Guest guest Posted March 8, 2004 Report Share Posted March 8, 2004 Hi Meredith, Good luck with your upcoming surgery. Here's what I found were very helpful to me. Aquaphor (it's like vaseline) is great for your lips right after surgery and during those first days as they will be swollen. Although my lips were numb, they were swollen and I felt the Aquaphor helped speed their healing. Note: a small tube goes a long way. Resist the urge to get the bigger tubes or tubes of it. Buy a small container of eye moisturizing drops. I found that my eyes were " icky " when I first woke up ... I guess they use something to close your eyes. I felt that my vision was blurry as if there was a bit of vaseline in them, if that makes sense. I didn't have saline eye drops and asked the nurse for them. They charged me a fortune for them on the hospital bill and I had to wait a while to get them. Would have been easier to have them with me and just plop them in. You will need Qtips. Lots of them. You will not be allowed to blow your nose for at least a few weeks postop (I wasn't allowed to for 6 weeks) and the Qtips help to extract anything lingering in your nose. If stuff in there is crusty, moisten the Qtip with a saline solution. This was one of the most important things for me: a natural saline spray for your nose. Not a medication like Afrin, which works great for a few days but then has a rebound affect that makes your congestion worse if you continue to use it. The saline spray that we have is called " Ocean " , but our local supermarket has their own brand. It's in the section with the other nasal sprays. This has no medication and you can use as much as you want. You will need this to clear your nasal passages if you feel you are having troubles breathing through your nose. I used this around the clock for at least 10 days. Get TONS of it. Sometimes I used it to loosen nose stuff that was thick but I couldn't blow out. Then it would loosen up and drip out or use the Qtip to grab some of it. You might want to ask your surgeon what over the counter meds he will prescribe for you after surgery and get them ahead of time. I was told Sudafed and so glad I had it when I arrived home. That and Motrin for pain management. Best of luck to you. I know the days leading up to surgery can be scary. But you can do it! Irish! > Hi there, > > I am scheduled for surgery on 3/26 (upper jaw only for an open bite) > and wondered if you veterans had any tips for preparing - like is > there any equipment, medication, creams or contraptions that I > should get before the surgery that will help (even if in the most > minor way) during recovery? I'd appreciate hearing about any " gosh- > I-wish-someone-had-told-me-about-this-earlier " items! > > Thanks so much for your help! > > Meredith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 8, 2004 Report Share Posted March 8, 2004 Merideth, Check under the files portion of the site. Although I'm still pre- surg, I have attempted over the past year to capture the knowledge and advice of the veterans on this site into a checklist. The file is the only PDF file there under my name, so should be easy to find. It has, among other things, a pre-surgery shopping list. Dammit > Hi there, > > I am scheduled for surgery on 3/26 (upper jaw only for an open bite) > and wondered if you veterans had any tips for preparing - like is > there any equipment, medication, creams or contraptions that I > should get before the surgery that will help (even if in the most > minor way) during recovery? I'd appreciate hearing about any " gosh- > I-wish-someone-had-told-me-about-this-earlier " items! > > Thanks so much for your help! > > Meredith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 8, 2004 Report Share Posted March 8, 2004 No need to reinvent the wheel... There's an extensive list posted on susan fiddlesticks' geocities site. Check it out! Good idea to think ahead, though. And other folks may have made other discoveries since. But do start there. Cammie > Hi there, > > I am scheduled for surgery on 3/26 (upper jaw only for an open bite) > and wondered if you veterans had any tips for preparing - like is > there any equipment, medication, creams or contraptions that I > should get before the surgery that will help (even if in the most > minor way) during recovery? I'd appreciate hearing about any " gosh- > I-wish-someone-had-told-me-about-this-earlier " items! > > Thanks so much for your help! > > Meredith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 8, 2004 Report Share Posted March 8, 2004 No need to reinvent the wheel... There's an extensive list posted on susan fiddlesticks' geocities site. Check it out! Good idea to think ahead, though. And other folks may have made other discoveries since. But do start there. Cammie > Hi there, > > I am scheduled for surgery on 3/26 (upper jaw only for an open bite) > and wondered if you veterans had any tips for preparing - like is > there any equipment, medication, creams or contraptions that I > should get before the surgery that will help (even if in the most > minor way) during recovery? I'd appreciate hearing about any " gosh- > I-wish-someone-had-told-me-about-this-earlier " items! > > Thanks so much for your help! > > Meredith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 8, 2004 Report Share Posted March 8, 2004 No need to reinvent the wheel... There's an extensive list posted on susan fiddlesticks' geocities site. Check it out! Good idea to think ahead, though. And other folks may have made other discoveries since. But do start there. Cammie > Hi there, > > I am scheduled for surgery on 3/26 (upper jaw only for an open bite) > and wondered if you veterans had any tips for preparing - like is > there any equipment, medication, creams or contraptions that I > should get before the surgery that will help (even if in the most > minor way) during recovery? I'd appreciate hearing about any " gosh- > I-wish-someone-had-told-me-about-this-earlier " items! > > Thanks so much for your help! > > Meredith Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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