A week and a day aka there's a hole in my bucket...err palate

So you know those times when things are going really well and you're waking like Leonardo DiCaprio in that meme...you know the one....and then something happens to take the wind right of your sails? That was today, friends.

Things were stellar yesterday morning - I could breathe FINALLY! I was drinking large quantities. The swelling had gone down significantly.  I still look like an extra from The Walking Dead, but there was definite progress.

Yesterday evening, I noticed something odd.  When I drank water, a tiny bit dribbled out of my nose.  This struck me as odd, but not emergent, so I decided I would call the surgeon's office this morning to get some feedback on it.  

This morning, the amount of fluid that was traveling between the two was slightly higher and it was starting to become uncomfortable.  I still wasn't worried, but made a point of calling as soon as the office opened.

After some backing and forthing, on the phone with the office, it was decided that I have a fistula in my palate.  That is to say, there's a hole where there oughtn't be.  It is likely quite small.  May even just be that a membrane, while healing, has become thinner than it ought to.  Either way, not something that should happen.  I expected when the nurse said that "the doctor will call you back and he may give you something for it", we were talking about a medication or an exercise.  What I was not expecting was the direction to not drink water or thin fluids for the next week and hope it heals itself because otherwise I will need more surgery to repair the hole.

To say I am crushed would be an understatement.  This feels like a giant setback to me.  I am going to do everything in my power to keep anything from permeating that hole/membrane this week, but I am also not feeling terribly hopeful about it.  Things don't just "fix themselves," in my experience.

I am concerned about hydration.  I drink a lot of water (see blog posts re: NDI) and kind of hate the Ensure, so I am not sure how this is going to go.

I'm also frustrated because this shouldn't have happened and likely wouldn't have happened if it weren't for some particularly rigid staff at the hospital and their "my way or the highway" philosophies around certain aspects of aftercare for this surgery, many of which contradicted the doctor's directions and those in the written documentation I received from the hospital.  I had begun drafting another post addressing this yesterday, which will be broadly about self-advocacy and readiness in patient care.  I will go into the reasons for my frustration more there, but for now let's just say there is some baggage attached to this bit of shitty news.

Here's an updated pic....I can almost smile and I almost have cheekbones again, guys!