Recovering

The surgery seems to have gone well. And I'm recovering more or less as expected - there's a lot more bleeding than anticipated, but still within the acceptable range for such things.

I stayed overnight and was released to Will on Thursday at lunchtime. He brought me home, and we've been inundated with meals, treats and well-wishers ever since. I'm so unbelievably grateful for every person who has contacted us - it really makes me feel amazing to know so many wonderful people are concerned about my family!

We had a little scare and a trip to the ER on Friday night, because I hadn't stopped (or slowed) bleeding since the surgery. I'm still getting a lot of blood in my stomach, which is unpleasant for everyone involved, but since I can't taste anything (yay for nasal surgery!) it isn't as bad as it could be. They double checked my plastics and changed my pain meds. Everything is where it should be, I'm apparently just a bleeder.

I've been asked a few times if this is worse or better than I expected it to be, and I can honestly say 'both.' I don't look nearly as bad as I expected - the bruising is minimal, I'm pretty swollen and my nose is crooked at the moment, but it isn't as grotesque as I'd thought. The pain, on the other hand, is more intense than anything I've ever experienced. You know how your eyes water and your head throbs when you bang your nose? Yeah, well, they broke that. On purpose. And then they broke all the stuff around it. And then they cut it up, took parts of it out, and stitched the rest back together. And then I popped a stitch, which sucked. And it hurts like that pretty much constantly. I've got good pain meds, though, so it is under control, for the most part.

Generally speaking, if I'm not sipping liquids, checking my email or changing my dressing, I'm passed out in the recliner, breathing through my mouth and enjoying pain-free dreams. It hurts to talk very much, to swallow, to make any facial expressions aside from slack-jawed indifference and to chew. So there go most of my favourite amusements. Add to that the raging, throbbing pain in my eye sockets, and reading, writing, cross stitch and tv are out for any significant periods of time.

Speaking of, I'm getting pretty achy writing this, so I'm going to close it up and go back to sleep. My friend Liv should be by soon with homemade corn chowder for dinner, and I really want to be awake to say thanks :)