My last 3 days have been fairly similar to each other. I have been waking up in the morning feeling really well and having some energy, and then by late afternoon my pain level seems to soar and I hit a wall. Then it seems to take until the wee hours of the next morning to get my pain level back in check. Haven't figured out how to change this pattern yet.
Thursday morning, (day 4) we woke up at about 4 am to Canyon running out of his room because he needed to throw up. He came into the living room where we were and in my Hydrocodone-induced coma, I was still able to recognize "that look" and I immediately jumped and grabbed the trash can just in time to catch it as he almost threw up on my feet. LOL.. Guess the drugs can't put my Mommy instincts to sleep.
We thought maybe it was a fluke upset tummy, because he tends to do that a lot, and we sent him to school anyway, I mean, he wasn't running a fever afterall. We received a call by 9am that he had thrown up in class. Oh no! I don't know whether to say poor Canyon or poor Mrs. Sparks. She requested that we keep him home Friday as well, just to be safe, said he was like the 5th kid that had thrown up so far that morning.
So Sharon ended up with another patient. He stayed in his room and watched movies all day to keep me from being and we seemed to do fine. As of today, knock on wood, I don't seem to have caught anything from him. By Thursday night was fine and he left Friday evening to go hang out with his Aunt and Uncle.
As far as eating goes,
I started throwing things in the blender to try to change up my diet. I still don't have much of an appetite and eating is more of a chore for me. Its not that its hard. I mean, I'm very lucky in that I can slurp from a cup and get a baby spoon in my mouth, its just that its tiring, and it takes so long and I have to eat every 4 hours in order to take my meds, and I'm not keeping my calories up and blah blah, yada yada, you know the drill.Still working on this part of the recovery process.
The bruising I have been experiencing is rather strange. The majority of it is down in my chest, as opposed to in my cheeks. It definitely shows up more when I am outside than inside. Guess the nasty yellowish-green, Shrek-like coloring prefers natural light. Anyway, I do think I have dodged the face-bruising bullet, and my chest can be covered with a shirt! So I'm not too much of a freak after all!
See Shrek Neck below!
Follow-up OS appointment with Dr. T.
Friday morning, (day 5) I had my follow up with Dr. T. It went really well, got some really cool X-rays and got some really good news and some really not-so-good news.
I asked why I didn't have incisions and stitches on my cheeks as expected, and he said, "Well that's why your lips were so split." He said he was able to get my mouth open enough to be able to do everything he needed to do from the inside. Which was awesome! He also said that the final measurement was about a full CM forward. 9-10mm! Last I heard from Dr. Simon we were looking at about 6. WOW! That's a big jump!
I still can't really tell yet what my new face is going to look like, but I'm starting to see a teeny bit. Today Sharon's mom took me in the bathroom found a mirror to help me see my profile. I could see how my chin and lined up with my face now, like it should be. It was sort of surreal. Like I am still not looking at myself in the mirror. I can't wait for the swelling to go all the way down so I can really see. This is exciting stuff!
Oh, the bad news? Splint stays for 4 more weeks! *sigh*
I'm not really complaining, I am starting to get used to it a little, it just makes it REALLY hard to speak and when I do its completely exhausting. I am more thankful each day that I have already recorded my voicemail at work that says, "Please leave me your email address and I will get back to you." LOL.. It was hard for me to get through it without giggling, but now I'm really glad I did it.
That's about the summary of my last 3 days. Not a lot new.
Swelling is going down.
Bruising is minimum.
Pain level is still high.
Weight is down 10 lbs.
Have been getting lots of flowers and cards from family and friends and the Ninja Blender is quickly becoming my new BFF!!
GO RANGERS!
Janell!!
ReplyDeleteYou look so good! Hooray for making it through the first week!! I had bruisiing like that too, I guess instead of hitting that numbing nerve he hits something that likes to bruise all the way down. Hahaha :) I hope all of you get well soon! I hate the tummy flu :( Drink lots of juice with Vitamin C!! My favorite was Apple Juice. Food: Pudding, Yogurt (go-gurt works real well its a straight shot ha), Mashed potatoes (those helped allot), smoothies with protein powder, milkshakes with protein powder, ice cream gives allot of calories if you can stand to eat it for forever; there are so many flavors trust me, flavor wise you wont get tired, sweet wise- I can't promise anything. Peanut butter, full of protein and may be a little difficult plain, but put it in the blender in a smoothie (I found to prefer nutella) but mmmm. You have to add the cold last or else it doesn't work right, go fruits(or whatever you use) and PB (or nutella) blend, then put icecream or whatever and blend again. Hope this helps!
I hope you all feel better soon!!
Niki :)
Thanks Niki!
ReplyDeleteI am definitely trying all of those things. I found that adding a spoonful of peanut butter to a mashed banana is really yummy and makes it sort of like pudding. A whopping 300 Calories and 9 grams of protein in a little bit of food.
I have also found that I am loving apple juice. Most drinks irritate my mouth for some reason, even my beloved Diet Coke. Ive tried V8 splash and grape juice, and end up coming back to apple.
Also enjoying those little squeeze pouches of apple sauce. Not many calories, but is good for a quick something to put on my tummy when I need to take my pain meds.
I am SO thankful that I can take pills instead of having to do liquids.
Don't worry about not blogging so much. You have so much going on with school and such and that is definitely a priority. Your blog has been very helpful!
Keep getting better and thank you for your support!