Day 214 - Seven Months! (Braces Update!!)

So I made it to 7 months! June 10th - January 10th. pretty awesome. (happy belated new year!)

So hmm, a few days ago I had an orthodontist appt to check my finishing rubber bands (the really tight ones) that were the last step to me getting them off. They said my teeth look great and that I can get my braces off February 5th!! YAY!!! I am so excited. Literally can't even wait. A month is gonna feel like forever even though I've had my braces on for 3ish years. Since my freshman year. and now I'm a senior. that is way too long! but anyway.. i guess i gotta talk about the issue.

Although all my teeth touch and I'm thrilled to get my braces off, my jaw has been killing me the last 3-4 weeks. I grind my teeth a ton at night, and i think a combination of all the stress I've had lately combined with the finishing wires has made my jaw pain flare up. also, it has been clicking much more often and i have been getting awful headaches again. The part that scares me though is that it has been going on for so long… just makes me question if ill ever get past this all :(

So, i talked to my jaw doctor the other day. He is the one that fitted me for a special retainer before i even had braces and before i even knew i had to have surgery (in 8th grade). This helps get my jaw in a relaxed position while protecting my teeth and jaw from grinding. The thing is.. I can't wear it with my braces. So, i need my braces off before i can get treatment for grinding my teeth at night sadly. So… i guess ill just wait a month and hope for the best.

I just can't even sleep it hurts so badly :( I've been taking lots of medicine too. sigh. hoping things get better, but I have hope that they will. I think the thing causing everything is my grinding teeth issue. but anyway, ill be done ranting for now! hope all is well with anyone out there. thanks for listening.

-Katie:)

Day 132 - Busy, Busy, Busy

so this past week i have been dealing with a sinus infection, and that made my jaw pain increase substantially. the areas on either side of my nose not only ached immensely from the sinus infection, but also the plates there from surgery just made my whole face ache. ouch! luckily i am starting to feel better from the antibiotics i got, and things are going back to normal.

sorry i haven't updated for a while! golf season just made me insanely busy. since i have to go finish up some homework, ill just attach a few random pictures, and then update at a later date?

im set to get braces off at the end of january as of now.

 

my HUGE pills for my sinus infection. 875 mg.

my last homecoming!

golf tournament with my tissue box. don't golf with a sinus infection. not fun.

GUYS. I had my first piece of gum today (well multiple). another reason why i felt it appropriate to make a post. Before surgery i was truly addicted to gum, we are talking like 5+ pieces of gum a day, so it is pretty darn great for it not to hurt to chew it again. yay for normalcy!

I still get headaches and randoms aches depending on the day, but hoping that it just continues to be less and less... some things are irritating from surgery.. but overall i can live with it.

hope all is well with you guys!

-Katie:)

Day 63 - NINE WEEKS. i did it. :)

Guys, i made it to 9 weeks. and things are pretty darn great :) i am doing really wonderful overall and could even describe things as "normal". if you asked me 1-2 weeks out if i thought that was possible i would have said never. but here we are!

So tomorrow i go back to school, hence i won't be writing in this as much. I successfully wrote in this blog every day for the first 9 weeks, and i'd say this is a good time to make it updated less often. which is a good thing! that means i must be doing well :)

swelling- i feel like by the end of the day my swelling worsens a tiny bit from all the talking and chewing that i do. but overall i think it is mostly gone.. still some though. i saw one of my friend's mom the first time since surgery and she commented that she thought i was swollen, but my friend thought it was mostly gone, probably since she has seen me several times since surgery when my swelling is much worse. i guess it all has to do with perspective. but i look very normal, so i am okay with it right now, not too frustrated anymore :)

energy-normal! woo. the only this is that im way out of shape now, i feel pathetic. haha, i mean not that i was "in shape" beforehand... but i even felt kinda tired from walking in golf. oops! normally i work out in the summer.. but it just wasn't gonna happen this year. but oh well.

