Days 12 & 13

So, the best news of the past couple of days is that I saw my OS yesterday and everything is fine! He said that my muscles are just trying to adjust to my new bite, and that's why it feels like I'm not biting into the splint. No crazy rubber band configurations, no being wired shut, just the same thing I've had for the past week. I know there was a very (very very very) tiny chance of him wiring me shut, but I'm sill so relieved!

Sunday I went out shopping with my mom for a couple of hours. We went to the outdoor mall, and it was really nice to walk around outside...even if it was cold. By the time we got home I was exhausted. I'm starting to feel like I have some energy, but I have no reserve energy, so I get tired quickly. My OS told me that this is normal and that it will take awhile to get those energy reserves back.

OTHER UPDATES:

Swelling- I haven't seen much improvement in the swelling over the past few days. Sometimes I look at myself and think "wow, you look almost back to normal" (which I know is so not the case, it's just the vast improvements since days 1-5 that make me think this) and other times I think that I still look like a balloon.

Talking- I still don't think that I'm understandable...my OS had trouble understanding me, and you'd think he'd be used to listening to patients with splints and swelling! This needs to vastly improve before I go back to school or I'm going to be carrying a whiteboard everywhere I go!

Bruising- there is still a little bit of yellow along my bottom jaw and some bruising under my chin, but it's fading and is much less noticeable now.

Stitches- I haven't noticed any of my stitches dissolving and falling out, but my OS said that one already dissolved (a bit early) because he could see a tiny hole where it had been. It's nothing to worry about, I just have to make sure I keep my mouth clean, which I'm doing :)

That's pretty much all that's been going on. Here are some pictures (Day 13) for your viewing pleasure, haha.



<3 Stefane

Day 11

I wanted to post this morning, but my computer blue-screen-of-death-ed me, all better now (hopefully)!

I was tired yesterday. I wasn't down in the dumps or anything, my body just wanted rest, so I spent a lot of time watching movies and reading. On the plus side of being tired, I slept through the night last night!!! Eight entire hours! Uninterrupted! I was very pleased when I woke up and my clock said 7 am...in case you couldn't tell!

I updated on everything yesterday, so today I'm going to talk about "food" and some of the stuff that has tasted good to me since my surgery.

Cream of Chicken Soup with Cream cheese mixed in- this is actually the sauce for a chicken dish that I like. It was the fist savory thing I "ate" after surgery, and it just felt so good to have something thick in my stomach.

Mac and Cheese- this doesn't blend well, but I used one of those food choppers (like this: http://www.amazon.com/Kitchenaid-Cook-Cure-Pink-Chopper/dp/B002R243U2) on the noodles and that worked well.

Refried Beans and Cheese- it would be better with chips, but...it was still pretty good.

Mashed potatoes- whipped with milk and cheese!

Chop Suey- I don't like the meat, so I had the broth on couscous (I usually eat it with rice, but couscous is smaller). This was a little messy, but it was different.

Cookies- it's Christmas, how could I not figure out a way to eat my mom's homemade chocolate chip cookies? I put a couple cookies in a plastic baggie and crushed them up. Then I mixed the cookie crumbles in with some milk. :)

All this talk of food has made me hungry, so I'm going to go mash up some mango for a snack!

<3 Stefane

Days 9 & 10- Christmas after jaw surgery

Sorry I didn't write for the last 2 days, I took a break from technology for Christmas!

Christmas was interesting...I got presents with tags on them saying "Do NOT Use Until NEXT YEAR!" They were things like a tube sled and a air pop popcorn maker (which I've wanted for my dorm room for awhile now). Eating Christmas dinners was even more interesting!

For Christmas Eve we always do out big Italian dinner: Wedding Soup, Chicken Parmesan, and Manicotti. So, I ate soup, then blended up the chicken with extra sauce, and blended up the manicotti with extra cheese. The chicken actually tasted pretty good, but somehow the manicotti didn't...

