaesthetic room and was very quickly put to sleep. I remember waking up in recovery and being moved from the recovery bed to my ward , being sick and then falling asleep. The rest of Monday evening was spent being sick ( they did give me meds to help this although they didn't help too much) and very liberally dispensing my morphine drip.
From what I can remember there was very little pain and hardly any swelling. My surgeon was really pleased with how everything had gone. After surgery I had no bands in my mouth - only the wafer they used to see if everything had been measured properly. This helped getting liquids into me for the first few days.
This was taken a few hours after my surgery - as you can see I have hardly any swelling. The most annoying parts from day 0 were that I had two drains in each side of my face (these have now left a small scar on each side) to drain blood and saliva from my face. These were useful but annoying in terms of moving about as the wires kept getting tangled when I tried to move. I didn't manage to eat much on Monday ( a few syringes of yoghurt) but that was to be expected. I slept pretty much all night.
Day one - Tuesday.
I cant really remember much from today as I was so doped up. Swelling was a bit worse than Monday but not much. The anaesthetist prescribed me some arnica which I think has helped massively with the swelling. The doctors told me I was doing well and that they would try and remove my wafer on day two. Again I didn't eat much today (maybe one or two syringes of soup and some apple juice). My nausea had mostly gone by this point and one of my drains was removed. One of the nursing team managed to get a swab into my mouth to give it a bit of a clean (I kept my eyes closed at this point) but it felt so good afterwards. The most inconvenient thing so far, and the thing that is making me reluctant to eat/drink is that there seems to be a thick coating of saliva/mucus coating my throat (as if it wasn't already swollen enough) which made swallowing anything thicker than water a complete nightmare.
Excuse the blood/drool (I accidently pulled on the drain) but as you can see my swelling was pretty good. The pain was also much better than expected and I only had codeine before bed as well as a few doses of ibuprofen throughout the day.
Day two - Wednesday
The wafer got taken out today by my orthodontist and his team which was incredibly painful - they did dope me up beforehand but OUCH. They also managed to get a set of elastic bands around my braces to help my bite "come together". They also removed the second drain which meant I was able to move around a lot better - although still not a lot. I probably got up three times that day (once to pee, once to shower and once to see my orthodontist).
I managed a shower and to wash my hair that night which was exhausting but worth it. Again I slept a lot of Wednesday but the positive of the day was that I was assured that if I could eat something I would be allowed home the next day! Today was the first day that I even really had the energy to check my phone/ listen to music/anything. Definitely an improvement.
Day Three - Thursday
I was allowed home today after a very painful (and exhausting) lesson in how to remove my own bands in order to eat. The walk from the ward to the car completely knocked it out of me but once I was home I felt much better. The only painkiller I had today was one dose of codeine before I went to bed. Thursday was a really good day and I started to feel a lot more human. My drinking and eating has dramatically improved today:
I had some porridge from a baby spoon in the morning, a few syringes of soup at lunch and when I was home I had some icecream and blueberries blended together with some milk. This felt AMAZING. I was drooling a lot less as well as I am regaining some sort of resemblance of feeling in my lips. I did try some runny mash at tea time but that was perhaps a bit overambitious.
Must say it feels amazing to be home and thanks to everyone who has vistited,messaged me and wished me well <3
No comments:
Post a Comment