5/20 - other exciting first day things

 

so when they brought dinner i was a little upset... BLUE BELL VANILLA ICE CREAM, grape juice, 1% milk, chocolate Boost drink and cream of chicken soup. mom did a good thing for me. she let the ice cream melt a little then mixed it up nicely with the Boost. so i ended up having a milk shake treat for dinner.

mom walked over the mall food court and got Chick-fil-a. that was just mean. mean i tell  you.

i was pretty tired. i did like the little air leg wrap things they had me wearing. felt nice.

my best friend came for a visit and brought all sorts of fun stuff for me to keep occupied. one cool thing was a coloring book and a big box of crayons. YAY!

we went for a little walk around the floor. it was nice to get out of the room for a few minutes. which reminds me... make sure you pack a robe in your hospital bag. was great to be able to wrap up in it to make sure i didn't flash anyone.

 

we colored a puppy picture. reminded me a little of my pup. :) my mom even colored a little in the other book she brought for me.

was nice and easy to both pass the time and to take my mind off the fact that i was in incredible pain. to help me not think about the fact that i couldn't open my mouth. the fact that my face was steadily getting more puffy. 

so what if i ended up sorting the crayons by color families. i hadn't organized anything in at least a day. had to do it. haha

other tid-bits:
- nose bled like crazy. moving around made it worse. so every time i got up for the restroom, or for my walk... blood flow.
- face was crazy-shiny. not sure what the reason, but it was weird. it's great to have a few wash cloths handy to just keep wiping.
- lip balm, lip balm and more lip balm.
- STAY ON TOP OF YOUR MEDS. there was a little board on the wall displaying when i was due for my next pain med dosage. no joke, nurses were late almost every time. we had to call a couple times.
- temperature was taken under my arm. i giggle pretty much every time they went to take it. a couple times she went for the mouth and i went to open by habit. and we would realize at the same time... oh, under the arm!
- if you have long hair - rock the side ponytail. who knew that would be so comfortable
- sleep with the bed in an upright position. otherwise it feels like you are drowning.
- it felt like i was clinching my back teeth tightly the entire time. that doesn't help with the pain. teeth are now in new places and touching differently. add the tension of the bands and it gets a little unnerving.
- talking was OK. everything was numb and puffy so it was very hard. but at least i could do it. but try not to do it for very long. trust me, after awhile it's no so pleasant.
- rinsing with the magic rinse stuff sucks to do, but it felt a ton better after i did. you are supposed to swish and spit. it really was more of a swish and drool. haha. had to just lean my head over and hoped it all came out. can't really blow it out, especially thru your closed teeth.
- you can't blow your nose. didn't even want to touch it really. but you wish you could to get all the drainage out. so when it's time to snort some afrin or the salt rinse do it. even if you can't snort it up, let some get in your nostrils. it helps.
- keep all the little syringes that you can when the nurse brings your liquid medications. you will want them later.
- try to get extra big drinking/eating syringes also. you will want several later for different sized tips.