chewing- i know i have talked quite a bit about this in the last few posts seeing as this is the main thing going on right now in my recovery! i still LOVE food immensely, and things are getting easier and easier to eat, which i am so grateful for. the clicking is still there but not always so we will see how that turns out... so before surgery i almost always had a piece of gum in my mouth, it just felt better to be chewing gum than to have my mouth awkwardly half-closed. and i LOVE chewing gum. but obviously that still isn't an option :( so in preparation for school, i went and bought several containers of tic-tacs, those will have to suffice until gum is an option!

numbness- okay, so this is getting harder and harder to describe... so bear with me. ill place my numbness into categories. the only parts that are completely numb are my upper gums, and the incision areas. everything else i don't count as completely numb because i can tell when i am touching it.

stiffness- this has been kinda annoying throughout recovery and one of my biggest complaints the last few weeks. i mean i can smile fairly easily and talk and make normal facial expressions, but my face just feels stiff and weird! probably partly from the partial numbness still. i assume this will get better

normalcy?- i now quite often will forget that i had jaw surgery during the day until i either have a random ache, or i get hungry and realize that there are only so many things that i can eat. but hey, not a bad thing at all :) it is really nice for surgery to not be consuming my life anymore. it is weird when people ask me how my summer was and i have to make that split decision as to whether i tell them i had jaw surgery etc. i am getting better at explaining it, but it still takes a big of time and idk! i haven't decided who all needs to know about it.

pain- any "pain" is pretty much gone, i have some aches for some parts of the day, but nothing horrible, just kinda uncomfortable. but the times where i feel great is when the pain and discomfort is gone and i forget about surgery.

sensitivity- it still kinda hurts to brush with my sonicare, so i have just been using my regular and/or baby toothbrushes still.

nose- i have had really really bad allergies lately from golf and so i end up sneezing a ton. not good by any means, but not the end of the world. sometimes blowing my nose hurts really bad so i have been trying to be careful with that.

bite opening- i am still working on opening my mouth wider, a hard process that leaves my jaw achy sometimes, but im slowly improving! almost to 30mm need at least 35.

pictures!

hope all is well with you guys. thank you to anyone who has read my blog or commented, the support has really helped more than anyone can imagine. i hope that this helps someone, but if not, it has been amazing to put all of my thoughts into one place during recovery. on those days where it seems like it wont get better, i can always look back and see how far ive come. which is so great :) take care, until next time.
-Katie:)

Day 59 - well... at least i can chew again!!

YAY. I can chew. long story short.. ahha. but ill back up to my appt.

my surgeon checked to make sure my plates and jaw position wasn't unstable or moving. and said it was all stable and healed super well, so yay for that :) makes me feel better about putting pressure on my jaws by chewing. he then tested me opening and closing my mouth and didn't notice any clicking in my jaw.. so said i should resume eating. he said the clicking isn't anything major as long as it isn't hindering how far i can open my mouth... and with that... he said i need to keep at opening my jaw wider, i am now at 27 mm and need to be at least 35 mm wide. so i am continuing with my exercises with my tongue depressors! haha... he said by my next appt in 2 weeks i need to be at 30 mm. so i better get at it.. i want to be able to open wider too. especially with singing..! show choir started up this week! and im so happy for that, absolutely love show choir... singing and dancing on stage is just too much fun. and we get to sing parts of Phantom.. who doesnt love that theme?! woo :)

hmm... other things, i got back to school on tuesday. so i am going to stop doing daily posts starting monday (at 9 weeks post op). because ill be too busy to post... and also I've started to have less and less to say... which must be a good thing!! :) but trust me, ill still keep this updated, itll be weird not to write in this before i go to bed every night....

also, my birthday is a week from today! so yay for that.

in chewing news... i tried chewing on my way home from the appt (grabbed a cookie from the downstairs cafe at the hospital which was delicious btw) and the clicking was minimal, so hopefully that goes away eventually :( super annoying....

