For Stacey: The Three S's (stretching, swelling and sleeping)

[Guest guest]

Hi Stacey. You're braver than I. If I had fallen, I would've

completed freaked out. Avoid the stairs, would ya?

In answer to your questions, starting with the stretching. As noted

by Cammie and others, only do what your doctor recommends. Mine

recommended just opening and shutting my mouth while in the shower

(nope, not to fill it with running water LOL). He told me that's when

it's the most flexible. I'm not manipulating, pulling or otherwise

manually stretching anything.

Swelling. I still feel it and see it on my lips, upper lip area,

cheeks and chin. In pictures, it's less visible but I definitely feel

it.

Sleeping. They want me on my back too. What I've done to make it

easier on myself (being a side and stomach sleeper by preference), is

I make an inverted V out of two pillows. That way my head is still

raised but I have the pillows on my sides which feels more natural.

That's helped. I also found it took a couple of days after all the

drugs were out of my system before I could sleep more than 4-5 hours.

Lots of bad late night TV.

As for eating, I'm not a mashed potatoes gal. Since they won't let me

chew for another week, I'm sticking to foods I can mash and swallow.

How glamorous. Eggs for breakfast. Swallowable snips of cold cuts for

lunch. Mashed lasagne for dinner. Knowing that we're towards the end

and not the beginning (like when I went through SRPE and knew I was

getting ready for years of fun), makes it easier.

As for cleaning, I fill the Zip n Squeeze bag with salt water and aim

at my mouth and wash out that way. My doc wanted me to advance to a

water pik but I'm no where near ready for the pressure.

Hope this helps.

Fran