Week 2

DAY 8:

Day 8 I had my first check up with my orthodontist (as I stated in the previous post). I am not going to lie this day was really hard and was actually quite painful. I decided to try and lay down but not completely just lowering down more than I have been the previous week. I found that as the day went on I got some headaches so I sat up a little more. I also laid off the codine for the day (except for the morning - 15ml) I felt that the pain also came from that also.

Because I did not have any elastics on, I found it a lot easier to talk but I also avoided talking loads because it was very tiring after a while. I also brushed my teeth for the first time - something I was looking forward too...until I did it ha! I have to admit it was the weirdest experience of my life because I had to use a baby toothbrush and there were parts of my mouth which were more numb then others. Also I could not tell whether I was brushing my teeth or my gums, I couldn't fully open my mouth so I had to be really gentle whilst brushing my teeth. Afterwards, my teeth were almost like throbbing? It was a weird experience not going to lie.

I ate a pot noodle for dinner, so weird... I didn't chew them. I just drank the noodles out the cup. I have missed pot noodles not going to lie but I have hardly any taste in my mouth so it wasn't the same :(.

I have been doing this thing when I use ice packs and hot packs (my hot pack smells of lavender haha) and been doing heat and cold on my face to try and encourage some circulation in my blood in my face to decrease the tightness of my skin on my face and to encourage the swelling to go down also. I started doing this is the first week and tend to do it in the late hours of the evening, usually before I go bed or whilst I am watching the tv. I tend the find the next morning that it actually helps as the swelling tends to go down.

DAY 9:

I woke up a few times in the night coming into the morning of day 9. I woke up sometime in the morning and found I was really sore, I managed to fall back asleep and I woke up again about half 9 and took paracetamol, ibuprofen, vitamin C and had some milk too. I felt a lot better once the medication had kicked in. I looked in the mirror and realized that so much of this swelling had gone down and I was starting to look like myself again. I had a big bruise on my neck which has been there a while but that was specifically hurting for some reason but that pain eased as the day went on.

I tend to stay in bed the majority of the day, but now I am starting to plan to go on walks very soon, obviously not in very busy places just yet but emptier places to get some fresh air. I saw on a recovery tip list that it mentioned to go on walks as it can encourage the swelling to go down and help get yourself back on track.

I am really starting to miss solid foods! I got a few presents after my surgery and got given a terry chocolate orange and chocolate magic stars from my mum - sad life. I tried eating a magic star, I didn't bother attempting to chew it, I just pushed the magic star to the roof of my mouth and I could only slightly taste the chocolate, I had three altogether and did not bother having anymore because it just was not the same :( and the top of my mouth was so numb that I couldn't even feel the chocolate star in my mouth, how depressing. It seems that since I got my surgery EVERYONE is posting their food on snapchats and instagram, coincidence or?

I found day 9 a big struggle because of my swollen lips, particularly my top lip it's been so painful. I felt so annoyed because I really wanted solid food and I can't have it :(. My back of my lips (inside my mouth) have been so painful because my lips are sticking to my brace which have hurt my stitches and my mouth is constantly hurting and aching. It also feels like my braces have been tightened on top of that as well so that doesn't help! Let's hope day 10 is better.

DAY 10:

So during the night I woke up once about 4:20 am, luckily I had my paracetamol upstairs that I would have taken at 2:30 am so I took that and this helped some of the pain ease so that I could fall back asleep. The next morning I woke at about 8:30 am and took my meds. I was really tired on day 10 as I had woken up a lot earlier than I had wanted too so I was quite sleepy. My swelling on my lip had gone down slightly so that also eased the pain.

My mum has been worried about me not feeling 'full', so she went to asda to try and find some other foods I could attempt to eat. She bought me this pasta that you just add boiling water too and the pasta is really tired so it was actually possible for me to eat which tasted really nice. She also was recommended to buy this product from asda called 'meal replacement' it's like a strawberry smoothie and it acts like you have just ate a meal to fill me up. It smelt a little like these cakes I used to make when I was younger called 'Tom and Jerry' cupcakes, ha memories they tasted good. I had a nap for about an hour and when I woke up I still felt really tired and felt extremely hot and quite sick so I decided to sit outside for a bit and that fresh air helped me a little as I am always sitting in the house.

I went to sleep about 1 am latest I think as I needed to sort everything ready for bed and take my medication for midnight and sort out the next dosage. I also did hot and cold packs on my face again late at night to help the circulation of the blood go around in my face to encourage the swelling to go down.

DAY 11:

Slowly but surely coming up to the second week mark! I know it's not loads and I have a long way to go but it's so weird that it will be two weeks? The days go so slow and then you realize it hasn't even been two weeks yet and the recovery roughly takes up to three months! Plenty more weeks to go, I can promise myself that.

Anyway, day 11 has probably been the best day so far. I slept till 6:30 am without waking up, which is the longest I have slept for in the night so I took 10 ml of paracetamol. Then I fell back asleep till 10 am and could have slept longer but my neighbors thought they would mow their lawn - haha irritating! So I did feel quite sleepy for about an hour. As usual, I took my medication, vitamin C, drank some milk, ate some soup, had some yogurt and mouthwash (average morning for me). On day 11, I actually left the house. My sister took me to a close by field which people go to for walks/picnics and so on. I was out for about an hour and the walk felt really good. I had got some fresh air so this helped me. I did feel tired once I got home though as it had been the longest I have been out the house and the longest I have walked, but I weren't as exhausted as I thought I would be.