as far as pain goes at this point, some days i feel absolutely no pain. just some discomfort still, but other days, like today, i have some areas that ache. yesterday the left side of my lower jaw ached while today the right side does. it isn't bad enough for me to feel like i need medicine (trying to stay away from all of that, even motrin and tylenol). if it ever gets bad enough ill take medicine, but luckily i can easily manage without it!

until tomorrow,
-Katie:)

Day 56 - 8 WEEKS!! - i can chew! (well.. kinda)

THE DAY HAS ARRIVED GUYS. as you can tell im pretty happy. best day ever. :)

i can chew. whoopee :)

my day started off with an early 7:30 am appt with my orthodontist. okay, i know i posted a little bit ago about the whole ordeal with rubber bands on the front of my mouth and the communication issues between my surgeon and ortho and their offices... blah. so today i finally got scheduled with my orthodontist. first they pulled out my lower wire. ouch! only to put the same one back in.... :\ did they really have to torture me that extra amount for no reason? they then switched my top wire, and i still have boxes with rubber bands... on the sides... just smaller boxes. i realized they weren't putting bands on the front... which is what my surgeon wanted... so i asked my ortho about this... cause i was concerned and confused. he told me that my front 2 teeth slightly were overlapping one another and so the band on the front would only worsen that. which i guess makes sense.. hopefully my surgeon is okay with this? anyway... so i go back to see my ortho in 4 weeks. all of the nurses/assistants there were all over me again asking how i was, even ones that i barely recognized! so weird (in a good way) and cool that they all know about me and such :) it was very nice of them.

after my early morning appt... (i have been suffering all day from not getting a ton of sleep last night :P better get on a better schedule again, oops!) i walked into my kitchen contemplating whether i wanted an egg or smoothie when suddenly it hit me. i could try something new. i immediately went for the cinnamon-sugar toast. well... i just microwaved it so it would be soft, so actually it would be bread not toast :P and then just put a ton of butter on it. and had my first attempt at chewing! after EIGHT WEEKS of nothing. wow. the first thing i would call it is.. weird. really weird. it feels like hmm.... like i am chewing a piece of rubber. because i feel like my jaw isnt strong enough to bite down completely on everything. just kinda squishes the food down enough to swallow. and it kinda gives me a headache. and my left jaw started clicking/popping which has me super worried..... i hope this goes away :( so i need to start practicing and reteaching myself how to chew! was i expecting it to be hard to chew? yes. was i successful at chewing? only a tiny bit. was it still amazing? YES:)

so, one of my friends texted me since she knew today was the big day. she came and picked me up and we adventured through target. i decided that what i wanted the most today, was potato chips. i figured they would dissolve easy enough to make them manageable to chew. so we picked up 2 bags and just sat and watched a movie and netflix together all afternoon. it was pretty great. :) i basically ate potato chips for both lunch and dinner and am not even ashamed to admit it! ill go back to eating "healthy" stuff tomorrow... today was a special day.

In regards to the whole chewing thing, itll take a while to get anywhere near normal. Today, i started to get sores underneath my top lip and cheeks from rubbing against my braces... whether this is from talking a lot, or the ortho adjustment this morning, or chewing, i have no clue. but it makes it hurt to talk! so hopefuly those heal up quickly. i may be wearing wax tomorrow.

also... i wanted to complain quickly about the numbness still around my incision areas or areas in the back of my mouth still being numb, because now that i can chew, i got food stuck in all sorts of places in my mouth and didnt notice for a while! so annoying... don't know the best way to clean that out besides just brushing my teeth (since im not allowed to use my water pick yet). so ill just be brushing my teeth a lot for a while...

so! since this is a big "8 week" post... ill write more about how i am feeling/doing overall

sleep - i can now sleep on my face without pain, so yay for sleeping curled up in a ball:)

energy - normal! i havent exercised yet mostly because it feels weird on my face to run and/or jump... the pain is slowly going down. but i feel like it would be kinda painful for me. i could tough it out if necessary though!

