15 days: Eating after unwired.

15 Days Post-Op

I honestly can not believe that I am not 15 days post-op. It seems like it was just a few days ago I was arriving at Kaiser, and waking up with my jaw wired shut. Life seems to be getting back to semi-normal. I mean I can talk again, and I can eat with a utensil like a normal human being.

I was expecting to have a lot of pain once I was unwired. Thinking my jaw would be sore and cause headaches, and just discomfort. . I have had a few minor headaches, but I think that is from the bands they have me wearing for the next 4-6 weeks. Nothing a little motrin has not been able to knock out.

I do find eating uncomfortable. I am smashing my food down on my fork or spoon so I don't have to open my mouth as wide. I should probably start pushing myself to open a little wider starting Monday. I will be nice and give myself a few days to take it easy. I am nice to myself like that. Also, now is the time I wished I had feeling on my bottom lip and below that. I can't feel food just chilling on my chin, or lip. This is why I will not be eating out in public for a few weeks. I did go to peet's coffee with my mom and sat outside and drank my freddo in my ball jar with my cuppow lid. I got many compliments on my "cool" cup. If only they knew that I had the sippy lid because I can't sip out of a straw. My surgeon did say I can start using a straw, I just found it really hard to get my lips to close and not get drink everywhere. So I will continue to use my cool cup : )

Brushing my teeth is tiresome. Keeping my mouth open so I can fit the brush in and get the inside of my teeth really good is a little painful. However, my cute little Tigger brush makes brushing so much fun. It was either Tigger or Dora.

Sat pool side with my buddy, who picked up some leaf accessories.  Funny guy.

My favorite toothbrush.

2 WEEKS Post-op!

Well, I survived 13 days of being wired shut, and one day unwired! I feel good today. A little tired, but like the Doctor told me it is to be expected. My body is trying to heal itself. It comes in waves, one minute I feel pretty great like I can take on the world, and two hours later I am ready to sit and not move.

I ate oatmeal for breakfast, amazing! I mean seriously real food is so great. Having my tongue finally break free from the prison behind my teeth is a phenomenal feeling. I got icing from a cupcake I ate last night on my finger and being able to lick it off absolutely delightful. It's the little things that make me happy.

I decided to get out of the house by myself today, as the Doctor said now that I am unwired and off codeine that I can drive. So I took a little adventure to Peet's coffee, and Trader Joe's. I am a regular at both and most the workers know me. As soon as I walked in to Peet's the manager immediately said, huh something is different, did you change your hair? As soon I spoke I am pretty sure everyone knew whatever was different had to do with my mouth. While I can talk pretty good, it is very forced and some things come out better than others. At Trader Joe's the girl who checked me out knew I was having surgery and couldn't get over how great I looked. She said while the swelling is apparent, that she could see the change in my jaw line and couldn't stop talking about the change. Turns out while it is nice feeling like I don't need to explain my weird tight jaw voice,  I don't know how to respond to how I look different. I just said "yep, it is pretty crazy".

One thing I am noticing is that my swelling is pretty much at a stand still. I wake up more puffy, and by evening the swelling has gone down just a little. Other than that nothing new to report. I will give you all exact details.

I did try singing again today and recorded myself just so I can look back and see how far I have come. It was pretty funny. It is hard hitting those high notes without dropping your jaw. I didn't mention it in yesterday's post, but my husband put on the Les Miserables soundtrack on the way home and I sang my heart out. He said my voice even though it was tired, and word pronunciation was interesting sounded even more amazing. My tone has changed just a little. It is not so bright and forward sounding. Most likely, because I have more space behind my nose causing a more open sound.  In a few weeks I will dedicate an entire post to singing, and how the surgery has affected my voice.

Day 13: Happy Unwiring Day!

DAY 13:

So today was the day I was finally unwired. It was all I imagined it to be and more. I can tell it is only going to get better from this day forward. I know there will be ups and downs, but being able to talk and communicate is a major plus. My surgeon was impressed with how I was healing and was super surprised at how much my swelling had decreased. He has not seen me since the day of surgery, but he was sure I would get really swollen due to the fact he ended up moving things a little more than he had originally had planned. He moved my top jaw up and out, and my lower jaw was moved out /forward and up, as well as adding some chin (aka genioplasty). He said my incisions looked good, and were healing nicely. I was just relieved to hear all was well. I was so freaked after sneezing on Saturday, so this really calmed all my worst fears.

