I can only thank God for seeing me through the most incredible pain I have ever experienced before in all of my 60 years. I truly think if I had known it would have been that intense I might have postponed until the symptoms were much worse.
But today, today is my 7th day post surgery (intraoral) and although I’m still swollen and still in pain both are “tolerable” in comparison with the previous days of insanely intense pain.
I woke up in the post surgery room, sore & dry and asking for ice chips. My ride home and getting settled into my recliner was not too bad. But by the evening I started to feel the pain. I had some instructions but they were not clear to either me or my husband. I was told when I got home to take tylenol & motrin and not to take the tylenol with the prescription med because it had tylenol in it… but no one ever said : Take the Tylenol for pain, and the Motrin to fight swelling. Had they explained this and said that it should be taken every 4 hours around the clock I truly believe the horrible experience I had could have been avoided. But they had not explained it to us in this manner and we did not have either of those items in the house and when my husband went to pick up the prescriptions and easily could have purchased them for me neither one of us had any understanding of how much I needed to take them.
I am having difficulty opening my mouth wide enough to put my spoon in when eating my jello, or eating a sandwich. Yes, I am blessed that I have been able to tolerate a soft, cool diet. I have no appetite but have made myself eat even just a little bit so I don’t get sick from all the medication.
I do feel that I will see continued improvement with each passing day. But wonder how long it will really take for my tissue at the back of my throat to fully heal and not feel like a huge “weird lump” in the back of my throat. And when the extremely gross (I have decided to call it “taste of death”) sour/bile taste that lurks at the base of my throat.
Sorry if I’m rambling… haven’t been able to keep my thoughts in check and my mind wanders so I’ll stop now.
So sorry that you’ve had such a rough ride with recovery; it will be for quite a few weeks yet I’m afraid, intraoral does seem to be harder to recover from. Keep icing & keep on with the medication, will keep praying for you , & sending you a gentle hug 
Hi ESx2,
I second what Jules said. I am so sorry your doctor didn’t describe the pain med regimen & emphasize the necessity of taking those meds on schedule for the first week at least. Post op swelling is generally the worst from days 3-5 & thus so is the pain. If the pain gets ahead of the pain meds due to infrequency of ingestion, that is hard to overcome as well. It sounds like you know that very well now. I also went through that w/ my first surgery & guarantee that I didn’t repeat the same mistake for round two.
Keep icing your neck, drinking cool/cold drinks (low or no sugar is better as sugar tends to be inflammatory), or sucking on ice chips. A stiff jaw is very common post op & that can last several weeks as well. I know I had to have my meals put in a blender so I could sort of drink them or just swallow them a spoonful at a time for several weeks. I had my first surgery just before Thanksgiving in 2014. My TG dinner looked something like dog food on my plate. 
I’m so glad you are feeling better this week. Expect more & more good days ahead but know there will be some backsliding. That’s not to worry. It’s just the way of nerve healing.
Hi ESx2. I can definitely relate to having a lot of pain after intraoral surgery. In my case, day 10 was a magical one – I woke up and the pain at the point of the incision was gone. I’m a quick healer, so maybe 10 isn’t your number but it will happen. And for me it was several weeks before I could fully open my jaw, so I blended a lot of things. Ice helped a lot, trying not to talk helped a lot, and I alternated Advil and Tylenol every 4 hours (so a dose of one or the other every 2 hours). I know that people on this list have received varying instructions about Advil, but I was told I could take it.
Thank you onelessstyloid. I actually feel much better today (day 9) not fully pain free or without swelling but feeling better in comparison even to yesterday 
I see my Dr. tomorrow afternoon & will express myself in a calm manner so that he hears me clearly and hopefully will help someone he does this surgery on in the future.
I wish you fast healing. It definitely sounds like the worst part is behind you. For me this forum has been the most accurate place to get information about recovery and post-op symptoms. I’m glad you will be sharing your experience with your surgeon.