Recovery: Day 2

Before I show you pictures of myself, I must say, I feel SO good today.  I took another bath, shaved my legs and had my mom wash my hair for me.  I put some apricot scrub on a washcloth and carefully washed my face.  I brushed my teeth, put on deodorant, lotion, and clean clothes, and I just feel the best (and cleanest!) I've felt since before Thursday.  I also used some astringent on my face and put some peroxide on a Q-tip and carefully cleaned the dried blood from around my nostrils.  I have only had one pain pill today, and I no longer need gauze taped under my nose because the drainage has mostly stopped.  I had an awesome smoothie for breakfast and had a huge brunch a little later with homemade biscuits and gravy, bacon and scrambled eggs, and I ate and drank every bite.  I've been up and about all day.  My dad dropped me off at home, and I drove my own car back over to their house (I still am staying over here for the awesome recliner.  I'm afraid I'll roll off my pillows and squish my nose if I sleep in my bed.  And let's be honest, my husband's out of town and I'm getting good service over here!).

That being said...  This is what I look like today...

As you can see, my face is swollen in weird spots and looks lumpy, and the bruises around my eyes are much darker.

And here is a close up, so you can see the nice eyeliner bruising I have going on today.

My mom said the second picture looks like a photograph of a crime scene corpse.  But there's a reason my post-op instructions said to take 2 weeks off of work.  My surgery was only two days ago, so I don't expect to look beautiful just yet.  I'm just happy I feel well and am not in pain.

Here's something a little TMI, but this blog is all about nose job full disclosure...  I was warned at my pre-op appointment that the pain medication and the antibiotics will cause constipation, and I should take stool softeners to help with that.  My surgery was Thursday, and I started on the stool softeners on Wednesday- one in the morning and one at night.  Today is Saturday and I still have not had a bowel movement.  I am not uncomfortable and I don't feel constipated, but I haven't had a BM since Tuesday or Wednesday (I can't remember), and I've been on stool softeners the whole time, so I don't think that's good.  Tonight I'm eating red beans, lentils, and brown rice for dinner (i.e. fiber, fiber, and more fiber) to see if that situation resolves itself.  Otherwise, I may get off the pain medication completely and just take extra-strength Tylenol if and when I need it.

Another nuisance is the accumulation of dried blood inside my nose.  It is almost completely full of rock hard solid blood inside, and while the nurse said I can irrigate with saline drops, I am afraid to because I don't want to stick anything up there.  I know my incisions are somewhere inside my nose, but I honestly don't know where, and I don't want to get anywhere close to them. Same goes for my Q-tip with peroxide I was using earlier around the outside of my nostrils.  It just makes me nervous to put anything inside my nose right now.

But like I said, I'm still doing great and feeling great, as unattractive as I may be right now, and hopefully soon I'll look as good as I feel.  Lastly, Dr. Haas and the surgical nurse have both called to check on me, which I thought was nice, and the unveiling is scheduled!  The splint comes off at 10:30 Tuesday morning, and I can't wait to see how it looks under there!