Day 6

So, I haven't updated again since I was in the hospital because I've been feeling pretty unbelievably awful. I don't even remember posting my day 0 & 1 post in the hospital. I've been pretty loopy and sleeping alot until yesterday when things finally started to turn around. I haven't really had any pain, and the liquid medicine that the hospital sent me home with made me crazy nauseous. So, I stopped taking it after I had been home about a day. Since then I've learned how to take pills and switched to regular ibuprofen as needed. My biggest issue has definitely been nausea, and I'm not really sure what is causing it. I think it has something to do with not being able to eat much at all. My stomach is now reacting badly to food in general. I'm trying to eat more everyday, but it takes a ridiculous amount of time to get anything down. The good news on the food front though is that I'm not having to use syringes. After using them in the hospital and the first day home I was already sick of them. I mean to the point that they made me gag. So, I decided to attempt drinking from a cup, and after a few tries it became pretty easy. After that, I tried using a baby spoon and it was a success :) So I think I'm ahead of the curve in that area. Of course, I'm pretty lucky because I only have 2 bands in my mouth.

Numbness hasn't gotten a lot better yet. I'm still pretty numb in my chin, right under my eyes, and my nose (I wan't actually expecting to be numb there, but it's almost completely numb), but I've gotten almost all the feeling back in my cheeks. So I think there has still be progress. My biggest annoyance through at this point is my splint. I feel like if it wasn't in then I would feel pretty much normal. I feel like I have one of those football player mouth-guards in my mouth all the time, so you can imagine that my speech is pretty comical. Although, I've been able to communicate well enough with everyone without needing a whiteboard or anything like I've read a lot of people have. I just feel silly with it in. I can't get my lips to touch ( but that is also because of the swelling). It's also my biggest opponent when eating, because it covers the bottoms and back of all of my front teeth so I can't feel much. I think with practice though it will get easier.

Overall, I think I've gotten off pretty lucky. The swelling has been pretty awful (I swear I look like Frankenstein :P) but I can tell that it is starting to slowly come down. I haven't had hardly any pain. My range of motion in my mouth is pretty good. When I take my rubber bands off (which I only get to do occasionally, they're supposed to be in 24/7)  I can open plenty wide enough for a fork or regular spoon. I can almost brush normally now, and my numbness hasn't been as bad as many other people's has been. So, despite my current annoyance with the splint and the weakness I feel pretty lucky with the overall ease of my recovery so far. This is day 6 so tomorrow will be one week, and from what I've read that is supposed to be the hardest. Now that it is basically over I look forward to nothing but improvement from here. I'm not going to to lie..the first week is pretty beyond awful. There were a couple of days that I thought I was going to die, but now that I've survived that part I feel like I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I'm getting more excited to see myself sans-swelling, and my new bite. I'm not yet at the point where I'm happy I did this. The next 4 weeks are really going to test my patience, but it is nice to know that I've gotten through the worst of it.

Here are my day 6 pictures. Sorry I look so awful in all of these. It has taken all of my energy just to shower before these pictures. I just want to update everyone on my swelling.