Swelling day 7

[GreyViolets]

My surgeon said that because of the nature of the surgery (surgery was for 6 hours, did a bone graft to the upper jaw, 3-piece Lefort 1 and BSSO to correct a severe open bite.) that it was going to be expected that I’ll be recovering a bit slower than most people. He said that swelling will peak around day 5 for me, and then go down. However, my swelling has gotten worse on day 6 and only slightly better this morning (day 7.) and I was wondering if this is normal or not.

[GreyViolets]

I should probably add that I’ve been reading a lot of jaw surgery blogs, and almost no one looks as swollen as I do at day 7.

[Piper]

Personally, if I were you - I wouldn’t worry too much. You’re literally only a week post-op, and had an intense surgery. Each person varies with swelling. My surgery was only 2 hours nor as intense as yours, and I’m 7 weeks post op and still have minor swelling (which I confirmed with my surgeon that this is not unheard of). As long as you see the swelling decrease in the progressing weeks, I would say it’s okay.

Lastly, there are days that I’m less or more swollen. It’s pretty intermittent for me now - I’ll wake up with minor swelling, but if I talk a lot, or use my jaw - I’ll wake up the next day, pretty swollen.

Give your body time to heal itself.

[EmilyTravels]

Are you sleeping propped up on several pillows? That will help the fluids drain downward and thus decrease the swelling quicker.