Post-Op Day 13

Day 13 (Sunday, June 6): Honestly, I don't remember much of anything of significance other than I made it thru the weekend w/o any incidence. Which was a good thing - No panicked calls to Dr Q!  I believe it was a turning point in my recovery. ;)

And the heating pad totally worked on the dark bruises that were on my lower neck which was awesome. God I love that thing! :)

Day 13 pic

Post Op Days 9-11

Day 9 (Wed, June 2): I'm starting to look a lot better now, but I felt awful most of this day. I still had some nausea going on even after the anti-nausea meds, and I had no appetite to speak of. Just couldn't stomach anything which wasn't good. I had force myself to choke down some Ensure just get some nutrition. On the good side, I was only taking the liquid ibuprofen now. :)

I forgot to mention in my previous post that Q said I could brush my teeth now. That made me very happy, my teeth felt gross. It felt weird, but good. I couldn't open my mouth much so I couldn't brush the backs of my teeth. At least it was a start! :)

Day 9 pics

Day 10 (Thurs, June 3): Still wasn't feeling great, and still didn't have much appetite. :( At least I wasn't throwing up though. I had my first post-op ortho appointment w/Dr Nelson which went well. Everyone in the office said I looked great, they are all so nice there. Dr Nelson tied the broken wires together and changed up the bands. I only had one band on the right side at this point. He asked me how much weight I had lost so far which with the last couple days of not eating was at 10 lbs so far. He told me that I'd need to be careful not to lose much more. I totally agreed w/him, I didn't have that much to lose in the first place (the wk before surgery I weighed 126 lbs)! Hopefully this nausea crap will go away soon so I can eat more regularly.

Day 10 pic

Day 11 (Friday, June 4): Finally started feeling better and was actually eating. Yeah! :) I still had some slight nausea, but I sipped on 7 Up and that helped. I saw Dr Nelson again, and he checked the band that he had placed the day before. It was doing what he wanted it too. He told me to take it out when I ate and brushed my teeth. Then I was off to see Dr Q, and he was happy with everything. He asked how the nausea was doing, I said it was a little better...and that I was so sorry for having to call him late at night, he said it wasn't a problem at all, that's what's he's here for. I know it comes w/the job, but he is such a nice guy. :) Q told me to get some active cultures into my diet like yogurt and that should help settle the nausea. He also told to me to put some heat on the bruises on my face and neck which should help get rid of them. Hopefully I make it thru the wkd w/o any problems!

Day 11 pic - This pic shows a big reduction in swelling from the previous day. Yeah!

1 Week!

Day 8 (Tues, June 1): Milestone - 1 week!  :)

I felt really good this day. I took my last narcotic pain meds early that morning, and then I had myself on just the liquid ibuprofen. Maybe it was just a mental thing, but I felt great! :) I also removed the motion sickness/anti-nausea patch that I'd been wearing since the day before the surgery. I figured I won't need it anymore since I wasn't taking those awful narcotics anymore, right?

I had my first (official) post-op appointment w/Dr Q in the afternoon. Q said I looked really great, and that I looked more like I was at 2 weeks post-op instead of 1 week. That made me feel good. :) He was happy with my healing and said my teeth fit together nicely now. He touched my face to check on the numbness and was impressed that only a couple places were numb - the right side of my chin and lower lip were my only numb spots. :) He asked how I was doing pain wise which I was happy to report that the last dose of the narcotics was early that morning. He asked about if I was having any nausea, and I told him my stomach had got a little queasy in the Jeep on the way to his office, but it wasn't anything bad. He said he wanted to see me again on Friday before the weekend. All was well until the ride home...

I totally emptied my stomach on the way home. I really think it was the stop and go of rush hour traffic that did me in. :( So much for not needing that anti-nausea patch anymore. *Big sigh* So I got home, and I really thought it was over, and it was the car ride that caused it. It wasn't over. Pretty soon I was dry heaving, and I couldn't stop. This went on for about 2 hours. (And nothing turns me into a blubbering baby quicker than vomiting!) My husband called Q cause he couldn't take listening to me any longer. Q calls in another prescription for two different anti-nausea meds - one for the anti-nausea patch, and one for an anti-nausea pill that they give to cancer patients going thru chemo. That little cancer patient pill was AWESOME. It tasted good, and it worked instantly! And it lasted 6 hours. I felt much better and was able to sleep. :)

Here are my 1 week post-op pics (first time I really noticed how much my profile had changed, and in a good way!):

Post-Op Day 7

Day 7 (Monday, May 31) - For the most part, day 7 was a repeat of day 6 except w/o the food wall. Thankfully, I got over the wanting solid food thing pretty quickly. But the pain meds, I was still fighting to take them. OMG they tasted so bad! So I decided that this was the last day I was taking them, I HAD to get off them. I'd been taking the pain meds every 6 hours since I had been home from the hospital, I couldn't take it anymore.

I alternated taking the horrible narcotic meds with liquid children's ibuprofen, so it went something like this - narcotics then 6 hours later ibuprofen, 4 hours later narcotics, 6 hours later ibuprofen, and so on. It worked and I was feeling much better by the end of the day. I did this for the whole day and night with the plan of stopping the narcotics the next day.

Here are day 7 pics - I was not feeling the greatest and I think that shows, and I attempted to smile, to the extent my face would allow anyway: