Closing Day 4

Pain Level: 2 - mainly feeling numb and achy. Sometimes, some parts of the incisions in my upper jaw hurt a little bit, but it's a passing kinda pain.
Weight: 62.3 kgs (down from 65.8 at the anesthetist's last week)
Mood: A little self-conscious because of the swelling and a little low cause of the disgusting tasting crushed meds.

I promise I spent most of the day writing trying to describe Days 1 - 3, but I really got so tired finishing up writing Day 2 that I just gave up. Sorry. :) I really didn't feel so tired the beginning of this day till about 5pm and I totally took a 3 hour nap till 8pm. It was a sudden tiredness that came over me. :) Maybe it was because of all the writing.

I guess all I can equip people with today is the questions that I asked Surgeonman and how the day went for me.  I spent some time today reading about foods that are good for reducing swelling, but I'll share that when I compile it another time.

Here are the "almost" ten million questions I went today, and his answers that I caught.

My only way of communicating now.

My mouth smells like death! Can I brush my teeth? How do I clean my tongue?
Get a really soft tooth brush and just brush the front ones you can reach. Everything is pretty raw now so try not to overdo it. You can't clean your tongue now cause you can't even open your jaw to get there.

My gums feel quite soft though. If I brush, will I damage them?
It's normal as there was a temporal cut off in the blood supply during surgery. No, you won't damage them, but brush softly. There will be a lot of whitish stuff which is dead tissue.

My upper palette is really swollen.
That's normal due to the upper jaw surgery. It will subside in time.

The congestion in my nose is giving me a headache on my left side.
It's because of your deviated septum and blood pooling in your sinuses. It will drain out over time. Don't blow your nose as it may cause bleeding.

I think I have a cavity in my left molar and another tooth feels a bit shaky.
We will have to check and deal with that later. Shakiness of teeth are a bit relative. We'll deal with that later.

What can I take/do to reduce swelling?
Ambulation is the best. Move about, go for a walk. And drink water.

Can I have liquid meds? The crushed ones make me nauseous.
Problem with the liquid meds for my antibiotic is that they are mainly made for kids which makes the dosage really low. Try mixing the crushed meds with a fruit cordial and drinking that neat. Don't mix with water.

Dr Clement (Cosurgeonman) said he'd give me meds to break up the phlegm. Which one is it?
Apparently it was none of them. Might have been the nasal drops.

There is a specific part in my upper jaw that hurts when I drink water. Should I try not to let water touch the wounds?
It's normal as you have 40 stitches in your mouth - 20 on the bottom and 10 on each side of your top jaw. It's okay, it's normal for water to get in your mouth. They will heal.

Exercises for swelling? For health?
No exercise. Just normal walking and ambulation.

When do I go back to the ortho?
When you can open your mouth again - which will be in a few weeks.

I don't really have an appetite now cause its hard to swallow and I don't really want to get my teeth dirty. What the minimal I need to take?
I wouldn't worry about that as "we" have fat supplies to help. It is normal for jaw surgery patients to lose quite a lot of weight post-surgery. Take it as a diet.

Are there foods I should avoid?
No hard foods. Just blended ones.

Breathing is difficult but they prescribed me Illadine which says I can't use for more than 5 days in a row. I think they used it beginning from ICU which means today is Day 3. I have to stop using it soon?
It's okay, you can use it up to a week.

Talking? Should I wait till after 2 weeks?
No, you can try talking. In fact it's advised as it speeds up healing.

I've been tasting blood since yesterday morning. I think it's form my nose. Suction at the hospital yesterday morning was quite bloody. There was a blood clot that came out. Should I be concerned?
No, it's normal. Just don't blow your nose in case it starts nose bleeds.

Cold/Hot compresses? I read that hot ones hurt the nerve reconstruction? Should I interchange hot and cold?

You can move to warm compresses now. The cold compresses are to constrict the veins the first 2 days post surgery to control the swell. But after that, you need to open the veins to drain all the blood out from the swell with the warm compresses. 

Yep, that was about it.

Also, did I mention I found out today outside all these question, that they moved my upper jaw up by almost a whole half a centimeter!? Also I found out that I have 40 stitches in my mouth - 20 on the top, and 20 on the bottom! Today, I realized that I really don't know what really went on during the surgery and what moved where. Maybe I'll ask on Wednesday during my next appointment with Surgeonman.

Best part of the day:
Getting my laptop back from work and being able to blog.
Oh, and my friends sent me orchids! :)))
Worst part of the day:
Eating my crushed meds in the afternoon that still tasted like crap after I mixed it with Ribena neat. :(

I'm really dreading taking my meds again tonight. Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up. I'm going to try taking my meds with Ribena neat, then wash down with 20 mls of ice-cold ribena, 10 mls of pineapple juice, then something like 10mls Chocolate Ensure just to confuse my tastebuds or something. Swallowing crushed meds is literally depressing and nauseating.

Foods and meals I eated today.

Early morning (after waking): 20mls of water.
1210: Meds with 10ml of ribena (for swelling and antibiotic) I think some 20ml of water after.
1224: 20ml of pumpkin soup to try to kill off the taste of the meds. Didn't help too much and the pumpkin soup somehow tasted really acidic in the back of my throat.

1530: 35 mls of Welsh's Grape Juice (in combat of this swelling cause my mum says it's good for the bowels too to get rid of excess water.) and 30mls of water after to wash away all the sugar in my throat.
1430: Another 30mls of cold water. Yay.

2025 (after waking up from my nap): 30mls of water

Later tonight:
Crushed meds with 10ml Ribena neat (I'm going to take my antibiotics and painkillers just in case)
20mls of ice cold Ribena/Grape Juice
10mls of Chocolate Ensure
20mls of water

I made it to 100mls! Close to 300 even, by tonight! Yay! And I'm also noticing I can now swallow about 3-4mls at a time! :D I think I'm controlling the amount of water in my tummy cause too much really makes me a little nauseous and I'm avoiding becoming one of those pukey patients! I can't imagine being in that state.

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Post edit:
I ended up taking the meds with 10mls of Ribena and 5 mls of water.
Then it was 15 mls of ice-cold water.
And 15mls of ginger tea (cause I read later that it's the blood in the stomach that causes nausea. The ginger tea seemed to burn my throat a bit, but it completely worked! I think it was the strong ginger taste and the slight burning sensation that eradicated the taste of the meds. It wasn't expensive too!)
I was SO happy that I even got myself to drink 20mls of Chocolate Resource Plus for the Calcium!

The whole meds - water - ginger tea - chocolate resource plus combination totally took the nauseating feeling away! (I think I had one or two 15mls of water in between, but that's not the point).
I am UBER happy.

Also, I brushed my teeth tonight with a tiny toothbrush. (I'll share pics tomorrow) I only could get to the front ones and a few in the sides, but it helped with lip exfoliation too and everything turned out well! It was a great end to the day. :)))