He was optimistic that I would get 100% of my feeling back, as I was already starting to have some tingling on the one area (my bottom lip and below that) that has no feeling. 

He also gave me bands that I have to wear for the next 4-6 weeks to keep my jaw healing in the correct position, and showed me how to put them on. 

Unwiring experience. Not so scary, just a few snips here and there and you are done. He then let me brush, and rinse my mouth, and that felt so great! However, it also felt so strange to be unwired. It felt as though my jaw was going to fall off. Trying to talk felt super unnatural. I wanted to keep my teeth together. Opening my jaw farther is definitely something I am going to need to work on, and push myself a little every day. I did sing the entire way home. I still got it. Okay, it's not quite the same yet as I can not open very far. The picture below shows where I am as far as opening, which is not much.

We went to Dickey's BBQ on the way home and got twice baked potato casserole. It was interesting trying to fit even a baby spoon in and get the food off. I put the potatoes on my spoon, and then flipped the spoon upside down and used my tongue to get the potatoes off. That seemed to work best. A strange experience. I feel like a baby learning how to eat. 

Well here are some pictures of today, plus a side by side comparison of my before and after x-rays. Sorry they are not the same size. Had some issues trying to scale the after down, and gave up.

Before/After

Smiling still feels and looks unnatural to me.

Day 12: Tired...

Well, not much went on today. Woke up kinda feeling down in the dumps. I was exhausted. I just wanted to sleep all day. So I pretty much stayed around the house. Slept, read, and watched TV. I think lack of sleep is catching up with me. I am sick of sleeping elevated and on my back. I normally sleep on my side. My neck feels stiff from sleeping. Over this recovery process I guess. On a bright note tomorrow I get unwired, that is all I can think about!

No make-up today. Too lazy! ; ) Bruising is getting better. It is pretty much on my neck and chest only at this point. Just a few little marks on my chin, and one near my lip.

Day 11: Energy + A sneeze (I'm terrified)

Day 11:

I finally have energy! I wouldn't say I could run a marathon, or even survive walking around for hours, but I am ready to get out and do things! Today has been amazing, besides being wired shut still. That is not amazing, but for those of your reading this I am pretty sure you already knew that. I have felt a million times better today, my stomach no longer hurts. I drank a ton of water, and ate some amazing meals today. By ate,  I mean drank of course. I really wanted mexican food so we ended up ordering chicken tortilla soup from my favorite restaurant and blended up the soup with cheese, tortilla chips, cilantro and a little chicken broth to thin it out. It was to die for. Honestly, it would be an amazing soup blended like that. I might talk to the owners and let them know how great it was blended. So creamy and delicious. Yum. We also ordered flan, and I made floup, aka flan soup. It was a good night. : )

I did a few things around the house, nothing that would cause straining, or lifting over 5lbs. but I did stuff. Felt good to do something. I even put a little makeup on today, that's how good I was feeling.



Oh, and I got out of the house today to go look at a house my In-laws are most likely purchasing. It was nice to get out of the house. Not that I could really communicate with anyone, but I tried. : ) Let the charades begin.

One more day until I am unwired! Yay! I have never been so excited for something. I am ready to use this new jaw. Start breaking it in so I can get back to normal life.



I SNEEZED just now while I was uploading photos. This is a huge deal, because they talk about it in class and how important it is to relax and not sneeze through your nose rather your mouth. Um, I didn't sneeze through my mouth 100%. It did not feel good. My whole jaw clenched. I am so afraid that I messed everything up. I have been trying so hard not to sneeze. : ( I would imagine that if I really hurt my jaw it would hurt extremely bad? It doesn't hurt extremely bad, just feels weird. Fingers crossed everything is okay. I have x-rays on Monday before I see my surgeon.

                                       

Just being silly.

