Okay, so was I bummed that I was more swollen the next day? Of course! I would've loved to have kept it to a minimum like day zero. But did I know I would get more swollen? Of course I did. It's gotta get worse before it gets better. My sister, comic that she is, immediately pointed out that I didn't look so much swollen, as I did "fat." Her exact words were, "You look like you if you were 100lbs heavier---- like Fat Monica, from friends." Um, thanks? But when I looked in the mirror, I thought her description was pretty accurate.
I gotta be honest, I don't remember much of Day 1 because I spent most of it in and out of sleep. I was feeling very uncomfortable with the swelling because it made me feel like there was so much pressure on my face, and I didn't know what to do about it. I took pain meds to help relieve the pressure feeling, and that seemed to help. I also kept up with my ice-packs. I did my best to keep my jaw bra on for 15 minutes, and then 5 minutes off, rotating between frozen gel packs, and taking longer (20-30 minute) breaks without ice after about every 2 hours of constant 15 minute rotations. During the night, I fell asleep with the jaw bra on, and either my mom or sister would change the gel packs every couple of hours depending on who woke up to my grunts about the pressure.
I had a constant dripping/runny nose of mostly blood, but this didn't impair my breathing too much. It wasn't until late in the evening that I started to have trouble breathing, so I decided to take 1 dose of my Afrin spray to see if it helped, and it did! I was breathing normally within minutes.
My eyes and sinuses were also achy on this day. It's not like my sinuses necessarily "hurt," (more just sensitive) but if I put any pressure on my face near my sinuses it immediately made my eyes hurt, so I tried to keep my glasses off my face, since even the light weight of the frame was too much on my sinuses. But, I must say, that I really think all the bromelain I took before the surgery really helped with my ability to breathe so comfortably out of my nose after surgery. In case you haven't looked it up yet, bromelain is a miracle worker on the sinuses, and I'm here to tell you that I definitely think it made a difference for me. I was able to sleep through the night fairly comfortably. Any discomfort I felt was really more from having to sleep upright, and from the pressure that I could begin to feel building again in my cheeks and lower jaws. My sister and mom were good about giving me my antibiotics, pain meds (to alleviate the pressure), and re-icing me throughout the night, and I would fall back to sleep within minutes.
I had plenty of water, coconut water, veggie broth, a couple of protein shake "meals," and my Chinese herbal tea-- which by the way, tastes pretty gross. I also tried to go on a "long walk" with my dad. I got about 20 minutes in when I started to feel really nauseous, so he helped get me home ASAP. When I got home I made the mistake of taking in way too much water at once, and puked it all back up 5 minutes after drinking it. This put me in a bad mood for the rest of day (vomiting with your teeth banded shut is the most frustrating thing), and I spent most of the rest of the day in bed/on the couch half asleep.
Pain throughout the day was again mostly due to pressure, which I'm not sure constitutes pain as much as it does discomfort. However, I did try to tough it out a couple of times by skipping pain med doses, and quickly learned that this is a BAD idea. The pressure gets worse, and then I get unbearably uncomfortable, and can't sleep or sit still, so no more skipping doses.
I was happy to have day 1 be over, and to move onto the next few days to let the "worst of it" come, so I can start to feel normal again.
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