Christmas Day I actually ate some french toast for breakfast! I chopped it into tiny pieces, so all I had to do was put it in my mouth and swallow :) For dinner my family made a pork tenderloin (which I wouldn't have eaten anyways) and twice baked potatoes. I ate an entire (very large) potato, and have another in the fridge for later today!

Updates:

I'm sleeping much better now that I'm taking the Ambien. I wake up once in the early hours of the morning, right around 5 hours after I last to Motrin, and then I sleep until morning!

Numbness-I have a tiny bit of feeling in my bottom lip! It's very minuscule, I can only tell it's there when I'm deliberately trying to tell if I have feeling...on the other hand, my chin is still completely numb. Most of the rest of my face is still very tingly.

Congestion/coughing- I'm still very congested and am coughing a lot. It's really annoying, because it hurts my jaw to cough so much...

The splint-I can open my mouth pretty wide, so I've been really good about cleaning my splint, but sometimes it still feels slimy. I noticed yesterday afternoon that I'm not biting into it correctly anymore, my teeth kind of hit it and then slide forward into the groove. I'm a little bit worried. I'm going to see my OS bright and early on Monday morning (at 7:15 IN THE MORNING!!), so I'm sure I'll have some new band configuration to help with it. But, in the back of my head there's this voice saying "what if he decides to wire my mouth shut?" I'm not sure how i would handle that...so I guess we'll see.

Here are my lovely pictures from Day 10:





Best wishes to all-

<3 Stefane

Day 8...up and down

Yesterday wasn't a bad day, but it wasn't really a good day either.

I went with my mom when she went to run some errands, and we ended up stopping at the grocery store on the way home She was going to go later, but it was snowing and the roads were still decent, so we decided it might be better to stop then. So, after walking around (and scaring small children) for 45 minutes, I was pretty tired when we got home.

I had some re-fried beans mixed with cheese for lunch, and that was yummy! I tried to have some potato soup for dinner, but it was really spicy (and I don't like spicy) so I only ate a little bit. I just wasn't really hungry yesterday...hopefully I'll be hungry today, we eat our big Christmas meal on Christmas Eve, so tonight's the night for my modified feast :)

I decided to use MucinexDM to try to help with my congestion and coughing, so I took that last night and I'll take it again in a little while. I was still up coughing for awhile this morning, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was the night before.

I'm starting to wonder how much my speech is influenced by the swelling and how much by the splint...I'm sure the swelling has some impact, but how much? Will I be talking like this for the next 5 weeks (when I get my splint out)? Or will I be more understandable by the time I go back to school in 2 weeks (Yikes!!)? My mom thinks I'm talking better, but I think she's just getting better at understanding me, because it is really hard to talk! It's not painful (a little uncomfortable when I say more than a few words...) my tongue just doesn't know where to go, and it trips over the splint, and I can't really open my mouth to enunciate...so I guess we'll see!

Pictures from Day 8:





That's all for now. Hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!

<3 Stefane

Day 7...maybe I'll finally get some sleep

Day 7 didn't start out so well, I was up really early because I couldn't sleep (again...even with Advil PM...)

My mom asked me if I wanted to go get my nails done, since she was going in for a fill. I thought about if for a minute, and decided to go get a pedicure. It was the first time I would actually be out in public (except for my OS appointment)...I was a bit apprehensive, but I'm not a regular at the nail place, so I figured what the heck, let's do it! Be prepared, the first time you go out in public, you will get strange looks...especially if you still look like a balloon, are yellow and purple all over, and have tiny band-aids on each side of your face :) My mom told the lady doing my toes that I had just had jaw surgery, so she didn't ask me questions or try to get me to talk, which was very nice-plus she let sit in the massage chair while my polish was drying, instead of having me move to one of the regular chairs by the drying light/fan thing.

On the way home we stopped at the DMV (a place I would avoid even when I'm not 1 week post-op from double jaw surgery) because I needed to renew my license plates. My mom had to run out to the car to grab something she'd forgotten, and the lady at the counter kept asking me questions...now, my family has gotten pretty good at understanding me, but she could not understand half of what I was saying! And she just kept asking and re-asking questions! I was starting to get really frustrated when my mom came back (mind you she was gone for less than 3 minutes...)