Day 10: It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to

Day 10: (I know I am a few hours late, but pretending like I am writing this last night)

I woke up feeling AMAZING. It's my 32 birthday today. It's my favorite day of the year. The day that is all about ME! Just kidding. : ) Just to prelude into this day, yesterday around 7p I took more smooth move tea, as I have had nothing going on since last weekend. Yikes. Turns out being constipated was the least of my worries or cares about this surgery. I basically brushed that whole idea under a rug and didn't think about it... until it was to late.

Like I said, I woke up feeling amazing. Around 9 a.m. the stomach pain was horrible, and it only got worse through the day. I am not going to go into significant details, because well no one wants to read about that, BUT know it was a miserable long day. I am now going to take some stuff daily called "Natural calm". Two of my best friends, who are both pregnant, have recommended it so I am trying it out. Anything would be better than what happened today.  All of this to say screw more fiber. Do not count on that to get you going. Get a laxative, get something to take before you go to bed to make you go the next day. Don't screw around thinking that if you eat enough fiber you will be fine. Trust me you will not be fine. You will want to die.

By the afternoon I felt much better, just some random stomach cramps. My mom ended up coming over and staying with me most of the day. My mother in law also stopped by and ended up running to the store for things. My brother came by a little later to check in on me. So I guess all in all the day was still all about me. So it wasn't all bad, right?? Eh. Not how I had pictured the day going.

Best part of the day was around 7p. I was feeling MUCH better. My two bestest friends Heather, and Elissa surprised me and came by with balloons, flowers, a bag full of amazing delicious soft foods! Gluten free mac n cheese, gluten free brownies (I will make those edible even if I have make them in micro bites), gravy, gift cards, borrowed money returned, my favorite Lemon blueberry cupcake, from my favorite gluten free bakery, Miglet's in Danville. I will stop listing everything now, but there was so much AWESOME stuff. OH THE CARD! It was the best. It was a hamburger that sang a happy birthday song to you, my favorite part was that Elissa happened to have the song memorized, and decided she should sing it with the card... cracked me up! My poor upper lip. Does anyone else have pain when they laugh, or smile to big? Boy, that does not feel good. Sometimes it doesn't bother me and other times it feels like I am ripping out my stitches. So strange.

So I can say my birthday started out well, and ended well so overall it was a decent birthday!

Moral of the story is kids that you should take something daily after  about day 3-4 of your surgery to promote regularity. Don't learn the hard way like some people.

However, I have decided that my non official birthday this year will be August 10th. Hopefully by then I will be feeling better, and I will have eating with a spoon down so we can have people over to celebrate, with real dessert that I can eat with a spoon! : )

Amazing birthday card and balloons

Look pretty rough in this pictures, but I didn't want to skip a day.

Day 9: Home alone + top 10 things I am glad I purchased before surgery

I survived being home alone for 7 hours. My husband worked a half day today, because I have a phone appointment in an hour or so and I decided today I wanted to be by myself. It actually was nice. I didn't have to try to communicate with anyone. I got up and did a little laundry today, and texted with a friend who lives in So Cal most of the day. I find I feel better mornings and afternoons, and worse at night. That seems to be the trend the last few days. I guess I get tired, and my jaw gets achy from trying to talk? Who knows.

I am about the same as far as swelling, and numbness. Nothing to exciting to report. I have pretty much figured out how to drink without spilling every time. Not always a slob now. So I was a little bored so I wrote my blog early : ) I will tell you all about the phone appt. with the nurse tomorrow. Pretty sure this appointment was supposed to be last week, but we found out when my husband called a few days after surgery with questions for the the RN for the department that she was on vacation the week of my surgery. So he ended up talking with my surgeon. Since I have nothing else to talk about here is some info...

Top 10  things I am glad I purchased before surgery. In no particular order:

1. Breathe right strips: They have been my hero the past week and a half. My nose gets super clogged by night and nothing help except breathe right strips. I had never used them previous to surgery. I am so thankful I read someones blog who mentioned them. THEY ARE TRULY AMAZING. If you are having surgery definitely buy a box!

