My Double Jaw Surgery: Days 8 and 9 After Surgery

Much of the bruising has faded now to a light yellowing along the sides of the lower jaw and still extending down onto the chest.

My husband and I took the chance to get away for a few hours and go the movies for a matinee. It was fine to go out and about, but I was definitely exhausted afterwards, and had to take a nap when I got home. I'd prefer to mostly stay at home for a few more days, so that I can simply rest whenever I feel like I need it. It's so important to listen to your body. For example, I also made it outside to help a bit with the farm today. Just to help feed the chickens and pigs, and to clean out the chicken coop (I did wear a mask to help filter the air that I was breathing). I found that cleaning out the waist-high chicken boxes was no problem, but after bending down just a couple of times to clean out the hay on the floor I began breathing very heavy and felt like I was going to faint. So I just had to respect the fact that my body wasn't up for that task, go sit down for a few minutes, and then make my way back up to the house.

Another thing I've now added into my daily routine is a clay mask. Here's the one I use:

There are a variety of clay masks out there and they are very helpful in the detoxifying process, plus they increase the blood flow to the area. I'm fond of this one in particular because I believe it has very high quality ingredients, and I love the story behind the product. If you are interested in learning more, listen to one of the podcasts here.

Here's an interesting complication that just arose - I always try to gently swish water around my mouth since oral hygiene is so difficult and it can help remove any loose debris. But when I was doing so, suddenly a gush of water came out of my nose. Tried it again and the same thing happened. Ut oh. I knew what this was - an ora-antral fistula in my hard palate. Remember how I described before that the maxilla was not only being brought forward, but was also being separated into two halves to widen it? Well, it left a soft spot in the center of my palate, and apparently at some point the tissue there decided to tear. It doesn't hurt - in fact, my entire hard palate is still completely numb. But it is quite bothersome because whenever I drink something I need a tissue handy because it will be coming out of my nose. It also causes a wheezing sound when I swallow, as it is natural for your tongue to press up against the palate as you swallow and this is pushing a bit of air through that hole. At this point, I will just be very careful not to put any pressure in the area with my tongue and not to blow my nose, and will hope that it manages to heal back up on its own. If not, it may need a secondary procedure to patch it up. Although annoying, in the grand scheme of things this is relatively minor and I need to remind myself of that. It's very easy to get caught up in negativity with any setback, so I need to work on re-framing any of those negative thoughts back to positive ones to better support my healing process.