Day 6

My face is constantly tingling. Not like come-and-go, but constantly tingling and throbbing throughout the day. It gets so intense I can barely concentrate. It's almost painful, and the only way I can cope is with my bed buddy heat pack. Has anyone else been this way? I know that the tingling means the nerves are regenerating, but I don't feel like I have read about the non-stop intenseness that I am experiencing.

Today is definitely a better day than yesterday. I had a bout of nausea this morning, but took one of my anti-nausea pills, along with a nap and felt okay after. The swelling in my face continues to go down little by little, woohoo! It's so hard to even tell because I get so distracted looking at my huge lips. My surgeon prescribed me a pill that is supposed to get rid of these sores, but the pill is HUGE. I am talking like horse pill. I have to take 2 of them at a time, and my mom had to break each pill into 4 parts for me to even be able to get it down. My neck and cheeks are nearly fully yellow, but I am all about the bruising if it means the swelling is calming down!

My appetite increased throughout the day. I wasn't able to stomach much this morning, but have since managed to venture as far as spaghettios again! I am officially down 9 pounds from my initial weight, and even managed to fit into my jeans from freshman year of college :-P

I finally took another bath today. I have been so sick for 3 days that I just wasn't able to get it done, but I am feeling much better with clean hair and new clothes on!

**This post should have been up last night, but dangit, nausea came after me again. My anti-nausea pills weren't doing anything for me. I am thankful that I never got sick, but there really is nothing worse than feeling nauseous and not being able to take pain pills. I was supposed to take them around 6, but wasn't able to until nearly 10:30. NOT fun!

I look like total shit in these pictures. I was super nauseous but I didn't want to miss another day of pictures, so I made my mom hurry up and snap them quick. I look so pathetic, but I seriously thought my life was ending at this point. Try to focus on the decrease in swelling, and not on my massive, distracting lips and bright yellow bruising!



6 comments:

  • Sarah | May 30, 2011 at 10:21 AM

    Hey Dani, I know the lips must be driving you mad and you're impatient for them to go down, but the rest of your swelling has gone down so quickly! Your bruising won't last too long, and once your lips have gone down you'll start to see your beautiful new smile!

  • carpe diem | May 30, 2011 at 1:12 PM

    You are so darling, swelling and all!! I just read your previous postings, and I feel like we had a very similar experience. The pain meds made me so sick, the nausea meds didn't work, the nausea patch dilated my eyes for 9 days. The numbness was the most awful pain, tingling, fire miserable pain. My face felt like cement. I had a really bad first 2 weeks. Once I stopped taking pain meds, and just used tylenol and ibuprofen, I turned a corner. The swelling seemed slow at first but then all of a sudden it got better fast. The pain in my face lasted for 3 1/2 weeks and then now that Im a month out, it still hurts, itches (phantom) but the intensity is not near what it was. Im even getting feeling back in the cheeks, under the eyes and lips. The chin is still tight but tingling. This is a very difficult and long recovery. All of the research that I did was great but until you are sitting in the middle of it, it can seem like too much to bear sometimes. I say that everything you are going through is NORMAL! You are doing great, your swelling WILL go down, and you are beautiful!! Hang in there sweet girl. I promise that soon you will start to feel human again. Big hugs!!

  • whitneykendra | May 30, 2011 at 4:58 PM

    Hey Dani, I hope you had a better day today!
    Your last post about being sick was EXACTLY like that night I had where I was so sick! I think it was like day 3? Somewhere around there. Anyway, I'm so sorry you had to feel that way because I know from experience how miserable you were! That is one of the hardest parts and you are probably out of the woods with nausea by now.
    I remember it was also weird brushing my teeth and not being able to see my upper teeth. Just pull your lip up and lean your head back and you can see and brush!
    Haha and I also remember chopping pills up into 4 pieces. My ibuprofen pill was so big that we had to do that, and I don't know about you, but even those quarters are hard to swallow! It was like those edges would get stuck in my throat, or feel like a razor blade going down.
    I think my face tingled pretty much constantly for a while. I think the sensations you are feeling are totally normal.
    Hope you get some sleep tonight!

  • Rhianna | May 31, 2011 at 2:25 AM

    Hey Dani,
    So sorry to hear you have had a rough couple of days! Its sounds awful what you have been experiencing and kinda scary to know that you didn't have much control over it.

    I have been really lucky with not experiencing nausea. I was sick twice in hospital from the Anaesthesia, but since then have not had any trouble with the pain meds or keeping down food.

    I can totally relate to the face tingling. Its hard to fully explain the range of pain sensations associated with the surgery hey?!!
    It constantly changes from slight tingling to extreme joint throbbing to radiating heat in cheeks, chin and lips.

    I really hope the next few days are positive ones for you Dani
    Sending you big hugs all the way from Sydney

    xoxo Thinking of you

  • Mai | May 31, 2011 at 1:20 PM

    hey; sorry to hear about all this, your strong i swear. you look amazing, i mean seriously the swellings going down alot...
    as for the nausea you should try zophran, it really helps with the nausea and preventing!! those patches dont do anything expect leave a mark on your skin -_-

    that feeling in your teeth, i had that too but it felt like trying to explain it to the docs was a problem cause its the type of pain that you have to have undergone the surgery to understand, theres only so much you can "try to imagine"
    just hang in there, im praying for you

  • Dani | May 31, 2011 at 3:45 PM

    Thank you all for your sweet comments. I appreciate all of you so much!

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