So, here I am, 4 days post op! I'm doing really well! The first day was the worst pain-wise, which was surprising as I had heard days 1-3 were not that bad and day 4 was the worst. But since when do I follow norms? Haha! Day 2 was a little better than day 1, in that the jaw pain was mostly gone. That was the worst part of the pain, so this provided a lot of relief. I couldn't look up or raise my eyebrows without pain, so that was a lesson to be learned. Moving my facial muscles was tricky, as was moving my head. So I mostly didn't talk or turn my head. My pain was mostly in my inner ear, at the jaw joint, and a bit behind the ear at the incision. My neck was very sore for a combination of reasons, one being having to sleep with my neck to the left. A hot back soothed this. The tinnitus was very loud and high-pitched, the train had disappeared. I spent the day watching Switched at Birth. I got the season 1 DVD for Christmas and was saving it for CI recovery. My stomach was fine for eating, but opening my mouth and chewing still proved to be difficult. My dinner consisted of french fries and a chocolate shake (yeah, I'm spoiled). I slept like a rock, as I had the night before. Mom woke me up for my pain meds and I would go right back to sleep. Day 3 I had a lot of itching that I couldn't reach due to the bandage. The jaw pain was gone, so the pain was localized in my inner ear and behind the ear. I remember being asked by Mom what my pain number was, and telling her it was a 4. I discovered I needed to clean my aquariums. The lack of daily maintenance had left them in need of attention. I sent 3 hours doing that. I took it very slow, and Mom figured out a way to roll the water buckets out since I'm not allowed to lift more than 10lbs right now, and Mom isn't allowed to lift that much either. Discovered one of my baby frogs had an injured foot and got him set up in his own little container. Then I finished season 1 of Switched at Birth. I ate a variety of food, including multiple yogurt popsicles. That evening, we decided to break the rules by about 12 hours and go ahead and remove the bandage. It had been getting increasingly loose as the day went on, we assume because of the swelling going down. We tried tightening it but that just caused a headache. The bottom of my ear was exposed so we took it off. I was happy to discover that my incision was in the crease of my ear, so my scar will be well hidden (not that I was overly concerned about it) and they barely shaved any hair. The incision was not as bad as I thought it would be having looked at pictures online. I was surprised to see that my ear was definitely lower than the left. My reaction was to walk into the living area and exclaim "They put my ear back on crooked!" to which my Dad asked if they really took my ear off. I started to explain to him but my Mom stopped me, Dad doesn't like gross stuff. But anyway, they did half remove my ear. It was detached from the bottom of the top arch, to the top of the bottom arch. It was then folded over onto my face while they did the surgery. So, when they put it back, they definitely failed to do a symmetry assessment, lol! The lobe on that side is a lot looser, so it seems they didn't pull it high enough before sewing it. Oh well, I guess I'll just ask them to do the same when they implant the other ear, then they'll be even, lol! Anyway, we cleaned the incision per instructions that night (cotton swabs and peroxide). Very weird feeling as the top half of my ear was numb. Covered it in Neosporin and called it a night. I was afraid I would try and roll over in my sleep, but I slept like a rock and didn't move all night. Mom didn't wake me up for my meds the next morning to see how long I could go. I was fine at first but once I was up I got nauseous and my pain went from a 4 to a 6. So we decided to not try that again anytime soon. Day 4 was pretty good. Once the pain went back down to a 4 it was consistent all day. Sometimes it felt more like a headache or migraine than surgical pain. I ate pretty good and even got 2 homework assignments done. Took another bath and relaxed. I stayed up watching a movie, and toward the end of the movie discovered my hair was filled with ash-like dry blood. It was disgusting. I couldn't go to sleep knowing that, so I broke another rule and washed my hair (wasn't supposed to until day 5). I washed and combed it 4 times before I stopped seeing blood. It felt so good. My whole head felt like a weight was lifted from it. It was a huge step up in recovery I feel. It made me feel normal and on the mend. I was comfortable moving my head around, moving my facial muscles, etc. I was no longer stiff. I went to bed feeling pretty good, and woke up still feeling good. I would rate my pain at a 2, sometimes 3. My incision itches like mad. My pain is more like a headache/migraine than surgical pain, and is located at the incision. I'm gaining a little bit of feeling back in my ear, so that's cool. The tinnitus has calmed down and the train has returned. Planning on returning to school tomorrow, with my Mom driving me. Excited to get out of the house!
WARNING: Don't scroll any further if you don't do well with gross stuff!!!
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| Incision on Day 3 |
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| Incision Day 5 |
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| 6 paperclips :P |
