Day 3: Saturday: Order of Congestion with Jaw Spams

So I forgot to mention this before, but one of the more annoying things besides the congestion is the jaw spams.  They hurt!  They also seem to come in waves.  I also started getting a little feeling in my face, more of a kinda tingling feeling.  I hope that means good news. 

So overnight, I slept in a chair next to my parents' room in case I needed their help in the night.  I am very dependent on them.  Part of it is that I am still a little weak (you wouldn't believe how much energy it takes to syringe your food so that you have enough to drink.  Trust me it's a lot.) and the other is that I was still using their bathroom to eat and take medication.  I was still dependent on the crutch of using a mirror to eat. 

My sleep overnight wasn't too bad.  I certainly slept better than the night before, but still not the greatest.  I would wake up and have trouble breathing.  I would have to drink some water, move around a little, and moisten my nasal cavities with saline spray.  This is when I discovered my second obstruction at 3 am.  It was again about the same size as the other.  The problem was all of the breathing I was doing through my nose at night had hardened it because I slept solid from about 11 to about 3.  So I had to gently keep moistening it, meanwhile breathing through my mouth because my nose couldn't provide enough air.  It was very scary.  I finally got it loose, and I can't tell you the relief I felt.  I was then able to blissfully go back to sleep, only waking occasionally when I had to go to the bathroom or drink some water.

My first meal today was, drumroll please, thinned ensure.  I was finding the regular ensure was still a little on the thick side, so I would thin it out with water.  After taking all of my medicine and putting lotion on my face and ointment on my lips and rinsing, a good portion of the morning was gone.  I tried doing some of the blog posts from earlier getting them up.  I had them written just not in the blog.  I didn't want them going up out of order so I wrote them in a text app on my phone and will commit them when I get time. 

This morning, I went outside to have some peace outside taking in the morning sun before it got too hot and humid.  It was pretty nice.  You can see in the picture that the dogs can tell that I am sick and are trying to comfort me and treat me kindly. 

I'm not really sure if I was comforting him or he was comforting me.  It is hard to tell.  One neat thing, you can't see it here but right in front of the chair is a hummingbird feeder.  There are a ton of hummingbirds that show up.  If another is there, you will sometimes even see them chase each other off.  I'm less happy about that part, but as soon as the greedy hummingbird leaves, the others come back.  You can see in the photo,  I still have my chin strap on.  I think that is keeping most of the swelling down.  My face is the biggest it has been but it still doesn't look as big as I was expecting.  That is definitely a good thing.  I then walked around a bit, getting some exercise. 

After third meal, my Mom took me on a drive.  It was really nice.  It was a pretty day and the drive was smooth.  On my drive home from the hospital we didn't think about it but we ended up using an older vehicle of my parents' that has a less smooth ride.  Today we used the newer vehicle and I could tell a difference.  Again drool and congestion were still an issue while I was driving.  In addition, I was having problems where my eyes kept tearing.  I don't know whether the light was too bright or what, but I kept having to gently dab my eyes to get rid of the tears.  After the drive, I can safely say that my bowels finally started working.  I can't tell you how worried I was about that.  I know it sounds gross, but constipation is no joke.  The last thing I want when I am already in pain is constipation which is what I was worried would happen. 

I also took my first shower today.  I can't tell you how good that felt.  It was so refreshing.  I had to be really careful not to get too high, but my parents hooked up a detachable shower head that they had so I could wash safely.  Apparently, showers are allowed, but not baths because of vasodilation where there is a risk after surgery that you could pass out when you stand up I guess.  Before this I had been using bath wipes which is better than nothing but doesn't really have the same feel as taking a shower.  I always still felt a little dirty. 

One nice thing is that I watched a movie before going to bed.  I was worried that it would be a little too much.  Earlier in the day, there was a movie that was really weird called Santa Jaws.  I don't even think you could call it a B level movie.  It was really, really bad.  The shark had a candy cane horn it would impale people with and a santa hat on his dorsal fin.  There were also Christmas lights wrapped around its body.  Like I said, it was weird.  I thought that it was just me and that maybe I was still under the influence of something because the whole thing didn't make sense.  Trying to follow it was making my head hurt.  I ended up turning it off.  When I turned to my Mom, who had watched a minute or two of it before I turned it off, commented how weird it was as well.  So it was a relief to know that it wasn't just me.  Anyways, back to the night movie.  It was really good.  About every hour or so I would have to pause it so that I could drink or go to the bathroom or clear mucus (I know that is gross, but that is a big problem for me.)  I really liked the movie that my brother got for me.  Here is another before bed photo set.

I don't know if you can tell, but the swelling is not even on the two sides.  The right side of my face is noticeably bigger than the other.  The only thing that I can think is that the second year resident told me that when she was doing the back suture, she accidentally popped off my crown on my back molar.  She gave me the crown, because she wasn't sure if they could reattach it.