2. Sili squeeze with eeze: They are little, only 6 ounces, but the rubber nipple is amazingly gentle and you can get it right up to your teeth. I use mine for water. It was really great especially the first week when I was super swollen.

3. Cuppow lid for a mason jar: This has been amazing. I have a friend who had double jaw surgery and she complained that her sippy cups and other cups she had that were plastic started holding the taste of foods. So everything started tasting gross. So she had to buy more sippy cups. This lid turns a ball jar into a sippy cup. Glass will not hold flavors. Plus I can use it after the surgery as a cute commuter cup with a straw : )  I bought mine on amazon. 

http://cuppow.myshopify.com

4. Humidifier: I put it right next to my bed, kinda hung around our room for the first few days. I never had a nose bleed...not sure if that was the reason, but I am sure it didn't hurt.

5. Air purifier: If you have allergies like I do. I would definitely purchase one. We had been talking about purchasing one for years. My allergies are out of control and they get really bad in our bedroom. I think it's because the dogs sleep in there or something? Maybe I don't clean that room good enough. I haven't sneezed (thank God), and I hope I don't for weeks!!  

6. Boogie wipes: Little saline wipes. They are so gentle and soft on your nose. I am almost out of one package.

7. Little rags: My husband bought some car rags at walgreens. Those little white ones. They have worked amazing. Just something to catch water and smoothies or whatever from running down your chin. : ) 

8. White board: If you are getting wired shut. Def buy one. 

9. A good blender:  We bought a vitamix for ourselves last year and that thing blends anything and everything. Seeds gone. Chunks gone. Doesn't need to be a vita-mix, but I would make sure you have something that will blend stuff down. 

10. Bed wedge: I was on the fence about purchasing thinking I could just use pillows. I decided $40 to raise me and hopefully get a decent nights sleep for a few weeks. Don't get me wrong I also use pillows : ) The bed wedge gives more support for sure! 

I bought more than that, but those are the things I use on a daily basis + the usual baby toothbrush and mouth wash sans alcohol. 

Day 9 Photos

((p.s. sorry I wear a breath right strip in all my pictures. I LOVE THEM!))

      BEFORE SURGERY PROFILE:                                           9 DAYS POST OP:

Pretty excited I could do a zoolander face once again. 

Day 8: A day late + photos from day 7

Opps, I just realized that I forgot to post the pictures from day 7, and I FORGOT to take photos yesterday! Well, I looked pretty much the same as day 7. The swelling seems to be at a stand still.

DAY 8:
 My mom came over and watched movies with me. We pretty much took a trip down memory lane and I found movies that both my mom and I loved as a child. So we watched "The Parent Trap" with Haley Mills, and "The Sound of Music". I tried to sing along, okay I hummed along.

We took a little drive to Jamba Juice and I got an aloha pineapple smoothie. Delicious. I didn't go in, but I left the house. So thats good. I did see people I know, I was so torn. I wanted to wave and say hi, but then remembered I can't talk! Getting so frustrated with not being able to talk.

I can feel more brackets touching my cheeks. My bottom lip and below that to my chin is still numb.

My smile feels so stiff! I hate it. Smiling doesn't hurt if I do it slowly, or if I laugh slowly it doesn't hurt. Spontaneous laughing hurts my top lip. It feels like all my stitches are being ripped out. Not fun.

So I felt really good all day yesterday. I took no pain meds all day, because I didn't feel to bad. Maybe that wasn't the best idea, around 8p I started feeling really hot, achy, and just exhausted. Had a 99.9 temp, and started feeling some pain. I had a melt down. I started crying (which holy crap hurts your entire face). I was just feeling overwhelmed, and I think tired of everything. Having jaw surgery is not just about the pain, or being uncomfortable it really changes your life. I used to be so social and active, and now I can't talk or communicate, I can't really go anywhere because I can't talk, and I feel like I look so strange. It's just a huge change. They mentioned that after 2 weeks post surgery and unwired I shouldn't need the codeine as much so I can drive and get out of the house! I will be able to talk hopefully as normal as possible! : ) I just want life to get back to normal.

