It took me a little longer then normal but I did manage to eat a lot of turkey and everything else on the table. I had to eat very small pieces because the weakness in my face only allows me to use half my mouth. I'm discovering that eating slower is a good thing, it makes you enjoy your food more I just might continue to do that even if I get full use of my mouth again. Drinking's another story. I have to laugh at myself for looking like a drooling idiot when stuff comes falling out the side of my mouth. Give me a mirror and I'm entertained. I have to hold my lip against the glass or straw so I don't leak.
Well I got by a huge fear this last week. Seeing my granddaughters reaction to grandpa's strange face. She focused in on my scar first and gave it a pretty good looking over then her eyes focused on my eye then mouth. I could tell by the look on her face that she knew things weren't right. I pulled her up next to me and explained what happened, told her it didn't hurt and I would be OK. It took a while but she seemed to not let it bother her after grandpa sat with her after a while.
The face issues are tough to deal with. As long as I don't show any expression you probably would not even know that anything was different with me. The eye doesn't blink so that's a big inconvenience. At home I use a damp washcloth and mold it into the shape of my eye socket and let it rest there using my good eye to look around. Lots of eye drops and gel for night. I met a guy named Dennis who had the same surgery I had and he was telling me about the feeling of riding in a car after surgery and everything he said was exactly right. Little bumps are no such thing. The sideways forces during a turn completely twist your sense of direction, and for me the periphery of my sight also is not sitting well during motion. When I turn my head sideways while moving it's to much to look at I have to close my eye's. I think I'll try driving tomorrow.
Just kidding.
The mouth. Only the left side works. Something weird also is that I can only taste with half my tongue. Although today the tongue appears to be getting better coverage.
Remember that all this facial stuff did not start until 5 days after surgery, one week ago my first day home with lots of visitors and lots of facial movement. It got worse over the next couple of days leveled out and just seems to slightly improving. The swelling of the nerves it what the doctors say causes the facial weakness. As you can clearly see in the photo's below it's not only the nerves but the entire side of my face is swollen and that's got to have some negative effect on facial muscles.
This is the closest thing to a smile I've got for now.
You can noticeably see the swelling.
Close up if incision.
Time for a walk.Mike
