Overall I was very surprised at how well it went and how okay I felt waking up and the weeks to follow. Once I woke up, I wasn't great, I was given morphine straight away because I had lots of pain were my left wisdom tooth was taken out, after that I was fine on paracetamol, ibuprofen and codeine. I was very concerned about how much blood I was spitting out, as it was bright red, pure blood, however was reassured that all was normal and to just drink as much as possible.
I had to stay in overnight, and to say I still got a good nights sleep was an understatement, I slept from about 8pm-6am on my SIDE!!! I have no idea how I even got away with being able to sleep- especially on my side. When I went home, I was still able to sleep on my side for the rest of the 6 weeks, however I sometimes woke up in the morning with an achiness (especially on my left side where my wisdom tooth was taken out).
Eating was absolutely the worst for me, I had many instances where I broke down because I wanted some proper food, something to just fill me up, instead of fortasip shakes and soups! Lol! That quickly passed when my orthodontist said I could progress onto soft foods! The depression quickly left after that. I also lost over a stone in 2 weeks so I feel that contributed to feeling low and run down.
I have also been very lucky regarding elastics - I was only banded shut for a few days then put on very light elastics. I was then on elastics for 4 weeks then given 2 weeks break and now are back on them, which is good because they're not too uncomfortable.
SWELLING; Was very minimal, swelling was gone within a week and felt pretty normal soon as I was able to eat abit more. I absolutely think I had little swelling is because soon as I was on the ward I started to get dressed and walk around and talk and tried to act "normally". I believe if you try to be active as soon as you feel u can - the sooner you will feel better.
NUMBNESS; I was completely numb from the eyes down, including my tounge upon waking up! Within one day the numbness had subsided in everywhere but my chin, lip and inside my cheek. Within 4 weeks; I had 95% feeling back, I still have numb bits under my lip, but it's not completely numb just "half numb". I think the feeling will come back soon (I hope), as I am getting itchiness, pins and needles and weird feelings in the numb patches.
Overall, my recovery was better, easier and not as bad as I was expecting. When I look online to see others experiences, they all seen horrendous, but I wanted to show people it's not ALWAYS that bad. I felt the operation itself isn't that painful, I really didn't experience that much pain; just where my wisdom teeth were taken out ( left side)
I will attach some before and after pictures
Thanks for reading.