Pictures from Day 7::

Day 7: Feeling alive...

Day 7:

Today my husband had to head back to work. He had a full week off to stay home and take care of me, and he sadly had to go back and take care of business. On the positive side that means I am a week post op! Yay.

I want to take a moment to say that my husband has seriously been amazing. I mean he is always amazing, but the last week wow. I wouldn't want to take care of me. I can't communicate. I drool. I have food on my face after every meal. I can't help around the house, because I can't do anything that could strain my jaw. So basically I can do nothing. He did the laundry, cleaned up, made me smoothies, and when they were to thick and wouldn't go through he re-made them and strained them... I mean wow. The patience and the love. I can feel the love tonight. (Cheesy- Lion King). Oh and did I mention he does all of that and then has to wake up to my jacked up face? He's pretty swell. I think I will keep him around for forever.

So anyways as I was saying he went to work today. So my amazing sister-in-law who is also one of my best friends, and is also 9 months pregnant came over to spend time with me. She stayed the entire day, and made me drink water, and eat. Pretty much making sure I was taking care of myself. I definitely feel loved. We pretty much just watched movies all day, and went for a short walk. Pretty eventful day.

Numbness. I don't think that I have discussed this. So I woke up with feeling in my nose, top lip, cheeks, and everything below my chin. The only place I do not have feeling is my bottom lip and directly under the lip all the way down to my chin. I didn't really feel my teeth or the inside of my cheeks for the first few days. I can now feel the brackets on a few teeth touching my cheek, and my teeth are now achy. It feels like the ortho just adjusted them. Its a very dull, but horrible pain.

My left side of my jaw had a little pain today, along with the left side of my neck. I really hope it goes away in the morning. Hoping I just laid wrong, or something. I know it's probably because I had jaw surgery 7 days ago, but I would like to think so far this hasn't been super painful as much as really achy, uncomfortable, and annoying.

Oh, and one more thing they mentioned that most times with jaw surgery you will be able to breathe out of your nose after surgery. I was worried, because I could never really breathe out of my nose before. I have always been a mouth breather. Since the surgery, even with a stuffy nose I have been breathing out of my nose and not from my mouth so thats great!

So I think thats everything... 5 more days until I am unwired!!!

Day 6: Things are looking up.

Well it's day 6. Which means that a week from today I will on my way to Oakland to see my Doctor and get UNWIRED! I am super excited. That is all I am thinking about as each day goes by...I am one day closer to being unwired.

I knew being wired shut would be horrible, but honestly it is really horrible. You can't talk at all. You can make noises, and sounds but you are playing charades and someone guesses what you are saying. 5 out of 10 times they are wrong because well they can't understand you and you get frustrated end up writing it and well it's frustrating. Lucky for me my husband has been amazing, and realizes that when I am frustrated it is not at him it is at me. I just want to talk. I also hate that I can't do anything that requires me to strain, or lift more than 5lbs. I feel lazy, and I want to help.

Wait, this was supposed to be a post about how things are looking up. Silly me. Well, I didn't sleep well last night due to the stomach cramps, but finally sweet relief in the middle of the night. Gross, whatever. I was so happy.  Smooth move tea works.

I had a lot more energy than the last few days, and besides my jaw being a little achy and wired shut, it almost felt like a normal day where I am just exhausted from being so busy. I felt good today. Swelling has gone down a little more.

I am trying not to be concerned with how things are looking as I know this is not the end, I have a lot of swelling still and things will move. My lips don't close all the way at the moment. they were really trying to pull the bottom jaw out and up enough so they could close naturally. It wasn't a guarantee as my gum line on my top jaw was steep and curved. Nothing they could do or that I wanted them to do to that. So now it's the waiting game. Will my lips touch or will they not? We shall see.

I keep reminding myself that the whole point of surgery was to get rid of the horrible tension in my jaw, which caused me migraines, neck pain, and popping. So if those problems are fixed I am happy. I mean if I look better then thats okay too.