numbness
so this is getting harder and harder to explain. ill start off by saying that i can "feel" everywhere i touch except for my gums on my top teeth. which is pretty great. now.. i have a TON of partial numbness though. the inside of my mouth has the most numbness. areas around the incisions are pretty numb. hmm, so are the insides of my cheeks. my left cheek is way more numb than my right though which is weird. the areas on either side of nose are the most numb on the outside of my face. but idk, it is really hard to tell what is numb and what isnt and what is tingly, idk! just all runs together. ill include in this part this my face is still stiff. smiling is still a tad awkward. and yeah

random stuff now... so... im still working on getting to open my mouth wider, im slowly making progress! im at about 28 mm, and gotta get to 35 mm. hopefully i can! cause it makes singing easier when i can actually open my mouth.

my nose still is annoying... pretty sure i have a deviated septum now :\ so i can almost never breathe out of the left side of my nose... but idk. we'll see what happens in the future...

i am still not taking any medicine for pain, even though sometimes i have it, it isn't bad enough to take medicine normally. yay for that :) i have a lot of headaches though... and just random aches. but oh well. gets better by the day still.

swelling is pretty much gone. some people say they notice it, some don't. not sure what to believe, i feel kinda puffy, but i think this is mostly just from the remaining numbness and stiffness.

anyway, i think i got enough into this post... overall things are great :) hope all is great with anyone still reading this. a big thanks if you are :) this blog has been amazing. much love.

-Katie:)

Day 54 - Patience and Positivity

If there is one thing i have learned throughout this recovery.... it is how vital patience is. I am not the most patient person.... as i'm sure you can all tell by my posts and their complaining nature :P I feel like a lot of things in this recovery revolve around waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting... waiting for swelling to go down... waiting for numbness to disappear... waiting to be able to chew... waiting for normalcy. BUT, I wanted to say things probably aren't as bad as how they may have seemed this whole time!! i have just used this blog mostly to complain. because venting about everything just makes it better. but sometimes i feel like i havent always done a good job of including all of the "good" things in my recovery. overall things are great. i promise!

I don't need to take any medicine for pain, my swelling is pretty much gone, all of my stitches fell out, my numbness gets better by the day, and my energy is normal! sometimes i even forget that i had jaw surgery, well.. until i get hungry and realize i can only eat so many things.. so monday will be the next step for things going back completely to normal! CAN'T WAIT. it is one thing to suck on bread until it is mushy enough to swallow vs. chewing it. food tastes so much better when you can chew. i promise. haha.

plus... i am still loving my profile. yay for no overbite!! or open bite for that matter. I'm obsessed with the fact that when i bite down my teeth all touch! not just my very back right molars.

best of luck to all of you guys going through this whole process as well, take care :)

-Katie:)

Day 49 - SEVEN WEEKS. :) :)

GUESS WHAT. 7 weeks today since surgery!!! woooooooooo. today has been the best day since surgery i think. by far. i just magically feel pretty darn good :)

at 8 weeks ill do a huge long update about every single little issue, but tonight im just choosing to ramble on about nonsense, so i apologize.

let's see, i had a milkshake tonight.. and figured i could try to use a straw since i was cleared to use those, but NO. just no. huge headache. don't try it... takes a lot of effort with something that thick... ouch!

today was a momentous day, for part of the day i forgot that i had jaw surgery. WOW. I didn't think that would ever happen... as either the pain or numbness has been a constant reminder of this whole ordeal. but i hope i have more parts of the day where i forget :) i was reminded again once i realized that i couldn't chew anything... oops...