By the time we got home I was tired, so I had a smoothie and some couscous and watched TV for awhile. I know I really didn't do much (sit in a massage chair and be pampered) but just that little jaunt out of the house was enough to tire me out!

Since I still wasn't sleeping well, I decided to have my mom fill the prescription for Ambien my OS prescribed on Monday. And, I actually slept last night! I was up for a while early in the morning, but that's because I was coughing really hard...

Has anyone else experienced chest congestion and coughing after the surgery? My OS has me taking a decongestant (to help clear up my nose and sinuses), but that seems to be draining everything into my throat and chest, and then I cough...luckily I can open my mouth as much as I can, because I'm coughing up mucus and it's really gross, but I can spit it out...

Day 6- Starting to feel better!

I actually had a really good day yesterday! And, it was my first full day just taking Motrin and not taking any Vikodin! My days are mostly good now, nights still are a major issue...

I had a smoothie for breakfast, which I actually ate sitting at the kitchen table with my family while they ate bagels... I'm able to "eat" with a lot less mess than I was a few day ago!

I had my 1-week post-op appointment at my OS in the afternoon. When I got there I only waited in the waiting room a couple of minutes (versus 20+ normally) before they brought me back...where I waited 30 minutes for my doctor. My mom made a comment about them bringing me back here to wait now that I'm swollen and uncomfortable, I told her they did it because they didn't want me to scare anyone :D My OS said everything looks good! I asked him about the trouble I am having sleeping- he said it was fairly normal and I could try Advil PM and he would prescribe me something if that didn't work. He took out the external stitches and put band-aids on the incisions instead, those have to stay on a couple days. He also showed me how to take my rubber bands on and off, so I can "eat" and brush my teeth a bit more easily. While the bands were off he measured my opening...(drumroll, please)...20mm. That's right, 20. He said it was incredible!

On the way home we stopped at Super Target because I wanted Couscous and we needed to get the Advil PM. I stayed in the car...I'm still very drooly and was not going to walk around Target with a washcloth bib on...

I had a bowl of couscous when we got home, and it tasted sooooooooo good! It was the first time real food tasted good to me...I've had soft scrambled eggs, cream of chicken soup mixed with cream cheese, mashed potatoes, etc, but none of those really tasted good to me.

I was tried after that, so I decided to rest and watch a movie. I wasn't tired to the point of wanting to take a nap, I just needed to sit and rest for awhile.

For dinner i made Velveeta (smashed up) shells and cheese, which turned out to be a lot more complicated that I thought (the noodles weren't quite small enough-even tough I'd smashed them with a rolling pin-so I had to chop them up once they'd cooked-not easy, they're sticky) but it was something else that tasted really good :)

After dinner I took a long, hot shower (as I have done every afternoon). I don't know why washing my hair makes me feel better, but it truly does...

Sleeping didn't go so well again last night, even with the Advil PM. I kept waking up, and I don't know why. My body is tired, I'm tired, I need a good night's sleep, but I can't seem to get one. I think I might have to use the prescription my OS gave me for that sleep aid...I don't really want to, but I need to sleep!!!!!

Now, picture time!



Cheese!! Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is a smile!



Hope everyone is doing well in their preparation or recovery!

<3 Stefane

Pictures, Days 4 & 5

Day 4:
I don't really know if the swelling went down between days 3 and 4, but bruising did start to emerge...



Here you can see how swollen I am under my chin...


Day 5:

I think the swelling has gone down some, maybe along my bottom jaw :)


I like that, in this picture, you can see how my chin isn't quite as out there :) though you can see the bruising.

And, lastly, a lovely shot of the bruising that began emerging around day 4 and got worse into day 5 :)

I'm going to see my OS in a few hours, so I'll have more to update you all on after that!