Oh I saw my orthodontist today. He wanted to just see how the bite was set. He was so impressed and said everything looks pretty lined up, except for my back teeth they are a little open so not quite touching, but it will be a quick fix! I hope when he says quick he means that I will have the braces and everything off by December. I just want a metal free Christmas. Oh wait, my entire face is filled with metal now....

Here are pictures from Day 6:

Don't mind my breathe right strip. That is my life saver.

(this side is way more swollen)

I don't know why my eyes are closed, but I didn't feel like re-taking the pic. 

Day 5: Time for some fiber...

I woke up to some major bruising. I am very yellow under my chin and all the way down my chest. Also, some random purple spots near my lips. It's a good look. Not. I woke up feeling pretty good, more energy, less pain and started to move around when my head started throbbing, and I began feeling nauseated. So I took some tylenol with codeine and went back to bed. Woke up after that nap feeling a little better but my stomach was still being weird. Cramping, and just feeling off. It dawned on me. I have not used the restroom for #2 since surgery. Gross, but those are the facts. The nurse told everyone in the class that constipation was very normal, but I never thought it would happen to me. I have been eating smoothies with added fiber... sure enough it's happening to me.

My husband ran to the store to get some herbal tea called smooth move. Oh, joy. So I had a cup of that this afternoon and now the waiting game begins. My sister in law and best friend are both pregnant and have had the same problem throughout their pregnancies so they are all over what I can do if the tea doesn't work. For those of you who are having the surgery I would say prepare to be constipated and pick up either smooth move tea, or natural calm, or magnesium before your surgery. The combo of not eating for days,  eating weird things, along with all the meds are not helpful.

Decided that I needed to get out. So we took the dogs for a little walk around the block. It was nice to get out and do something, even though I was a little self conscious about my face being so swollen and colorful.

I am counting down the days until I get unwired, July 29th! Not being able to talk is sooooo annoying. I am sick of mumbling and playing charades. I am so thankful that it seems like my recovery so far has been pretty easy. I have had no vomiting, no nose bleeds, no real stomach pains before now. My swelling is already starting to go down... I have read other peoples blogs and it seems I am ahead of schedule a little, which makes me happy! I had prepared for the worst case scenario so what I am experiencing is better than what I expected!

OH I almost forgot to mention I was allowed to take the tape off my chin today! Yay. No more trying not to get food all over it.

Sophie, know that when I look at your blog all I think about is how jealous I am that you are not wired shut! lol OMG that food you posted. I would die for not liquified food! Okay, that might be a little dramatic...

I promise I am clean in these pictures that is not yellow soup or smoothie on me. : ) I have never seen myself bruise yellow before. So weird.

Day 4 :

Well day 4 is almost to a close. I am sitting here watching the Giants game and thought I should probably go ahead and get my blog on.

Today has been so much better. I am not sure if I am just getting used to the feeling of being wired shut, or if maybe my swelling is going down a little. Previously I have been eating drinking out of either a large syringe, or these little plastic sippy cups called the sili squeeze. I pretty much only drink water out of the blue sili squeeze because the plastic was picking up other flavors. Yuck!

I decided to get out this sipper thing I bought that goes on top of a ball jar, and try it out today. Yesterday I barely ate anything. So I was determined to at least drink 3 smoothies. I have two down and its 6:43p. I have drank way more water today, still not enough but hey baby steps right?

Bruising is definitely showing more today. My whole chin area is yellow, with a few dark purple spots under the tape. My chest is very yellow, and slightly purple. Strange it takes so many days to show up.

Swelling seems to be going down a little as the day goes on. So I am hoping that tomorrow morning it will be down even more. One can hope right? Maybe once the sun goes down tonight I will take a walk around the block. I can't go when it's light outside, I know way to many people in our neighborhood and I will frighten small children. : )

Here are some pictures of the cups:

This is a sippy lid from a company called "cuppow". It just goes on top of the ball jar. I think it's supposed to be used with a straw, but it is working great for me!

This is called sili squeeze. It is all rubber material and very easy to get liquid out. The sippy part is rubber so I can put it right next to my teeth. : ) 

Washed my hair today and was exhausted after cleaning up so decided to rest. Pictures while lounging. So excited tomorrow the tape comes off!