UPPP Surgery – Recovery Day 4

Last night felt like I actually had close to proper sleep for the first time since the operation, instead of drifting in and out of painful semi-consciousness all night. At least, as close to proper sleep as is possible when sleeping in a recliner.

I didn’t take an Endone before lights out and had no trouble getting off to sleep for a few hours – but I did wake up at 3am in a reasonable amount of pain. So I took one, grabbed a Zooper Dooper out of the freezer and watched another episode of Bojack. By the time that was done I had no trouble going straight back to sleep through til 6:30am – so that was nice.

In another pleasing sign, even though I woke up sore, I held off on taking any pills for a bit and discovered that the pain settled down quite quickly after a few flushes and spits with water and diluted mouthwash. So I didn’t take any Endone this morning, just Targen and Panadol.

Since the operation I’ve really had no appetite to speak of, and I’ve really only been eating because I know I need the fuel. However this morning my stomach was actually rumbling for some breakfast for the first time all week. So that’s probably a decent sign that I’m on the mend as well – it’s just a shame that it’s still so painful to swallow, even forcing down my scrambled eggs and smoothie was difficult.

Unfortunately the day kinda went to poo after that. I fell asleep again after breakfast and woke up very sore. Walked up to the shops in the afternoon to buy more soup, and decided to try lying down in bed afterwards to see if that’s tolerable now – spoiler alert, it’s not. Woke up feeling horrible, took some pain pills, and then stupidly decided to try and eat a tin of pepper steak soup for dinner. That was not a good choice… it was more peppery than I’d expected and I couldn’t eat much of it. It made me so uncomfortable I actually burst into tears mid meal and had to go and have a shower. The constant pain and poor sleep is really starting to wear me down.

Anyway, after cleaning up from tea the drugs were kicking in again and the evening wasn’t too bad. I’ve decided that I’m going to have to just keep taking the painkillers pre-emptively and not go without – I’ve got nothing to prove to anyone and I’m struggling to be a sane parent and husband when it’s really hurting. Also, I think too much time prone on the couch is probably just causing me to get more phlegmy and painful – I need to move around more, it seems to help.