Functional Septorhinoplasty Recovery - The Day Of

I could barely open my eyes - they literally felt like weights were helping to keep them closed. What do I do? Probably what everyone does: I reach for my nose.

"no, no, no.. don't touch your nose"

Duh. But it was like I couldn't help it.

I was in the recovery area and I managed to glance at the clock and notice the last thing I remembered was 4 hours earlier. Kind of scary if you think about it. But apparently I had been in recovery for almost an hour. I did tell them I was a lightweight, but I guess it's better to make sure I'm out good then to risk having me wake up too early.

I felt really nauseous and was told this is part the anesthesia, but also part the fact that with facial surgeries you end up swallowing a lot of blood and the stomach just does not like blood.

My mouth was really thick with spit and I knew better than to swallow more so the recovery nurse got me a bag to spit into. At this point I still wasn't really aware of what anyone looked like (or really cared) so I tried to spit, but most of it just ended up hanging off my chin. Lovely. It wasn't until the nurse got me a wet towel to wipe it off with that I notice he is an attractive guy about my age. More loveliness.

What surprised me most is how quickly I got to go home once I came to. I guess they just want to see you can get your clothes back on, form somewhat normal sentences and then you're off on your own.

First big mistake? Not taking a pain pill before I left.

Not much bruising or swelling yet..
and all bruising is only under the right eye?!

I was prescribed Percocet - a narcotic. I've never taken a narcotic. I was kind of scared. Dr. Pahlavan said I could take a 1/2 pill and see how that did, so that was my plan. On the car drive home (where I swear we took the bumpiest roads possible, which my stomach wasn't happy with) I finally took a 1/2 pill and the pain just kept getting worse.

BUT, it wasn't my nose. It was the roof of my mouth right behind my front teeth. It was on FIRE. I was miserable. I took the other 1/2 of my pill, because at that point I just DID. NOT. CARE.

After about 2 hours of kind of sleeping I felt so much better and true to myself, I was hungry. The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful. I iced my eyes, ate dinner and just watched TV.

My phone was set to remind me every 4 hours to take another pain pill, but I usually couldn't sleep the whole 4 hours. It isn't easy to mouth breathe all night... my mouth feels as dry as a desert by the time I wake up! On to Day 2...