Day 112 - 16 weeks!! wow wow wow.

Oh my goodness, I made it this far!!! way past the 100 days mark, and soon approaching the 4 month mark (oct 10th). Things are pretty darn awesome :) if i weren't so busy with everything i would post more! but life just kinda gets hectic as im sure we all realize.

before/after 3 months.

SO hmm..... what to talk about relating to my jaw. well, i can eat almost everything now! I still have yet to try raw carrots or an apple.... but im a little scared. so ill just avoid those for a bit longer. some parts of the day i have no pain... but i normally wake up to a clenched achy jaw from grinding my teeth :( also, my upper lip is always really stiff in the morning, but by the end up the day it is more normal. hmm what else....

OHH GUESS WHAT. I have an ortho appt a few weeks ago and asked him when he thought id get my braces off since i was debating when id take senior pictures etc. my ortho said i would get them off by january. so YAY. 3-4 more months from now isn't horrible :)

I still have clicking more than not in my left jaw joint when i eat which wasn't there before surgery... but we'll see. some days it isn't there at all, so maybe itll go away eventually? idk..

I finally feel more normal when i see my reflection and can accept that this is my face. i dont just see "puffy cheeks" when i look in a mirror anymore. woo! Sometimes i still feel a little stiff and swollen, but just depends on the day.

Numbness is bearable at this point. my top gums are still completely numb which is fairly annoying. but oh well. everything else has at least partial feeling.

Also.... i have this weird feeling between my left nostril and my left top tooth. if i blow my nose the tooth and jaw area above it kinda vibrates.. and i feel certain things in both spots... maybe the nerve healed weirdly? like if one area feels something.. the other does too. and when i have a stuffy nose and i talk loudly.. the tooth and that part of my jaw vibrates too. sigh... sorry that was not a good explanation. but it's just so gosh darn annoying! hope this isn't permanent :(

my biggest complaint though is the sensitivity. brushing with my sonicare hurts so badly!! i hate it :( sensitivity sucks let me tell you.

and now you get the loads of pictures. because jaw surgery is a good excuse to take many selfies and not feel (too) ashamed. hope all is well with you guys!!

 

-Katie:)

Day 84 - TWELVE WEEKS (pictures upon pictures)

So since im not feeling a ton better yet (with my head cold symptoms), I am pretty positive that i have a sinus infection. whoopee :\ but oh well. ill head to the doctor sometime next week and hopefully get some medicine. just wanted to do some sort of update since i have free time tonight! i've been crazy busy with school and golf and show choir recently, missing school for tournaments and everything else just makes my life insanely busy! but oh well, i love everything, so i deal with only getting 5-6 hours of sleep and such. but it does make me appreciate my weekends :)

love not having my over bite!!!! :):):)

here are some candids from this weekend. wow! i don't have to worry about my profile anymore, woohoo :)

as far as jaw related things go, everything is pretty good. I am now chewing more and more. this monday is my 12 week mark which is when my surgeon said i can try to eat a steak.. yay! it still feels quite weird to chew though... so im hoping it just starts to feel more and more normal as the weeks go on. my biggest complaint right now is my sensitivity. i can't even use my sonicare toothbrush because it hurts so badly :( the sensitivity still feels like when you have a cold popsicle and it touches some teeth that are super sensitive to it and you experience almost some sort of pain. im not even sure how to describe it. but it is annoying and such. i also feel it when i eat hard food. so most times i just try to eat the softest food as possible...

BUT last night i tried to eat some steak because my family was having it and i was just starved. i cut it up into super duper tiny pieces and tried my best to chew. I could kinda mush it but it gave me a headache to fully bite down on the steak. so i just went and mixed it with baked beans and swallowed it whole. I give up on chewing things like that super easily.... just easier to cut it up extremely tiny and swallow whole.

but let's see... what else to update. oh i guess i could talk about numbness. the only things still completely numb are my upper gums. everything else i can at least tell that im touching it.
NUMBNESS:

90% feeling

• chin
• bottom lip
• bottom gums

60% feeling (i can feel it completely but there is tingling too)

• nose
• edge of cheeks (more towards my ears)
• left cheek inside of mouth

30% feeling (i can tell something is touching it.... but cant exactly "feel" it, and tons of tingling)

• upper lip
• roof of mouth
• inside left cheek (keep biting it accidentally when i eat..)
• the area of my cheeks right next to my nose (where the screws and plates on my upper jaw are)

0% feeling

• upper gums (i can't even tell when i am brushing them...)

still have sensitivity in my mouth, but i think it may be SLOWLY improving yay! but i still cant use my sonicare toothbrush... which sucks. it is really hard for me to get the "clean mouth" feeling. but oh well.

here is my bite. have an ortho appt wednesday and im FINALLY going to ask how much longer i have my braces on for!! hopefully i get them off soon....... *crosses fingers*

hmm, i think my swelling is almost completely gone! some days i wake up and look a tiny bit puffier than others... but i think im the only one that can notice it.

bored before school one morning about a week ago...

also, i still have my left jaw joint popping sometimes, but only after long periods of me not doing anything with my jaw and then i go to eat something hard. so maybe it is just getting used to everything again? hope so :( don't want to be stuck with that forever. at least i don't have pain when it pops though.

after days where i chew a lot, my jaw does ache. there are a couple different types of pain i still experience... one being just tiredness in the joints and just overall from over-chewing or talking. but then sometimes i have pain in my lower jaw where the plates are or my upper jaw where the plates are still. which probably shouldn't be happening but i don't know what to do about it.

my lips are less stiff!!! i still can't do "fish" lips... but i can at least make a "kissy-face"...

overall i am still so happy that i went ahead with the surgery :) even though it was a rough recovery the first month... i survived the worst of it and can now just move past all of this. i feel pretty good about my face even though i think i look different sometimes... but i guess everyone goes through that with this surgery. our face is just so integral to who we are... just scary to change it and still try to see yourself. but hey, having all of my teeth touch is SOOO worth it :)

my lips don't touch naturally still... but they are SOOOO close. so i can live with that. 

anyway, sorry for the loads and loads of pictures.... i just didn't really want to sort through a ton and figure out which were best to post, so i just put them all in! I hope all is well with you guys going through something similar... :) now to start another insanely busy week....

