4 weeks & 2 days post-op

I'm starting to wonder if I have an iron deficiency since the last 10 days I have been feeling extremely lethargic, tired & unmotivated. The first 2 weeks post-op I was definitely in recovery mode, the 3rd week I was quite energetic & motivated, getting lots down around the house & feeling very normal. Then last week I just couldn't be bothered. I've been thinking that I'm just lazy, but it's very unusual for me to be like this - I'm usually the person that gets up early in the mornings especially on weekends & just likes to be busy doing stuff. But the last 2 weeks I have sat on the couch & read all day every day. I can barely motivate myself for 30 minutes before Matt gets home from work to at least make the kitchen look respectable. I even started wondering whether its very mild depression (which apparently is quite common after this type of surgery), but I don't feel emotional or anything, just tired.

I don't think my swelling is going down at all, so today I started taking Arnica which has mixed views - lots of very strong support in the homeopathic industry & lots of anecdotal evidence of it doing amazing things, but there seems to be little evidence from clinical trias. Anyway, worth a shot! I also started taking liquid iron & liquid vitamin C which I had bought before my surgery but didn't ever feel in need of until now. I'm sleeping 10+ hours a day, and last night got 9 but felt like I normally would on 6 or 7 hrs sleep.

Since Tuesday was my 4 week mark and my OS said 3-4 weeks after surgery I can start going to the gym again, I went to a pump class on Sunday to try & kick start my health & weight loss. Admittedly I haven't been to a pump class in about 4 months, but I used the lightest possible weights & took it very easy, but its still taken me 4 days to get over it! Even at my unfittest I never reacted like that. I have been in so much muscle pain its not funny.

Reading up on other jaw surgery blogs, the way I feel sounds similar to a few people who were diagnosed with anemia after their surgery. My OS hasn't asked for any blood tests to check on that at all, so I'm only guessing, but it seems a fairly logical explanation. Especially given that when I had my iron levels tested 3 weeks before surgery, they were a little low, then I donated 450ml of blood a week before my surgery + had 3 lots of blood tests in 3 weeks (some of which required 12 tubes!!), then had my surgery (where you lose a bit of blood anyway), and they decided against giving me any of my blood after the surgery (since I'm not underweight or anything!). I can only assume that the first 3 weeks of healing really used up a lot of the iron in my blood & now I'm a bit low. So, lots of iron & vitamin C for the next few days at least! I better go & have another dose now.

Here are my pics from today (yes, I know my nose is ridiculously crooked)..