BUT, originally my surgeon said i could chew at 8 weeks post op! so ONE WEEK LEFT. hopefully. fingers crossed. I have an appointment with him tomorrow and i will update on that! it is still hard to tell myself that i can't chew when i don't have any pain... you guys that got the "ok" to chew early on are VERY lucky, please enjoy your ability to chew. please.

my teeth continue to ache as if i had just gotten my braces on. but could be worse.

swelling is pretty much gone!! whoopee. i went out to lunch with some friends today, one of them said she couldn't notice it anymore, and the other said, hey, your facial features look more normal now! and i consider both compliments. woo:)

these next ones i just though were a good comparison of before/after

before                                                            after

since my teeth actually come together now... i feel like my face is more round and not as long... not sure if this is good or bad, but not complaining, i love my bite too much! overall i feel like i look pretty much the same. but i guess in the old pictures i got really good at sliding my jaw forward! so i wont have to worry about icky profile shots now i suppose.

so... i grind my teeth at night.. and i feel like this is making me wake up with really bad headaches and jaw aches lately... if you read my first post ever, i think i talked about it. so i am going to bring it up with my surgeon tomorrow and see what he says about it... cause all the pressure from it just hurts!

anyway, ill update tomorrow after my appointment with my surgeon, maybe ill have good news!

hope all is well with you guys!

-Katie:)

Day 48 - Frustrated

Hello to anyone and everyone :)

So today has just been a day of ups and downs. and i don't even think anything is really even that significant... but it just feels like everything is such a big deal :(

On the positive side, i feel like my swelling went down a tiny bit today... it may go back up again tomorrow, as that is what normally happens.. but i guess as long as it goes away eventually ill be okay.

But.. i do want to just rant for a brief moment about how i have been thoroughly annoyed with my puffy face throughout recovery.. i mean, i never really minded people seeing me, but the part that is kinda annoying is that i have pictures of me taken with other people where my face is blatantly puffy. like, my cousins were in town a couple weeks ago, and there are lots of pictures with me and all them and other family, and now just in my mind all i see in those photos is "katie's puffy face". same with pictures i have with my friends. it could be worse.. but im just annoyed. okay. end rant.

but the swelling appears to be nearly gone today, so ill be done complaining about that!

While I'm ranting about things that bother me... might as well add my nose to the list, and by nose, i mean how the middle part is pushed to one side now (i believe this is a deviated septum)... i can never ever breathe out of the left side of my nose now :( i mean sometimes.... but if i am the tiniest bit stuff due to allergies.. then that side of my nose is screwed. makes being outside and golfing really fun... plus it just itches uncontrollably. why? i don't know. besides allergies. but idk... also, i have pain on the inside of my nose sometimes, and i don't know why, and i don't know how to stop it. plus... i can't stop sneezing. i feel like i sneeze every 15 minutes. and it kinda hurts both my jaw and nose when that happens.. yay....

goodluck to all of you guys in recovery :)

-Katie:)

Day 43 - the post that kinda replaces the "6 weeks" post

i made it back from my choir camp!! i missed my 6 week post though... or at least a long one with relevant information. SO.. since i am home now, you get to hear all about everything.

HAPPY SIX WEEKS. wow. i am literally so happy i made it to this point! yay! i walked upstairs from camp today and the first thing my sister said to me was, "hey! you actually look normal." way to be nice about it... but i guess that is still a positive thing! i have pictures from the last few days

the aftermath of singing 12 hours in one day...

MY NUMBNESS IS GOING AWAY. if you can't tell... i am really extremely happy. i can feel part of my upper lip now and roof of my mouth and nose. the area between my upper lip and nose is still tingly/stiff/numb, but improving every day! i now have hope that i will regain most of my feeling :)

all in all. i feel pretty normal :)

now that my pain is pretty much gone... I really want to chew. and so it is really hard to rationalize the whole "no chew" diet when i don't have pain. but hey, hopefully ill get to do that soon!

so i was brushing my teeth tonight and 1 (out of 2) of the stitches left under my upper lip fell out! very painless luckily... although this is the same one i accidentally snagged on my toothbrush from last week. but hey, not complaining

i am still glad that i did the surgery.. although i feel kinda weird with my face... this may be partially due to the stiffness, but also, i can tell the slightest difference to my face that most people would probably ever notice..

i can't believe it has been 6 weeks though... incredibly blessed to have had my family and close friends that put up with me during recovery. 

life. is. good.

