Facelift, neck lift, rhinoplasty, upper and lower blepharoplasty, CO2 laser resurfacing

I had my surgery Wednesday August 5. I would have preferred to do this at least a month sooner so that I would be pretty well healed by my 50th birthday this Wednesday August 12 but August 5 was the soonest I could get. I had a face and neck lift, rhinoplasty, upper and lower blepharoplasty and CO2 laser. The first couple of days were awful. I was to keep ice on my eyes for 48 hours straight while laying at an incline! It was impossible to do without staying awake the whole time to hold ice on my eyes. If I found a way to keep it on the ice would have melted within a couple of hours. Then I would have to get up all over again, fill the bags, and find the impossibly hard to find sweet spot to lay down in. The pain I had was not in any surgical area but my throat. I was intubated for the 8 hour surgery and 5 days later then pain is still there. I alternate Tylenol and ibuprofen and spray chloroseptic spray between bites of food. I can only partially taste anything because my nose is stuffed up from the rhinoplasty. I need to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

I had a terrible time sleeping last night. Throat pain is actually worse. I went to my scheduled appointment today to get the eye sutures removed and now I can see better since I no longer have to put the erythromycin ointment on my eye incisions. Dr. Ransom discovered the source of my throat pain: an ulcer on my uvula. I’m glad to have found a reasonable explanation for the ridiculous amount of pain in my throat. Everything else feels fine. I don’t want anyone to suggest that anyone was done wrong to cause the ulcer. These things happen. I had an ET tube pressing against my uvula for 8 hours. Anything pressing against a body part for a significant amount of time would do that. I’m a nurse and I know that even with the most diligent of care, things happen. Other things cause ulcers too so... I feel that once I get my nose stents out and can breathe through my nostrils again, my throat will heal faster. We aren’t meant to breath through our mouths. Ultimately, Dr. Ransom has been great. He called to say happy birthday. I’ll see him again in 2 days to get the rest of the sutures and nose cast removed.

I forgot to mention that I washed my hair for the first time yesterday. It was scary but didn’t end up so badly. Gonna need a few washings to finally get all of the Aquaphor out of my hair line. I use Aquaphor due to a Bacitracin allergy.