Day Six
Surgery was on Friday the 29th at 10:05am and I home by about 2:30pm. From that time through Sunday morning, my mom was visiting from CT to help with recovery, for which she was extremely helpful in making life as bearable as possible for me in that time. She even left me with some leftover homemade chicken soup that lasted another three meals into Sunday and Monday, which is also appreciated.
On Saturday, Karen and Andrew made the afternoon trip from Glenside to visit. I was still feeling pretty solid on Saturday, despite facial bandaging and it having been about 24 hours since surgery, so we got take-out Buddy's burgers for lunch and they were phenomenal. They also got The Hangover for me as a recovery gift, which was super awesome, but laughter was extremely precarious territory at the time so we didn't watch it on the spot for fear of my nose literally exploding. It's morbidly hilarious to think about one's nose bursting into a- never mind that's horrifying even in retrospect. I should be able to watch the movie soon, I hope, as my face is slowly getting back to its full capacity for expression and motion without pain.
I did, however, have to eat pizza with a fork and knife just now. I can't open my mouth very wide or in certain ways that I can't quite describe without excruciating pain at the bottom of my nose, probably due to the splints that are coming out tomorrow morning, so cutting my food into bite sizes that you'd feed to a toddler helps. I also end up with a decent portion of my meal on my face, so a healthy supply of napkins has also been helpful.
I've been trying to go without bandages more and more and it wasn't until a few minutes ago that I put my first on today out of sheer frustration at dabbing an oozing nose with tissues that I've been forced to keep within arm's reach. There's something about a slow, intermittent drip of maroon, yellow, and grey liquid coming out of my own face that's altogether sinister and disgusting and I think I've dealt with it enough today to hide behind a sanitary mask of gauze and medical tape for a while. I don't think anyone's coming to visit, anyway, so it's not like I'm going to freak anyone out with the bandages.
I'm getting the splints in my nose taken out tomorrow, which is something that I'm expecting to be a painful process. I've taken a look up my nose with a mirror and a flashlight, and with most of the packing gone I can actually see the splints, and it does not look like there is any possible pleasant way to get those fuckers out of there. I've saved a healthy supply of vicodin and plenty of bandages for the occasion, though I'm remotely optimistic that it won't be as terrible as I'm expecting. Time will tell.
Again, if you're reading this and would like to visit, I'd be more than happy to have the company. Comment/call/text/IM; you know how to get in touch.