I finally feel like I’m well on the road to recovery from my recent oral surgery to reduce a palatal torus. (Mine is the size in the photos on Wikipedia after the reduction). The actual procedure was fast. It was less than an hour from when I had the IV sedation to when I awoke.
But my expectations before I had the surgery didn’t quite align with reality. Here’s four experiences I didn’t expect.
Healing
Since the post-operative instructions only mentioned certain precautions for two weeks and the surgeon said travel was okay after the same period I assumed my mouth would be healed at that point in time.
Wrong! I still had a large open wound. It’s been a little over three weeks and although it’s smaller the wound is not completely healed. It appears 4-6 weeks a more appropriate expectation for full recovery.
Pain
At my consultation visit the surgeon had indicated that the recovery could be rather painful. He also recommended I plan to be out of work for up to a week as it would be difficult to speak.
These expectations set me up well as I never was in that much pain. After the second day I was fine on just ibuprofen during the day and the heavier stuff at night (to ensure I had a good night’s rest). I never had trouble speaking (even though my husband might have liked that 😉 ).
Although the pain was less than expected it lasted longer. I was still taking ibuprofen for soreness three weeks into the recovery.
Food
Although I hope to disprove this next statement in a trip to Italy in the near future I found there comes a point where you don’t want any more ice cream. I was on a soft food diet for nearly three weeks and got very tired of mashed potatoes, soups, and even ice cream.
I still am not supposed to have spicy foods or sharp foods like chips and popcorn. By the time I’m having a craving for these foods hopefully it will all be healed.
In the meantime, I’m working on getting back on the healthy eating track. So far, adding back in vegetables has been the biggest challenge. I’m just not naturally a veggie lover.
Exercise
I wasn’t supposed to exercise for two weeks. To be honest, I didn’t feel up to it. But then I just couldn’t get myself back into the routine.
Yesterday I got back to walking and today’s my first Kaia FIT class in nearly a month. I had gotten used to sleeping in a bit later during my time away from exercise and now I just have to work at it until it becomes habit again.
One thing I learned is to ask more questions if there’s a next time for any type of procedure. Have you ever had surprises after a medical procedure?
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