Day 4 - On the mend

I feel the need to start this post with a disclaimer: I love my husband. He is the love of my life....the father of my children....my other half. However, no matter how wonderful he is, nobody ever takes better care of you than your own momma. I put Russ on the plane today and I miss him terribly. I miss his love and support, but my momma just knows what I need. Thanks for letting us invade your house, Mom! Everyone is sick and I can't talk and mom and dad are taking care of us all!

Now back to our regularly scheduled update:
I have a chin today!!! I have never been this excited to see a double chin in my life! A double chin means the swelling is going down. Don't get me wrong, my face is still pretty round, but it's much better! I was only happy with one of my 3 "meals" today. I had a chocolate covered cherry protein shake for breakfast and it was delicious! I may be repeating it tomorrow. (For the record - I had beef broth and applesauce for lunch and tried an orange creamsicle protein shake for dinner and it just didn't work.) Tomorrow is Baked Potato Soup day at Panera, so I may be making my official public debut to get some. My debut will be short - I will have to bring it home to blend it so I can eat it.

Challenges today:
1. Yawning hurts. I can only yawn by lifting my palate, which was cut into three pieces. I am sure you see the problem.
2. The pain has moved to my teeth. It feels like a terrible sinus infection, but it can't be a sinus infection because I am taking antibiotics.
3. Blowing my nose is the best and worst thing that I have to do every day!
4. It's hard to get sweet potato thin enough to fit through the syringe.
5. I can't smile at the baby, so the baby won't smile back at me. It makes me sad.
6. Russ had to leave us today.

Things to be happy about:
1. I can talk. I get tired right before the pain meds are due, but most of my communication is with talking. Cavemen talking, but talking just the same.
2. The Nook reads to the boys. They sit on my lap and the Nook does all of the reading. I still get storytime with them!
3. I spend most of the day downstairs as part of the family. I was worried that I would be shipped upstairs and left alone all day, but that's not happening.

Things I learned today:
1. I am getting more than enough water. I am also getting more than enough exercise walking to and from the bathroom 100 times a day. It's like being pregnant.
2. My pain meds make me dizzy and tired. I want something to take the edge off, but it doesn't need to be a narcotic. We'll see what Doc says on Tuesday. Until then, the narcotic will just have to do.
3. I need to take a nap for about 30 - 60 minutes after I take my pain meds. It helps.
4. It's time to go grocery shopping. We thought we planned for the after surgery meals, but we failed to take into account that I would have some serious food cravings. (See mention of Baked Potato Soup.)
5. I can smell something and feel like I ate it. Mom and dad had popcorn after dinner. I took a big whiff and felt like I was eating it. May be good for self-control once I get the use of my jaws back!