Re: When will the pain go away?

February 3, 2004

When will the pain go away?

It's Day 5 post-op now and I have a few questions:

1) How long does the pain go on? It's definitely a bearable, kind of

low, dull pain and I have meds if it gets bad. Wondering when you

were able to stop using the meds? Does the pain slowly drift off or

kind of curb off quickly? The pain is different for everyone. Most on this

site have said that they discontinued pain meds in the first week. This was our

case also. For our daughter, she just noticed the pain wasn't there. From the

hospital, we learned to ask her continually to rate her pain on a 1-10 scale.

One morning she said said " 0 " and there was no more need for pain meds.

2) When does the tingling, nerve regeneration start? I've felt a few

kind of minimal bursts of tingling in the upper jaw region near my

nose, but it's not the type of tingling I expected after reading a

lot of posts about it. I expected it to be more like " electrical

charges " , maybe like a foot waking up from sleep. But this tingling

is barely noticeable and not really obstructive to focusing/talking,

etc. Is this normal, or maybe I just haven't experienced the full

effect yet? Some nerve regeneration starts immediately as nerves find their

home but normally cannot be felt because of the swelling and numbness. Besides

'electrical shock' or 'foot waking up' another term is 'an itch you can't

stratch.' Most regeneration does not take your focus away - you just know it is

there and sometimes ongoing. Our daughter often said, " the feathers are

touching my face again " to describe what she was feeling. She was often using

her hand to wipe across her nose and when asked about it she would say that 'it

justs itches but itching it doesn't help so I must be doing that

subconsciously. " She is at week 8 post op and still has the tingles but has

seem to have gotten used to them. When we ask, she says, " Yes, they are there.

I have just forgotten about them until you asked. " So, we try not to ask too

often.

3) Should I try to smile and use my cheek muscles at Day 5? I feel

that I can use my muscles more and more each day, but I'm not sure if

I should. Can this harm the stitches or do any other damage? Unless there is

a medical reason not to smile - smile alot. Exercising those muscles is good

physically (according to our OS) and we know that smiling is good for your

spirit. When you look in the mirror just don't expect your smile to be there

immediately. It takes a while to actually get it back. But, smiling definitely

helps the attitude (psyche).

Thanks for your replies! I appreciate your help.

Recommended Posts