-Katie:)

Day 40 - Cookie Incident

Soo.... today I was volunteering at the library as I do most weeks (we all know im a nerd) and one of the ladies that works there brought in cookies (i believe it was somebody's last day there, but not sure) and towards the end of my volunteering, I was asked if I would like a cookie. They were homemade and so i felt so bad turning it away! but seeing as i didnt have a plate, fork, and knife to make the cookie "eatable" by my standards I had to say no. But i felt rude, so then i quickly added on "because i had jaw surgery and can't chew otherwise i would!.." definitely got the sympathy looks, but since i had to get back to reshelving the books i didn't really elaborate on the surgery etc. i find these situations incredibly awkward because i can never decide if i tell people about my surgery or just let it go...

tomorrow i leave for a choir camp, i guess it'll be my first big test to see if i can sing somewhat normally still! *fingers crossed* granted, i can't open my mouth super wide, but it'll just have to do as is. I'll let you know how it goes... if anything, singing will help with me trying to get my mouth to open wider!

At this point, I am completely off any medicine for pain or discomfort in my jaw, just the occasional tylenol or motrin. yay! I am realizing that my numbness is going away too. i can feel part of the roof of my mouth, part of my nose, under my eyes, and a small part of my upper lip now (in addition to my outer cheeks and chin and lower lip) the most numb part is still the areas directly left and right of my nose, but.. everything is SUPER tingly and feels like it is constantly vibrating or something. so annoying. it bothers me a ton lately... I am also bother by the fact that even though the pain has gone away (mostly) i still can't chew!! like... it has been ages.... why can't i chew yet? :( so for you guys out there that are able to chew. please just love chewing as much as you possibly can.

i have been craving wheat thins, carrots, chips, and cucumbers this last week. mostly carrots though. but i doubt ill be able to eat those for a long, long time.

I feel like my swelling goes up or down depending on the day at this point...... I know that it is at it's worst when i wake up in the morning, partially because i sleep on my side. but idk... this just bothers me so much.. because i feel so puffy still looking in the mirror. i know it doesnt look bad in most of the pictures i take, so i guess that is good... but seriously.... i know i look swollen in real life still. my family notices it too. but i just want it all to GO AWAY. nobody likes you swelling. fingers crossed that in the next 2 weeks it goes away.

another thing that bothers me immensely is my stitches! with regaining some feeling... i am now very aware of where they all are. and i despise them.

but until later,
-Katie:)

Day 36 - Pizza!!

I ATE PIZZA TODAY.

well.... i didn't chew pizza... since im not allowed... but! i cut it up into the tiniest pieces ever and swallowed. it definitely took me about 75 minutes and i didnt even finish the whole thing. but it just made my night!! yay for "real" food:)

i also accidentally tugged on of the stitches under my front lip when i was putting my bands on... that stung! it is still in... but ouch. the whole area kinda hurts. so i just took some motrin. not the end of the world

but until i hurt my stitches i hadnt taken ANY medicine for over 24 hours. yay for almost no pain!!

well, off to class. 

-Katie:)

Day 34 - NO PAIN TODAY

Guys...!!! it is midnight, and i havent had any pain medicine since this morning. and for once, i don't think i will need any to help me fall asleep tonight!! You have no clue how thrilled i am :) i mean, the pain wasn't at "0" the entire day, but hey, it is just a soft ache mixed with discomfort. and i can deal with that.... so i am just hoping i can continue taking only a tiny bit of tylenol and motrin now :)

