I woke up feeling a bit miserable. But having read lots of blogs, etc online I knew that day 2 or 3 was going to be when the post-op blues hit. I was so swollen, I actually felt like if I swelled any more, my face would burst.
I had apricot yoghurt for breakfast again...did I say that if I ever see an apricot yoghurt again it would be too soon?
The doctors came to see me and commented that I looked miserable. But I wasn't as miserable as I looked. LOL my husband said it was a shame that the swelling and cracked lips made me look downright miserable when I wasn't too bad.
Doctors said I could go home later in the day or I could stay another night and go home Monday morning, the choice was mine.
To be honest, at that point I was in no way fussed as to where I was going to go or stay. Going home sounded nice but I had no energy or motivation to even get up and get dressed never mind step outside and go home.
At about 10am, I was wheeled down to X-Ray to make sure that everything was in the right place. Cue a quick scoot looking for my as yet unworn dressing gown and still in my pyjamas and slippers, I sat in that wheelchair all the way down very long corridors and all the way back along very long corridors. At x-ray I was faced with that familiar machine that you have to put your head in and bite down on this silly plastic stick thing and then the x-ray machine whirs round your head. I was a bit tentative and the radiologist asked me if I had had one of these done before but it wasn't that that bothered me, it was the idea of having to open my mouth (could I open it enough with all the swelling) AND having to bite on that plastic stick...really, you want me to do that? Somehow I managed, maybe the x-ray was a bit wobbly because my jaw muscles didn't like it much, but I did it.
This gave me the incentive when I got back on the ward to have a shower and get dressed.
Showering was hard. I hadn't anticipated it to be aside from knowing it would be difficult to wash my hair. I normally wash my hair over the bath with the showerhead in my hand so as not to get water in my ever troublesome ears. But I knew the only way my hair was going to get washed was to wash it in the shower.
So still with the horrid cannulas in my hands, I attempted a shower. I must admit, it felt good to be clean. I even discovered iodine in my ears! What did they do in theatre, slap the stuff all over me? :D
But I didn't anticipate that it would be difficult to dry myself! I had no jiggling ability so had to slowly pat myself dry one handed rather than a proper drying down.
I managed to whack myself in the jaw putting on my bra! Didn't hurt too much. Who knew bras were such dangerous things!
By the time I was showered and dressed, I felt like I was going to go home after having done all this effort.
My vision was still blurry. Today my husband said it was probably because I didn't have my glasses on. But I knew I couldn't see as well as I normally do without glasses.
Lunch was lentil soup and another apricot yoghurt. I struggled with the soup, the texture more than anything else. I was learning that I couldn't fit a tablespoon sized spoon in my mouth, I had to use a teaspoon.
Cold things were going down better than hot things. Hot things couldn't be consumed as soon as possible because they were too hot and I couldn't tell the temperature on my lips but you had to consume hot things reasonably quickly or else they went cold and once they started going cold, it just was horrid. I'd get so far and then have to stop because I just couldn't get it over my throat.
I also felt very much like a baby shoveling teaspoons of sloppy food in my mouth.
At 2pm, my inlaws arrived to visit. My mother inlaw was quite taken aback with how I looked and the fact that I couldn't talk very much but she tried to hide it. My father inlaw looked like he just wanted to give me a huge hug but knew he couldn't really because of how much I was swollen.
Chatting a little bit, cause I couldn't talk much, I said that I could have sworn I smelt bacon in the morning and that I fancied a bacon sandwich. Which was really odd; my husband and kids have bacon sandwiches for breakfast every Saturday morning but I just have one very occasionally. I couldn't even get a bacon sandwich in my mouth never mind eat one. My father inlaw suggested I take some bacon, a bun and some tea and just blend it altogether...BARF! What was he trying to do? kill me?? :D :D
About 15 minutes later my husband and kids came and I informed them that I was allowed to go home.
After collecting my medication (paracetamol, ibuprofen and codeine but all in tablet form now) and being informed to wear my TED stockings for another couple of days, I was on my way.
I knew there was no way I was going to be fit for walking all the way from the ward to the car and knowing that I am infamous for fainting (and hadn't fainted as yet), I sat myself in a wheelchair and my husband trundled me downstairs.
He left me with my inlaws and my kids until he went and got the car. Me and him in our car and my inlaws took the kids home.
When I walked through the door, I cried again (LOL anyone sick of all these tears yet??) but this time happy tears. I kept saying 'I can't believe I made it, I can't believe I made it home' and my husband said 'yeah, because you didn't think you would did you?'
Didn't want to go to my bed so got myself comfy on the sofa, under a blanket and heaps of pillows. It was good to be home. But I knew it was going to be challenging.
I can't remember what I had for my supper. I do know that despite having made up batches of soup and my husband making some more, just the smell of homemade soup was making me heave big time.
I probably had yoghurt, but not apricot this time thank goodness!
Mainly spent the rest of the day resting, watching TV and marveling at just how well I had done. I was also glad that I could now have proper ice for the swelling. In hospital, I was beginning to feel like Father Jack from the TV show Father Ted but instead of shouting 'drink', I was shouting 'Ice!' The ice packs really did help; when I could get them.
My husband got my bed all ready for me, with HEAPS of pillows. I had been sleeping/resting with my head elevated in hospital. My favourite brushed cotton duvet cover was on, drink of water and painkillers on my bedside cabinet and I was ready for as much sleep as I could get.
I slept 9pm - 2.30am, woke to take painkillers and slept til 5am. Woke in pain again so took more painkillers and got up around 7.30am.
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