-Katie:)

Day 75 - I don't recommend having a cold soon after jaw surgery....

So in the middle of the night i woke up because i couldn't breathe, brought me back to the days right after surgery when my nose was all clogged with dried blood and such.... not fun! and then this morning i realized that i just have a full on cold. my voice is barely audible due to my croup cough and sore throat and my nose is all stuffy and it kinda hurts my face still to blow it. and worst of all i have SO much pressure in my sinuses. on either side of my nose (where i still have partial numbness) it aches so badly and i just feel like my head might explode. it is like a cold on steroids. gah...... just when i was feeling normal i have to go and get sick...!

and don't even get me started on sneezing.... so i have been trying to sneeze out of my mouth more after surgery, but when you have a croup cough that is not the way to go, but it hurts my nose a lot if i attempt to sneeze normally. and ugh

sorry for this rant....

hope things are better for all of you :)
-Katie:)

Day 74 - Appt with Surgeon

I had an appointment the other day with my surgeon! It went well. He said everything looks great, that he thinks my swelling will still get noticeable better for another month. He also said to continue eating soft foods and in 2+ weeks i can try things like steak and other harder foods. yay! hope i am able to chew harder things as fast as possible. chewing still feels super weird. because i feel as if i don't have the strength there to bite down all the way.

i have been starting to have more aches in my face in general and i dont know why :( maybe just the continued chewing? or the extra singing and talking with being back at school? or just the stress of everything? im not sure... but it isn't super pleasant.

but anyway, here is a random assortment of pictures from the last several days. i still feel weird looking in the mirror, i guess since i see something slightly different than what i was used to every other day of my life before surgery. but i don't think it is a negative thought, just different is all. i just wish i could see myself how other people at school see me, if they think i look weird or different, cause i bet their perspective is way different than my own.

i chewed my first piece of pizza tonight!! and let me tell you... pizza is extremely amazingly delicious. i guess im gonna go to sleep because i have 5+ hours of show choir choreography tomorrow. hope everything is alright with anyone still reading :) i really appreciate anyone who has made a blog or commented on mine, you guys are simply the best :)
-Katie:)

Day 69 - Subtle Changes (before/after)

So, I hope you guys are alright! 

my biggest complaints by now are the sensitivity, numbness, and clicking of my jaw joint.

you know the sensitivity that you feel if you bite into a popsicle? or just when anything too cold touches your teeth? well, that is what it feels like when i brush my teeth with my sonicare toothbrush OR chew hard things. which is extremely annoying. I'm not sure if it is because the numbness on my upper gums may be returning? or? have any of you guys had a lot of sensitivity post-op?

when i chew soft things it is fine, but say i try to chew a cracker, it just sparks uncomfortable sensations in my upper gums and teeth, and some on the lower too. not to mention it feels like it is too much on my jaw, so i am sticking to softer foods. peanut butter and jelly is my "go-to" lunch! but i am probably being too adventurous too fast with food. definitely have chewed hard crackers, pickles, and hard meats. it is challenging and makes my jaw ache... but the food is SO yummy. ill never take food for granted again after this surgery... that is for sure. i also wanted to briefly mention the annoying clicking/popping of my left jaw joint again.. it hasn't gone away :( sometimes it isn't there, but other times it is... and i am just worried itll be there forever :(

overall though everything is great, swelling is mostly gone (on some days i notice that it gets a little worse again, but oh well). today i had some pain in my face, but some days i have none. it is all just up and down by this point in recovery.

hope all is well with you guys :) 

-Katie:)

Day 66 - My Birthday! and some random thoughts.

Happy (real) Birthday to me today i guess :) just had some quick updates about chewing and my jaw (and i REALLY don't want to finish my homework)

So... i got stuck taking PE my senior year, which kinda sucks because id rather be in physics, but that is an entirely different rant. i just wanted to say that a perk of jaw surgery is that it gets you out of playing the "contact sports" or "fun games" in pe class because getting hit in the head with either a basketball or elbow etc, would NOT be very good..... so YAY. i instead get to walk around the track on game days. which is a huge plus. i am NOT coordinated at all and tend to avoid anything with moving objects, which is one reason i found golf. haha. but anyway, this is one good thing that came of surgery!! i get to avoid the stupid parts of pe. yay.

but.... i was running, and it still makes my face feel weird :\ and kinda causes my jaw to ache. maybe itll just get better as the days go on.

i am also struggling to find good snacks/food to eat on the go! it is really hard for me to try to eat any kind of granola bar... but i always used to have a small snack during golf practice or golf tournaments and i just need to go to the store and find some squishy snacks, unless you guys have any good ideas :P

i have also been forced to explain my jaw surgery quite a few times.... i am starting to get pretty good at condensing it :P from telling teachers or other acquaintances who ask about it... idk, kinda weird to talk about it and everything, one thing is for sure though... they definitely all have felt super bad for me for not being able to chew for 8.5 weeks :P

luckily i forget about jaw surgery unless im eating, or thinking about food, or exercising :) i am so glad things are going back to the way they were!

anyway.... just thought id check in, hope all is well with you guys :) positive thoughts,

-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:)