Mindlessly Boring Healing

I have entered that No Man's Land in the healing process where I can't really do anything and I'm bored. I'm tired of sleeping alone in a recliner, I'm tired of eating soft stuff, and I'm tired of feeling useless. I'm not a great patient; two days should be enough down time, by my thinking. My mother used to say "Wait 3 days. You'll either be better, or dead." She was probably talking about the flu, though, and not face surgery.

I'm a little worried about my ears; it's usual for the ears to be numb for some time after surgery, but mine feel like plastic. It's as though they don't actually belong to me and are perched on the side of my face so there will be something for my reading glasses to rest on. I suppose I should be grateful; my guess is that when feeling comes back to my ears, it will come with a vengeance.

The directions from the doctor were specific about the compression bandage fitting over the ears to provide pressure both in front and in back. I take this to mean that the Ace bandage is holding my ears in place. There's also a warning about being careful not to tear the ear sutures putting on or taking off clothing. But not to worry, the warning says, if you tear your ears off they're easy enough to put back on. (OK, it doesn't actually say "if you tear your ears off", it's more along the lines of "if you tear the sutures out." Same thing, though. Right?)

Too much light seems to bother my eyes quite a bit; for the first time ever I asked my husband to close the blinds on the sliders that lead to the back porch because it was too bright. I can manage about an hour of TV before I need to lay back and ice my eyes some more. The swelling around my eyes is much less than yesterday, and I'm beginning to think I'll resemble "normal" in another day or two, at least around the eyes.

My husband says I look a lot like my sister right now. My sister, seven years younger than I and known as The Pretty One, has a more triangular shaped face than mine, and swelling around my cheeks and ears has distorted my face towards that shape. All things considered, it could be worse; I could look like my brother, who is older. Frankly, I'm thinking I look eerily like Julie Newmar (hah! that dates me!)