Hello. I am currently 16 days post op. I had a upper and lower jaw surgery. The surgery did not hurt at all (I didnt even have to take the pain medication). The only thing that bothered me was the breathing and phlegm. My nose was so stuffy the first 4 days. To help with this I used the nasal spray the doctor recommended and I used humidifier (to me the humidifier helped the most). As for my phlegm, I thought I was going to choke on it because I started to scrape the sticky phlegm from the roof of my mouth (this was a mistake) and eventually it became a pretty big phlegm ball. I thought I was going to choke and I couldnt sleep at all. So I called my doctor and he said try to walk around and cough (because the vibration will help break it). Eventually the phlegm ball went down my throat while I was sleeping. Another discomfort was sleeping. First week I would sleep for 20 min wake up for 10 min than go to sleep for 20 min than wake up for 10 min, this would go on for a week. After 5 days I just decided to quit napping during the day and try to sleep late as possible so I would get tired and fall asleep. Currently, I'm just bored. Ive been watching a lot of TV, Ive watched so much that I decided to cut back because I literally thought I was getting more stupid. As for weight, I started as 205 (I'm 6'6, so 205 is skinny) and now I'm 189 (so about 15 pounds) and I assume I would be losing more. My parents and doctor wants me to eat more but honestly I'm never that hungry and my taste for food has just went away. To be fair I eat a lot. In a regular day I drink 2-3 soup, 3-4 chocolate and vanilla ensure (I LOVE ENSURE), and either mashed potato or tofu. That is a lot, considering that I didn't even eat that much before my operation.
I just had 4 questions:
1. I'm getting little tiny food stuck in my splint. I've tried water pick. Any other suggestion on how to get it out?
2. I keep bending my head down. It feels weird and i feel weird pressure when i put my head straight. Is that normal?
3. What do you guys do to kill time? I've tried tv, internet, showers ( i take 3 a day), walking, and I cant talk so I really cant hang out with friends.
4. How long before I can exercise? Like lift weights, run, play basketball? because before the surgery I would play exercise and play basketball almost everyday so I'm just counting the days before I'm able to play.
Thank you so much for reading this long post.