One week after surgery--No more splint!

On Monday I went to Palo Alto for my after surgery check in. I was supposed to get all the stitches off but I kind of wimped out when the doctor was doing the ones in my nose. It freakin hurt! So I stood it for several minutes with a lot of flinching and muttering "owwwww" until he suggested that we could leave the remaining stitches for next week, if they don't fall off by themselves in the meanwhile. Anyway, the ones that were the most visible and pinching me the most have been pulled out, so I barely notice the ones that are left.

Everything else is doing really fine. The doctor said the remaining swelling it totally normal for this stage and will go down slowly as I continue to heal. Now I'm wondering if the swelling on Thursday was actually a reaction to the meds or if my face just swells up at the slightest provocation. Mehn. It would be great not have another antibiotic I'm allergic to.

And as was promised I got to take the itchy, horrible splint OFF my face! Then it was immediately replaced by tape, which I have to wear for one more week, and which also can't get wet.

You can't win.

On the bright side, the tape is much more flattering than the splint, and I can actually touch my nose when it itches now. That alone is worth it. If you told me two weeks ago I had to wear a piece of tape over my nose, I would have said, "Oh no! I'll look so weird....." Now, after having a huge bandage taped to my nose, gauze taped to my face, and swollen shut eyes from bruising--a little piece of tape is no big deal.

And here is my almost-back-to-normal selfie!

My face looks like me again!

Even from this picture on Monday, there still seems to be some swelling. Especially the area between my eyes. It doesn't look quite right, like there's too much forehead or something. the shape reminds me or one of those dinosaurs or lizards with deeply indented eyes on the sides of their faces and a really wide forehead, probably for crashing into each other to fight over the females.