Status update, 2023-08-09
Aug. 9th, 2023 01:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brin_bellway[cw: medical, injury, (fairly mild) food]
I can eat scrambled eggs, bread, cheddar, and even broccoli now. Toast is--as of yesterday afternoon--a stretch, but doable with some pain.
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There was a substantial jump in my level of recovery at *exactly* the one-week mark: like, almost to the *hour*. I was doing much better Tuesday afternoon than I was Tuesday morning.
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Getting bits of self-removing suture thread stuck in my throat is not fun. Some were slightly unpleasant for several hours; others burned for a couple minutes; none combined the worst of both, at least.
---
Doing this on a two-day workweek was *absolutely* the correct move, at least versus doing it on a five-day workweek. I feel very sorry for people going back to work after two days: four days was *not* enough time.
I did it anyway, and for ~$200 I'd do it again, but all of that talking did a lot to aggravate the wound. By Sunday afternoon I was back to the peak level of pain, an amount not seen since the first day.
(We *did* still have some acetaminophen leftover from the very first COVID wave, and it was surprisingly helpful compared to naproxen in rather the same way that naproxen was surprisingly helpful compared to ibuprofen. I'll have to keep it in mind.)
---
The one-week followup went pretty well, except for how I was scheduled for right after a child and the dentist was still kind of in talking-to-kids mode. Cutesy tone aside, things are progressing fairly well given my relatively advanced age, and most to all of the remaining symptoms should be gone in another week; the reduced sensation in the left half of my lower lip and chin (plus the gum in that area) might take a couple weeks. (They feel "numb" to the touch, but they still register cold from icepacks and sharpness from being experimentally prodded with fine-tipped tweezers or dental explorers.)
I can eat scrambled eggs, bread, cheddar, and even broccoli now. Toast is--as of yesterday afternoon--a stretch, but doable with some pain.
---
There was a substantial jump in my level of recovery at *exactly* the one-week mark: like, almost to the *hour*. I was doing much better Tuesday afternoon than I was Tuesday morning.
---
Getting bits of self-removing suture thread stuck in my throat is not fun. Some were slightly unpleasant for several hours; others burned for a couple minutes; none combined the worst of both, at least.
---
Doing this on a two-day workweek was *absolutely* the correct move, at least versus doing it on a five-day workweek. I feel very sorry for people going back to work after two days: four days was *not* enough time.
I did it anyway, and for ~$200 I'd do it again, but all of that talking did a lot to aggravate the wound. By Sunday afternoon I was back to the peak level of pain, an amount not seen since the first day.
(We *did* still have some acetaminophen leftover from the very first COVID wave, and it was surprisingly helpful compared to naproxen in rather the same way that naproxen was surprisingly helpful compared to ibuprofen. I'll have to keep it in mind.)
---
The one-week followup went pretty well, except for how I was scheduled for right after a child and the dentist was still kind of in talking-to-kids mode. Cutesy tone aside, things are progressing fairly well given my relatively advanced age, and most to all of the remaining symptoms should be gone in another week; the reduced sensation in the left half of my lower lip and chin (plus the gum in that area) might take a couple weeks. (They feel "numb" to the touch, but they still register cold from icepacks and sharpness from being experimentally prodded with fine-tipped tweezers or dental explorers.)
