Day 9: Recovery

I can't believe it's only been nine days. It feels like a lot longer then that! I have to keep reminding myself to be careful with my face.

So yesterday I was having a little difficulty lowering my dose of pain meds. Well, I took the last pill of the day around 9pm. I realized that I usually go about ten hours without taking one, as I didn't wake up to take them overnight, so I decided to see what would happen if I just didn't take anything after I woke up. Noon rolled around, felt fine. The day went on and it seemed my plan had worked, no anxiety, no issues. I did have some anxiety that kept waking me up last night, about three hours after my last dose. That was pretty consistent with the problem I was having earlier in the day, so I just pushed through it. That makes today my first official day with no pain meds! I finished the antibiotics I was on yesterday as well, so I don't have to take eight pills a day anymore. That's nice!

The thing that is starting to get slightly irritating is the persistent congestion. It seems like when on the pain meds, or maybe even the antibiotics, they dry you out. I didn't have nearly as much congestion when I was taking them. Now, I have boogers. All the time. The saline rinsing helps, washing out any clots and getting a lot of the ick out of there, but then it just comes back. I'm curious how long that will last. I have resorted to using Q-Tips to gently nab the gooey strands that I can see just inside my nostrils, careful to not go any deeper. That seems to work well, although I'm not sure if my Doctor would approve.

I took the dogs out for a very very short walk today, and once again I was amazed at how the lowest level of activity can be somewhat exhausting when you haven't moved a lot for over a week. It was easier then when I tried a couple days ago though, so there is progress.

Tomorrow I am going to try going back to work. I figure if I start feeling bad I'll just go home early. I sit at a desk most of the day, and the most movement I HAVE to do is getting up and going to conference rooms for meetings. If I keep it that simple, I don't think there will be a problem. There are two things I am not looking forward to: Not having my ice pack (Although, now that I think about it I could just take one to work), and not being able to do a sinus rinse mid-day. I suppose I could, but there is almost always that little well that captures some amount of the rinse, inevitably spilling out later at the worst moment. I'd hate for that to happen at work, the risk outweighs the benefit this time. I will be so glad to get out of the house!

My next follow up appointment is on Tuesday, I am looking forward to hearing what the doctor has to say. He was on vacation when I got my splints removed, so this will be the first time I see him post-op.

Well off to bed, here's hoping tomorrow goes well!