Day 18: Talking a lot=Sore Jaw

Today was a great day! Woke up once again feeling good. A little tired, but good! I really feel like this entire experience is all about your mind set. Not to say that you don't have bad days, because I know you do, I did have bad days. I have tried to have a positve outlook that no matter what happens I am going to grin and bare it. It seems to be working. When I have a bad day, I mentally tell myself get some sleep and wake up and start over with a smile.

We ran a few errands in the morning, and then went to my nephews first birthday party in the late afternoon! It was nice to see a ton of family and get positive feed back on my recovery thus far. For those of you having the surgery it is really nice to have support from your friends and family. I have had a ton of support from family, friends, students and their parents. Everyone has been amazing. I feel so lucky to have such amazing people in my life!

The best part of the party was being social again. I feel like I've been a hermit in a cave the last few weeks. However, I still feel a little anti social. There were people I didn't know at the party, and normally I would socialize and make small talk, but I felt self conscious about my appearance, and more so the way I talk. My jaw gets tired so I start to mumble a little. So I stuck around family, people I didn't need to explain why I ate my nephews cut up hotdog, why I chew like a child, and why I had to drink with a napkin near my chin. It was just easier that way. By the end of the night my right side of my jaw was a little sore, and uncomfortable. That was just after 2 hours of party. I did chew super small bits of hotdog so that might have had something to do with the soreness. So needless to say I am glad I still have 2 more weeks off, before I get back into teaching voice and piano full time. The next two weeks I need to start working out my jaw more. Time to start being more social.

I forgot to mention we ordered pizza last night and I was able to eat two pieces! I should mention it was gluten free pizza, and well gluten free anything pretty much falls apart as I have mentioned before. So it was nice and soft. I stayed away from the crust, and also had to take the salami off. It was impossible to chew. I almost choked on a small piece. So to error on the safe side I just gave my salami to my husband. Lucky him.

Day 17

So nothing new has been happening. Just getting used to eating. I am still using my baby spoon, or fork. I find in the mornings that my jaw is stiff, and as the day goes on I feel more confident and comfortable with opening wider. I should add that I am allowed to chew. The surgeon said I can chew anything that is the consistency of pancakes. So today I went to peet's and also got my favorite wheat free muffin. For the first time ever being gluten intolerant has really helped me out. Gluten free foods, okay baked foods usually have a soft consistency, or at least fall apart pretty easy.

I had a pretty bad headache last night. Took some motrin and that helped make it bearable. That is the first time in 5 days I have taken any pain meds. Not bad. I think the headache was due to not drinking my 100 ounces of water yesterday. The nurse said that I should be drinking no less than 100oz, to help the swelling and healing process. So today I made sure to drink all 100 ounces.

Bruising is almost gone. I still have two little marks on my face, and my chest has one spot that is still a little purple and green.

Numbness is about the same. My chin and lip have been more tingly than normal, and I am starting to feel a little pain in my chin when I smile or make faces. So I am hoping that is a good sign that my feeling is coming back.

One exciting thing did happen last night. My sister in law had her baby last night. She's a doll. All 5lbs 4oz of Lilly are just perfect. Today I went for my first real trek by myself. I drove about an hour in traffic to the hospital to meet my newest niece! They are all doing great, and it was good to get out and see them. I was pretty tired when I got home today. No nap today, but I am sure I will sleep well tonight as I did not sleep well last night.

All in all I would say so far for me this has not been as horrible as I had anticipated. It is by no means easy to deal with the changes, but if you stay positive and know that eventually life will return to normal it's not all bad. I am excited to see my orthodontist on Monday so he can see what needs to be done. My back teeth do not touch on one side, but my surgeon said that will be something my orthodontist will be able to fix. My teeth are aligned now, but the teeth are open or something like that. Not that it matters for now as I am only chewing soft foods. However, I can not wait for all my teeth to touch, and to be able to BITE into foods! I am excited for that day to come.

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.