Day Two

It has been 48 hours since the beginning of the blepharoplasty surgery.  The blepharoplasty surgery, itself, took about 3 hours.  They said they wanted to keep me awake for the blepharoplasty surgery, so that I could sit up, but the anesthesia made it so that I was totally clueless and did not remember anything during the surgery and only a slight stinging feeling on my eyes as I was coming out of the anesthia. The stinging was not from the pain of the surgery, but from the cold of the ice cubes they had applied to the puffy eyes.

I felt good, but a little tipsy. The anesthesia makes you feel that way.  It was important to have a driver to get me home, though physically, I was not impaired. Mentally, I'm pretty sure I would not have made good decisions for several hours, due to the anesthesia.

This is my picture at the 48 hour mark after the blepharoplasty surgery.  You can see from the comparison below it that the deep, dark purple in the swelling has decreased to a deep red and the swelling has gone down. The puffy eyes are also going down.  The pores on my skin are larger because I have not been able to wash my face. Today I will be able to add hot packs to the ice packs and that will feel better.

TODAY (above)                    -             YESTERDAY (below)



In some ways it looks worse today,  but if you look carefully, it really is much better. The swelling is not so intense around the eyes and eyelashes are not swallowed up in the swelling.

I found myself looking forward to the warm packs.  The warm packs can be done one of four ways:

    1.  Warm wet washcloths put in the microwave. (The warmth lasts about 1.5 minutes)
    2.  Rice packs made from sewing rice into a washcloth and then warmed in a microwave.
         (The warmth lasts much longer, making rice packs an advantage.)
    3.  Using the same gel packs from the N.A.P. and warming them under hot water. (This is
         least affective.)
    4.  Using wet paper towels.  I found this to be the most effective. The wet paper towels,
         warmed in the microwave last about 1.5 minutes--the same as the washcloths.  The
         difference is that I can prepare three plates of five paper towels, microwaving them
         one at a time and the warm towels will last about 15 minutes, then the towels are
         tossable.  The warm paper towels help draw out any fluid from the wounds, so not
         having to launder them is a plus.

Folded wet paper towels are microwaved for

about 45 seconds to 1 minute in the microwave.



It is still to early to get my eyes wet, but I really wanted to wash my hair. We have in all of our showers in the house a flex hose for a shower head. We changed them years ago because they are so nice. You can get flex hoses at Home Deport or Lowes for around $75 and you just take off the shower head on your shower and replace it with the flex hose. You can have a plumber do it for you or do it yourself with a little instruction from the Home Deport or Lowes crew.  It came in very handy because I was able to use the hose to wash my hair without getting my face wet. Then I could stand with my back to the shower and rinse the back without it coming over into my face.  Below is a picture of the type of shower head that we purchased. They come in much more fancy--with pulsating changes in the water.

Physically, I feel fine today. I am going put on some sunglasses and meet a friend at Office Max in an hour and help her pick out some stock for her business cards.  I still cannot bend over and pick up things so my house is getting a bit cluttered, and I still have not had my grandchildren come over because I don't want to scare them and I can't pick up the baby.  Other than those small things, I am doing fine on day two.