I went in to hospital on Tuesday morning (6th May) at 7am for my surgery. I met with my anaesthesiologist and my surgeon/registrar. Everything was fairly lovely and I was just asked a lot of the same medical questions before walking to theatre at about 8:30am. I don't remember much of being put under, until I woke up at 2pm. The surgery had gone really well, I woke up without any elastics or splint and feeling pretty positive. I had my parents, my boyfriend and his friend visit me that afternoon; and my doctors seem to think I have been recovering amazingly well. As per the normal routine, I had to stay overnight. I had two drains/tubes on either side of my neck to drain the blood from my mouth. These were fine, except being a bit of a pain when it came to going to the loo. Which news flash, I didn't realise how much I'd need to go that first night with the amount of IV fluids they pump into you. The first night I would say is the worst in terms of nausea. This surgery is quite invasive and as a consequence you swallow quite a lot of blood, which naturally the body wants out of your system. I had to call nurses to throw up 7 times that first night, and got very little sleep. The second morning my surgeon and the maxillofacial team came round to see how I was doing and decided I had to stay another night :-( At this point I was very upset because I just wanted to go home/a change of scenery. I was on 2 paracetamol, an anti inflammatory, antibiotics, and occasionally anti-sickness tablets/oral morphine when paracetamol didn't cut it. When I finally got to go home Thursday morning I was very relieved. I still felt a lot of pain, my drains had been taken out which was a bit uncomfortable and my swelling had pretty much peaked. The good news is that during surgery, my nerves in my lower jaw were completely hidden and so I have all the feeling in my lower lip/chin! Which usually isn't the case! However I have little feeling/sensation especially in the right side of my face. Since coming home I have been very sore, I have mainly been using ice packs to numb my pain and the meds they gave me. Although I ate quite a lot the first few days in hospital, my appetite has pretty much diminished now. This only concerns me because I don't want to lose weight, and it may upset my tummy. Yesterday I didn't want breakfast in the hospital, at home I had a small bowl of baked beans, some jelly/icecream at lunch, and a small bowl of mushroom risotto at dinner. When I say small portions, I mean SMALL. I've been using a tea spoon to eat and cups that toddlers tend to use. I don't have much suction yet, but my doctors are impressed I've already been managing a soft diet. Also, frozen smoothie pops are AMAZING. I'm hoping I get an appetite again later because currently my stomach is quite sore.
Pain: 7/10
Discomfort: 8/10
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