Swelling on my lip and face has also gone down today, I cannot wait till all of the swelling inside my mouth has gone and when my lips fully go back down and when my top lip is no longer numb. When this day comes I will be so happy. I still go to bed with an ice pack around my face because it is still quite comforting and helps numb out some of the pain.

DAY 12:

Again, during the night I woke up around 5:30 am just the once and took the rest of my paracetamol (10 ml). Also I took off my ice pack that I had around my face as it had melted and wasn't needed anymore then I fell back to sleep till about 10 am. Sleep is getting a lot more easier now as the pain is easing off now. I read a recovery timeline on double jaw surgery to get a rough idea on the recovery process and it said at the two week mark that sleeping should no longer be such an issue, so I am quite lucky to start getting this a few days before the two week mark, I used to wake up about four times maybe five in the night when I had not long had the surgery and it was so bad.

So day 12 was okay, I went to ikea with my mum and that was nice because it got me out the house again. I was out for about three hours maximum and I didn't feel so tired afterwards like I did the day before after my walk. I had a friend and her mum visit me and the last time they both saw me was only a few days after the surgery and they both noticed how much the swelling had gone down and how much brighter I seemed as I was moving about more and wasn't sat down all day.

I had two 10 ml doses of ibuprofen on day 12 and after those two I stopped taking it as the pain is not as bad now so I am just on paracetamol now. I didn't take the medication quite as often on day 12 which was because I didn't feel so much pain like I used to before. Once I got home I felt a lot more relaxed, my mum tried getting me to have mash potatoes with gravy and I started off okay but then found it was hurting me too much as it required me to open my mouth a lot more than I have been and wanted to be. So I stopped eating it and just had one of the mug pasta foods again. I also can easily drink through a straw now which is lucky! It is still slightly uncomfortable but I find it a lot easier than I did when it was the first few days. I have only tried the plastic straws that you get with sippy cups and only use it when I need to drink my meal replacement because it is a much thicker drink.

I didn't feel as tired during the day which was refreshing, I did feel slightly sleepy when I first got home from being out but it wasn't like how it has been in the past few days. I am looking forward to when it has been the second week mark, so far the second week has been a lot more better and prefer it way more than the first week - so glad that first week is out the way I can promise you that. Now let's just see how day 13 goes!

DAY 13:

Ahh day 13 was just not a great day. I woke up around 9:30 am and was still knackered and then I had to table soluble paracetamol (which tastes nasty), then I tried to bathe myself for the first time alone - as I usually needed help with my hair, it hurt to hold my head back because of the swelling. So I had a bath and then got rid of the bath water and had a shower (it was my first time standing up in the shower since before the surgery), so I was fine until it got to the last part when I just needed to rinse out my conditioner and I started to feel very weak and tired. I wanted to just sit down so I went I was done I just went to my bed and chilled for about half an hour. My mum came home and then I had some paracetamol and I felt so sleepy, I tried to eat and just felt so heavy and weak. I sat outside for a while to get some fresh air but this didn't do much. This day was not the best day but it wasn't the worse either, I found that the paracetamol was not helping so I asked mum if I could have ibuprofen, ha I lasted a day. I really hate the stuff but I have to admit I felt a lot better afterwards.

Day 13 felt like the longest day, it just dragged and I did nothing. I was so bored but couldn't do anything because I felt dizzy and weak the minute I sat up. It is quite comfortable to go sleep with an ice pack and if you wake up in the night, take it off and you shouldn't feel like you want a new one, - well at least I feel like that anyways, everybody's recovery is different. So only one day left until I can say it has been two weeks, I got asked recently if I could say 'would I do it all over again?' and I said 'No because the draining of recovery'. Maybe when the three months are up at least I may feel differently...hmm we'll see. I didn't do my hot and cold packs this night and I didn't go to bed with an ice pack and thought I would most likely regret this.

DAY 14:

It is the two week mark! but the sleep from the night before coming onto day 14 was horrible and I woke up four times but from 5:30 am on wards. I woke up and managed to get back to sleep even though I was in a lot of pain. I then woke up at 7:30 am and needed to get back to sleep and once again I managed to fall asleep. Then I woke up at 8:30 am and I realized that this time I would not go to sleep till I had some medicine and ice packs. So I got it all sorted out and also realized when I went back to bed that my head was not comfortable because I was aching from my head down to the middle of my back. So I took off my V pillow and the folded blanket and used my actual pillow as I was using these new soft ones on their own. So I put a soft one and then my actual pillow on top and when I laid down I was a lot more comfortable. Luckily I fell asleep and woke up at 10:15 am so I was happy I managed to get some more sleep. I then laid in bed for ages (I can be so lazy), and I got up to have a bath without wetting my hair. Then I went out the house for a bit to go to a drive to Asda, nothing special just so I could get some fresh air, but I stayed in the car I didn't want to get to get out.

I felt okay once the morning was out the way, in the afternoon the inside of my mouth was quite sore and the reason why I went asda was to get some more paracetamol and ibuprofen. For lunch I had a really nice roast chicken flavored pasta and was so nice, it's another one of the mug pasta foods so it was small and easier to eat. I have been told I seem more brighter and happier although it still hurts to smile! And I'm hoping the sleep is a lot better coming on too day 15.