Day 2 through Day 5

Day 2

Feeling ok.  Not happy but torrerable.

My awesome hubby had my father in law bring my kids to see me after school.  They couldn't come in the hosptial but I was happy to see them out my window.  They are saying love me "this much"

Signing "I love you"


Only part not swollen.  :(

Bruises are starting to show up.  Look at that lip.  Wow!

Day 3

First attempt at a smile.  Not too bad for 3 days after my face was taken apart.  It hurt to do this but you can't tell from the pic.

My awesome ice packs.  They were on my face the first 4 days, except to take a pic.  My face was mostly numb so it didn't feel cold.  It froze my ears most of the time so I had to put towels between the ice. 

Finally free of my bandages on my face.  Now to take a cold shower at the hospital.  Why do they insist on taking out hot water away??  I remember having luke warm showers when I had my babies and it is more annoying this time.  It was worst because when I would get cold I would tense up, including my face. 

Sooo not cool. 

These days were so tiring and I was not a happy person.  I read that Day 3 through 5 is the worst of the swelling and I just telling myself that I was almost done with the worst just to try to psych myself up to get through it.  They were right.  They were the worst.  I was so swollen and black and blue and miserable.  My mouth was constantly streaming drool.  It was so dry on the roof of my mouth and my throat was sooooo sore and swollen.  I couldn't feel my chin or lip at all and I had some numbness in the my upper lip and cheeks.  When I was resting I could feel 100 needles quickly zap my lip and then go away.  That is the nerves trying to come back.  It would actually wake me up if I was sleeping.  I had no desire to eat.  I barely ate 2 little cups of sherbet and that was so much effort.  The good news is that I wasn't hungry so it was easy not to eat.   My Dr wanted me to take my antibiotics and pain pills in pill form which was a total sick joke.  I practically threw up each time I did it.  In fact, to take my pills, which were HUGE, I had to cram it in the back of my throat and have my husband push short but quick bursts of juice through the suringe to get it down.  Sometimes it would sick in the back of my throat and I would freak out and clap for him to hurry.  Saying it was stressful is an understatement.  My whole body would get all tense and my jaw would kill each time I did this from stressing out.   Fun. 

I wasn't sure if I wanted to be home but Dr said I was ready so I guess I had to be.  I didn't think I wanted my kids home when I got home because I thought it would be too hard with them in the house.  I asked my mom if she could keep them for the night so I could relax and Andy could just take care of me and not me and all the kids.  I was so relieved when she said they could sleepover and I spent the day just doing nothing but attempting to "eat" and drink.  I was not thrilled when I got a text from my mom at 2am saying that my 8 year old just threw up.  Really?!  That is not cool.  Then she text me at 7am saying that my 2 year old just threw up too.  OMG!  I CAN NOT get sick!  I called her and asked if they could stay another night because they couldn't come home.  I couldn't get exposed to anything right now.  I felt sick at the thought of me even possibly throwing up while like this.  She said the kids wanted Andy and I.  I feel sad saying that I had to be selfish and say that they needed to stay away. 

no iv with antibiotics or pain meds.  not a happy person.  i want to go back to the hospital.

finally had a hot bath, got my pills down with great difficulty and feeling a little better.  Like my towel to catch my drool?  lol.

Day 4

So the kids got sick late on day 3/early on day 4.  My mom called me later that afternoon to say that Kira only threw up one more time and Reed, the 2 year old, threw up two more times.  I asked her to let the kids spend one more night.  Talk about major stress.  Recoverying from jaw surgery was already too much and sick kids made it a nightmare. 

My pretty flowers that were sent to me in the hospital.  Loved getting them.  I was surprised that even my surgeon sent me a big arrangement.  The tall one in the back is from him.  :)

Look at my fun bruise showing up and my stitch.

He didn't even make the stitches even.  Hope they don't scar.  I will have lopsided scars.

Day 5

Today I was my first post op appointment with my surgeon.  I was sooo nervous.  I had no idea if he was going to do anything to make my face hurt.  He ended up putting 2 rubberbands in to help take the pressure from my face hanging open.  It felt so good to have that help from the rubberbands.  He said he is going to leave them in for a week.  He also took an xray of my jaw and said everything looked perfect.  Yay! 

Here is the fun going on in my mouth. There are 3 screws on each side of my bottom jaw. You can see the cuts they made at my last bottom molars. I have 2 L shaped plates near my nose that each have 4 screws and 2 small plates above my outer top molars. The nice line across the top is where he cut my upper jaw and the hole above it is my nose.  All the squiggly lines is from awesome metal wires he used like thread to get my jaws into place during the surgery. Those get to come out in 6-8 weeks with a local. There's more that he did but you can't see it in the xrays. Awesome!  This surgery is pretty intense.  My Dr also raised my upper jaw up by 5mm and tilted it. So my face is now 5mm shorter than it used to be.  He also cut the roof of my mouth and widened it.  He has a splint there to keep it in place until the missing bone grows back.  I am surprised that I can feel the roof of my mouth with my tougue.  I expected it to be numb.  Andy looked in there with a light and he said it looks crazy.  I didn't ask for any other description.  His expression was enough. My surgeon said my ortho will put some bar holding my upper jaw in that position for like a year so it doesn't regress.  I think people with this surgery should be fed via iv until the bone heals. jk, but really this surgery ias insane. 

Look how awesome I look at 230am.  Finally felt a little normal so I asked my hubby to take me for a walk outside.  Barely walked 1/4 of our little block and I was too tired.  I am loving my hair in this pic.  Ugh.  How horrible that this picture exists.  lol

This is my yummy food.  Melted sherbert ice cream and blended up Progresso soup.  This soup was insanely good.  Andy says we need to blend it up like this and use it as gravy.  lol