Once More with Feeling

Yippee! I have control of my mouth back.

Found it very hard to actually get to sleep last night.  Couldn’t find right position (sleeping pretty much upright just wasn’t natural), was frustrated still couldn’t feel bottom lip and saliva seemed to be working overtime – or was it?  Don’t think my efforts were helped by the snoozes I’d had earlier in the day thanks to the anaesthetic, which meant I was more sore than tired.  My two minders – Mindy & Dexter (the cats) took up post on either side of me for the whole night.  They would normally come and go, but as far as I’m aware (being quite a light sleeper) they stood guard all night.

Speaking of the little darlings, I’ve found their company to be quite therapeutic throughout this thing to date.  Can’t really find the right words to explain that statement, but think it has something to do with the feeling that they know when something isn’t right and just come and cuddle up.  All they want in return is to be fed on time.

When I woke up at around 5:30, I had feeling back, but mouth and lips were really dry – what happened to that saliva?  Downside was the throbbing that replaced the lack of feeling.  Tried to get back to sleep, but dozed until I decided might as well lie in bed and catch up on TV that I’d been “saving” over the last couple of weeks for these sorts of moments.

I’m quite surprised at how tolerable the pain has been all day though.  Popped my antibiotic when I got up, but didn’t take any painkillers.  Mr Patel rang to check up on me (nice touch) and once we’d discussed how I was feeling, told me to start popping Nurofen for the inflammation (his prescriptions were originally for Voltaren, but that screws with my stomach) – yep, the swelling is a doozy today.  He also said that they really pump in the drugs the day of the op so that by the time they wear off, the after-pain has started to subside a bit anyway.  Good strategy and it seems to have worked.  Still haven’t felt the need to pop the pain pills.  Seems tomorrow will be the worst day for the swelling.  Really?  I feel like my face is slab-sided today i.e. no curve at the bottom for the jaw.  Would hope it doesn’t get any worse.

Have had some scrambled eggs for sustenance today and according to Mr Patel’s cheat sheet, I should be able to return to a more normal diet tomorrow.  As I’m finding it hard to remember to take pills I’m meant to take at mealtimes that I’m not actually having, this should help in a number of ways.

Some interesting factlets from the cheat sheet:

“Avoid sucking at the wound or interfering with it in any way”.  I have no desire to suck at it, but it is interfering with me – every so often my tongue hits what must be stitches that weren’t cut short enough.

“After all meals use a toothbrush and toothpaste and clean towards the back of the mouth as thoroughly as possible”.  So, in light of previous instruction, clean back until the toothbrush falls of your jaw which is where the wounds are.  Firstly, after every meal is a hassle, but I'll play the game.  Secondly, getting sufficient movement in the jaw to get the toothbrush in today is not exactly a pain-free pleasant activity.  And for some reason, the rest of the teeth are rather sensitive at the moment too.

Not only do I have to clean my teeth a minimum of three times daily (once I can actually eat that often), but after each meal I also need to rinse with Savacol mouthwash and for good measure do it one more time just before bed.  This routine is to last a week.  Great, more stuff to cart around with me.  By the way, the Savacol isn’t actually too bad a drop once you get used to it.

One thing off the agenda for a few days is shaving – not even going to try and put a razor next to a very sensitive jaw.