today, my sister told me that she thought my swelling had gone down a lot from yesterday to today! as she hasnt commented on my swelling improving in over a week, i took this as excellent. the rest of my family agreed with her. i think my swelling is pretty much gone as of today:) just a couple small areas... i have spent the last few days with extended family, and they are so happy with how far i have come. and so am i! to think of how miserable i was in the hospital and just overall the first 2-3 weeks. just yay :)

as far as numbness goes it has improved A LOT in the last couple days!! yay. the main place that i have noticed this, is under my eyes. it no longer feels super bruised, but i think i can feel it like 80%! wow. the upper half of my nose feels bruised. and the lower half feels tingly. better than completely numb? probably. the little areas on either side of my nose are tingly too. is all this tingling annoying?? YES. completely. anytime anything touches my face... i just get a weird range of feelings... haha. but i am more hopeful about my numbness going away as of today. so fingers crossed! my top lip still wins the award for most tingles possible.

So, the next few days i will be at an engineering camp (yes, i am a complete nerd. haha). so i am not sure how much i will get around to posting! but ill be sure to update if something major happens. take care all!

-Katie:)

Day 28 - FOUR WEEKS. woo.

YAY. i made it! i really really made it. *happy dance* I honestly can't believe that my surgery was 4 weeks ago...  i know it sounds cliche, but it really does feel like i was in the hospital for surgery just yesterday. but in looking back over everything, i have actually come quite a ways. so yay. i'll try to just write a ton and try to update on different topics instead of my usual "write the random stuff on the top of my mind that probably doesn't make sense" sort of thing.

Numbness/Stiffness
So hmm. Seeing as i was too lazy to try to edit one of my pictures showing the numbness tonight.. ill just try to describe how everything is. so i apologize if none of this makes sense. let's see. okay.

80-90% feeling = my lower lip and chin, outer cheeks, gums on my lower teeth
0% feeling = on my nose, areas on either side of my nose, under my eyes, gums on upper teeth
5% feeling = upper lip, roof of my mouth

so i put my upper lip in the 5% category (even thought i can't exactly feel it) because it is tingling and almost vibrating like crazy. holy buckets. this is SOO annoying. and my nose and the other areas at 0. well they don't even tingle yet... they are just completely numb. well, i take that back. the areas underneath my eyes feel badly bruised. (taking off my eye makeup isn't the most fun).

I also get these weird feelings all around my face.. i have seen that other bloggers have had similar ones. for instance, my nose either feels like it is wet/runny (when it isn't..) or it feels crusty (when it isn't...). my lips also feel like they always have food or liquid on them. or they feel like they are chapped/cracked and sting sometimes too. fun stuff...! Also, if i go outside and it is extremely hot... my entire face feels like it is wet and/or has water dripping down it. not sure why.

another "funny" thing with numbness is that whenever i am eating in public.. i normally end up with food on my face that i don't notice. luckily i have friends that will tell me, and we all can laugh about it together! also, since a lot of my mouth has been numb, i feel like my perception of the temperature of foods and drinks is really weird. for instance, this morning i was eating a smoothie with a spoon, and all of a sudden i get the pain in my upper lip, i go to touch it, and it feels almost frozen. like my body is so numb it can't give me a warning until it either gets way too hot or too cold. i also feel like no matter how much i heat up a meal.. it always tastes like it is just lukewarm. even if it burns my finger to touch. so just thought id share :P

In regards to stiffness, it feels so incredibly awkward to smile.. but you know, im not going to complain too much, because at least the pain in smiling went away. i also feel like i can't easily make normal facial expressions if i am having a conversation with someone. but things are improving each day! soon i will not seem as non-expressive or rude.

Swelling
i think i finally look somewhat "normal" by now. i think that these pictures hide the swelling really well too. when i go out in public i feel like people wouldnt notice that i had jaw surgery recently or anything out of the normal.. but i think when i see people i know, they think i look either different or puffy. im not sure! i have gotten so many mixed views on the state of my swelling, that i don't know what to think. overall, this last week my swelling hasn't bothered me too much since it is minimal now. but i still want it ALL to go away!

i feel like my smile continues to get wider and more normal. yay.

