ok, I haven’t had the bra at all, but they gave me these head wraps for ice automatically in recovery and they’re giving me steroids. I guess since I just did one side? I just had my drain removed. my tongue is moving like normal and I’m not having trouble swallowing. I can’t chew because my mouth won’t close, but have swallowed potatoes and oatmeal fine. the lack of control over my eye is significantly worse than anything else going on though. I am having to manually close it constantly because it’s getting dry and blurry and put in lubricating drops.
Hang in there, the eye problem as Isaiah says has happened to others & does resolve fairly quickly. There has been other mentions in posts about this, if you’re able to you could look them up, hopefully that’ll reassure you. Sending you a gentle hug 
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WOW, Suzzetteas, you’ve healed up beautifully!
I see your swelling but agree with Suzzetteas that your incision looks really good. You can request an Rx
for prednisone to help with swelling especially in your throat if Dr. H doesn’t give you a neck bra. He may only use those in bilateral cases.
Following Suzzetteas’ suggestion re: ice frequently, head elevation when resting or sleeping & taking your pain
meds on schedule night & day will go far toward helping you heal quicker.
I’ll be praying for good & quick healing. 
thank you all so much for the support.
I did not get a neck bra, but was sent home with 11 days of prednisone and brought home the ice wraps they gave me. I have to take breaks from the ice though because it really makes me nauseated if I leave it on too long. I couldn’t ice pre surgery either. it hurt me, I had to heating pad.
trying to hang in there!
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Your welcome. Hang in there. Everyday will be one day closer to forgetting what life was like with ES
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Sorry my post showed up late. I typed it & forgot to send it. 
If ice is causing you worse pain & nausea, you can try heat. For some people that works better. Ice is an anti-inflammatory, but heat increases circulation to the area helping it to heal faster. It may prolong swelling a bit but it is still beneficial. The prednisone will go far toward helping reduce inflammation so perhaps heat is the way to go for you. (I hope that didn’t sound like I was talking in circles). 
I took today’s dose of prednisone late afternoon bc they gave me the pills at discharge and we had quite a drive home before I took them. the good news is my eye won’t close alone BUT the swelling has went down enough that if I physically close it, it’s staying closed for right now. I sure hope that doesn’t back track!
I made myself a smoothie and unpacked the backpack after the car drive and even that was just too much effort and movement. my entire body got sore from just that. learned my lesson, I’m not really ready to do literally anything.
so, this is a weird question for the ladies but did you leave your hair up so it would stay away from your incisions? I never wear my hair up, but I have kept it up because I also am not sure I want it against them?
Hi tp12,
Glad you’re home & have prednisone onboard. I recommend you take your next dose tomorrow morning to establish a morning schedule with it. Prednisone is notorious for keeping people from being able to sleep at night so the earlier in the day you take, it the better to try to keep that problem at bay. Your first dose most likely won’t cause any side effects, but as you progress in your healing & continue taking it, that could become a problem.
Great news about your eye, and YES, you will notice improvement from pain, jaw stiffness, blinking cooperation, everything! as your swelling goes down. The body swells after injury to put a protective “pillow” around the injured area, but unfortunately, that pillow puts pressure on nerves & other soft tissues that causes pain & stiffness or improper function. As the swelling reduces so does the pressure & pain & normal function gradually resumes.
Good job listening to your body today. Give yourself the first week off from doing anything. Relax, read, watch TV & let your family/friends do everything for you (w/in reason 
) including cooking & getting you ice or heat packs, etc. Starting tomorrow you should try to take a short, slow walk around your home or outside if the weather is nice - no longer than 10-15 min. Increase your walks to 2-3/day as you get toward the end of the week. That will help get your circulation going which, of course, will help w/ healing. I found that the first few days post op, I felt safer w/ an arm to hang onto when I went walking but others have been able to do it on their own. I think I was a bit loopy from the pain meds.
I had really short hair when I had my ES surgeries so didn’t need it up. Keeping it in a pony tail for a few days might feel better & will keep it from sticking to your incision if it oozes at all.
I hope that you keep noticing improvements, & I’d definitely keep my hair up if I were you, just loosely though. Thinking of you
every thing is still smooth sailing but the eye! it’s so so hard to deal with. constant attention required to close it. it’s constantly pouring tears right now. hoping that’s a good sign?
swelling is going down enough I can close my teeth again now. getting a little better at drinking my smoothies. nerves are tingling and itching and random shoots of pain. all of that is completely manageable though right now.
The nerve sensations are good. It means your nerves are waking up from surgery & starting to heal. The eye problem is going to be annoying for a bit yet. The tearing is likely your body’s effort to keep your eyeball moist. If it gets too annoying, please ask your PCP or Dr. Hackman to Rx an eye ointment or give you the name of something that is over the counter.
So glad you’ve noticed positive improvement in your mouth & being able to put your teeth together again. That’s progress!!
HI TP12
So glad you made it home safely.
I did wear my hair up. I was so confused because when I left the hospital they said to put vaseline on the surgical site. I did but it felt wrong since I had the surgical glue and it looks like you have the same stuff I did. I then tried to find out from Dr. H if that was okay and never got a clear answer. Did you get any instructions for the surgical sites?
Give yourself permission to do nothing and get better!
Thanks Isaiah
no, they told me to just leave them alone and let the glue come off naturally. he said after the glue comes off I can start using something like mederma, but it wasn’t needed until the glue was gone as it wouldn’t penetrate the glue
Good to know. I kinda figured the nurse at the hospital was off on that recommendation she gave me.
How are you feeling today?
Glad that things are improving except for your eye…I use Xailin eye drops (& you can get thicker gel for night time) so that might be worth trying if you haven’t already. Maybe speak to the doctor’s again about it, I don’t know if wearing a patch would help rest it for a bit?
As Isaiah says the shooting pains etc are nerves healing, so that’s good.
Take care of yourself & God bless
Okay so I had an appointment with Dr. Heckler today at Duke who wants me to get the surgery done by Dr. Hackman and he says that he will want to do it intra-orally and with robotics, has anyone here had that done?
@Adriene61 had intraoral robotic surgery done by Dr. Hackman.
I believe I have actually been talking with her on Facebook group xD haha
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