Well, that Friday after surgery is when they finally felt comfortable letting me go home. The swelling had gone down dramatically, but I still felt like I was hit by a train. I had a lot of difficulty getting anything to drink or eat. I was still very weak, and couldn't stay standing for very long. I was surprised at just how bad I felt. The one thing I can say is that taking the pain medication they kept pushing on me was more painful that the pain itself. I couldn't stand the taste of it and it almost made me vomit. So, after leaving the hospital, the only pain medication I took was a little ibuprofen. That was more for my back and neck than anything else. If I sit around too much, my back and neck usually suffer for it.
Well, I slept reasonably well that night, but still not very good. I was somewhat upright in the recliner and that helped with the pain more than anything. I was still very congested, and I used some nasal spray to help with that, but I tried to use that as little as possible. I have a real problem with 'rebound congestion' when using those sprays. They work when I use them, but I usually pay dearly for it the next day with even worse congestion. What I did to help with that was to only spray in one nostril. That way, when I got the rebound, it was only on one side.
As the swelling continued to go down, I was able to control some of my facial and mouth muscles a little better, and eating became easier. I improved fairly rapidly because of it. By Day 7, I was able to go for a half mile walk and I was able to extend that to a mile by day 9. I still ran out of energy very quickly so by the time I got home for the walk I was exhausted and very hungry. It was the night of my 10th day that I had my first real mental setback. I had tried sleeping a little less vertical and woke up sweating heavily with my chest tight and pounding heart. My apnea was back (or never left). I hoped it was just a fluke and the next night it was even worse. I tried sleeping in bed with a couple extra pillows and CPAP, but I got even less sleep that way. The whole reason I put myself through this hell was to get away from CPAP. I couldn't sleep with CPAP before, and I still couldn't. I tried again the next night, but I still had the same problem. With the arch bars, wires and bands, it was even more difficult because my lips wouldn't stay shut. This was probably as close to depression as I had ever been in my life. Here I was, wired shut with broken jaw that might not heal right, face numb, constantly congested, in some pain and many weeks of healing before I could even try to resume a normal life and the surgery had failed!
My wife an I talked about it and we figured it was possible that the swelling might still be causing a bigger problem than we realized, but when you have read so many posts about people sleeping great while still in the hospital after MMA, I felt sure that mine had failed. We both moped around a little for the next couple of days, but we started to accept what was and started moving past it. We hoped that the first follow-up visit with Dr. Viozzi would bring us some encouragement. That vistit would come on Day 15.