Pain/Discomfort/Medicine
I feel like i have had more pain than most people by this stage in recovery... i am still taking motrin and tylenol during the day. and most nights i take 1 hydrocodone just to help me get to sleep. I am trying to get off medicine... but my whole face just aches whenever the medicine wears off. sigh. on the plus side, sometimes i do forget to take medicine if i am distracted :) like if i am doing anything with friends, i don't even notice that my jaw has started hurting normally until i get home.

I woke up this morning though with the area on the right side where my surgeon moved forward my jaw throbbing. and even tonight, it still hurts. i hope nothing has gone wrong... im a little worried. hopefully it goes away after a long sleep. my rubber bands hardly hurt anymore though!! yay! i can tell my jaw is getting stronger too. because, when i first got my bands, i could barely open my mouth enough to talk well. but now i can open my mouth even though i still feel resistance from the bands.

Food
First off, let me just say this. I WANT TO CHEW. so badly... I feel like so many people are given the "ok" to chew things by now.. even if they are limited in what they can chew. idk. just frustrating i suppose. another thing i found is that i haven't been allowed to use a straw during recovery yet. has anyone else been told this? so at restaurants i have spilled quite a bit of water on myself from sipping out of these huge cups. haha. ok. now i know i am not allowed to chew. but i can't just eat all liquids. so i just do what i can "tongue chewing" where i mash food up with my fork, and then kinda just let my mouth dissolve it enough with my tongue to swallow. once i figured out that i can swallow anything that is mashed by my fork.. my diet got a LOT better. i have broken MANY plastic forks along the way though... oops! I eat about 4 smaller meals every day and have definitely stopped losing weight. ended up losing 7 pounds (this was all just in the first week, after that it stopped going down). especially after discovering that i could eat cake :P

list of my food! (i am lactose intolerant, so have to avoid ice cream and milkshakes)

• smoothies
• i have been living on gatorade lately
• soups (tomato and chicken noodle (chicken and stars is great because the "stars" are small enough to swallow without chewing!))
• spaghetti
• cake/soft cookies/baked goods - good to mix with ice cream or frosting to help make softer
• eggs
• pancakes drenched in syrup
• mashed potatoes (gravy)
• hashbrowns
• stuffing - mixed with finely cut turkey
• sloppy joe without the bun
• yogurt
• applesauce
• jello or pudding
• baked beans
• black beans
• chili
• banana bread with a lot of butter microwaved to make mushy
• mashed raspberries and blackberries
• rice
• anything "noodle"

Energy
I feel like my energy is pretty normal as long as i don't do anything. I don't think I could work out though... i kinda get exhausted from doing a lot of physical things. i want to start working out again though!! i partially havent because things like jumping, or running, etc. kinda make my face ache.

Sleep
Time to complain again about my sleep....! i am now sleeping on my side, but i just hope it isn't irritating my face too much... I sleep on the really soft pillow and try to just put like the top of my head on it so that it doesn't hurt the side of my face. i am able to sleep much better now that i gave up on sleeping propped up! but by now my schedule is BAD seeing as i continue to be up til 3am. but i promise you it'll be back to normal... eventually...

Other
I am still brushing my teeth after every meal. and am still using my little baby toothbrushes! they are so darn cute and tiny and soft and wonderful. I don't think i have talked much about my stitches. My surgeon said that they would all dissolve eventually. sometimes they fall out and they look like clear fishing wire. but, i can see stitches under my top lip, and those are white and not clear at all, look more like floss actually. so do these fall out at some point? i can't imagine such a think string dissolving. but i guess we will find out..

Random Advice of the Day: don't go over speed bumps quickly the first couple weeks after surgery. that was not too much fun... haha

I have my first orthodontist appt tomorrow since surgery, and another appt with my surgeon on thursday. so ill talk about those after they happen.

take care everyone!! thanks :)
-Katie:)