Day 13: Back to the Oral Surgeon

Last night right before I went to bed, my mouth started to hurt a little bit. The pain went along the base of my bottom teeth on my left side. It kind of felt like it does when they tighten my braces. I just took some normal motrin and it felt better in the morning.

This afternoon I went back to the oral surgeon for another check up, and it was the first time my surgeon has seen me since the day I was discharged from the hospital. He said that everything is coming along great. He took off my heavy duty rubber bands and put on some lighter ones that will continue to guide my bite into the right place. There is one on each side of my mouth now, and they are both in the shape of parallelograms. I can now take them out when I eat or brush my teeth and then put them back in. For a couple minutes there were no rubber bands on my teeth at all, and it felt really weird. Theoretically, I should have been able to open my mouth all the way, but when I opened it for the surgeon to look at everything, I could only open it so far before my jaw felt sore. I like having the rubber bands in my mouth because they make everything feel stable. In addition, he said that close to 70%-80% of my swelling has gone down. It will take a few months before all of the swelling is completely gone, especially right around my mouth, but I'm willing to wait since everything has been coming along wonderfully so far. I go back to the surgeon on Friday, August 12th, right before I go back to school.

In addition to the usual pictures, here are pictures of my bite before and after surgery. You can see that in the after picture my lower teeth are right behind my upper teeth as opposed to the before picture.

                                                       Before                                 After 

Here are the rest of the pictures:

Day 12: Spitting Stitches and Doing Some Exercise

Since I came home, I was brushing my teeth with a baby toothbrush because everything was swollen and I couldn't fit a normal toothbrush in the back of my mouth, but this morning I was able to brush with a normal toothbrush. For the past few days whenever I rinse out my mouth after brushing my teeth, I spit out some of my stitches. The stitches are dissolvable and so as everything starts to heal, they just fall out.

Everything continues to go smoothly. I've found foods that fill me up and I eat enough everyday. The swelling continues to go down a little bit at a time, and I feel better everyday.

Even though I feel a thousand times better than a week ago, I still get a little tired every now and then. Tonight I went to the Rec Center with my mom and walked a mile on the indoor track without a problem. I figure that it's a good way to start building up my stamina before I go back to school on August 13th to help with Welcome Week for first year students.  

I go back to the oral surgeon tomorrow for another check up and I am excited for my surgeon to see how things are coming along and hear what he thinks.

Here are today's pictures. 

I still have a silly little smile because of the swelling :)

Day 11: A Fun Day

Today was very eventful!

This morning I went to church with my family. Everything went fine until I started to feel shaky and almost fainted about three quarters of the way through Mass. After sitting down for awhile and having a McDonald's shake (the cure for everything), I felt just fine.

This evening my aunts and my cousins came over to visit, swim, and have dinner. While it was hard to watch everyone eat hamburgers, hot dogs, and corn on the cob, my cousin did bring some delicious smoothie mix over with her. I was also able to eat a "dissected" roasted marshmallow and melted chocolate while everyone else was eating s'mores. It was great to see everybody and show them how my face is coming along.

I think one of my brackets or hooks is rubbing up against my cheek and irritating it. This is something that I would normally just put wax on, but since I can't open my mouth very wide, all I can do is hope it feels better tomorrow.

In the pictures for today my upper lip looks a lot less swollen which is just another step in the right direction. My smile is also a little bit crooked because of the uneven swelling, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time before it evens out.

Day 10: A Little Bit Tired

First of all, last night was the first night I've been able to sleep without any pain medication! This is definitely a good sign.

Today was a pretty low key day. I think all of the activity yesterday left me feeling a little worn out so I just lounged around the house for most of the day.

Tonight, I went out to eat at Champp's with my family and I got some of their delicious potato soup. I've gotten in a pretty good routine as far as eating, and I've been getting enough nourishment everyday.

Also, today my chin and lower lip are bothering me a little bit. They are both very tingly because I'm starting to get some feeling back, but it can be rather annoying at times. I'm still waiting for the swelling on the one side of my face to be the same as the other side, but I know it will all come in good time.

Here are your pictures for today.

Day 9: Mastering the Smoothie and Raiding the Surgeon's Prize Jar

Everything has gone extremely well over the past 24 hours. 

Last night I was able to eat a scrambled egg that was broken up into tiny little pieces. It's one more thing I can add to the list of things I can eat! :)

In addition, this morning I officially mastered making a fruit smoothie. I put some frozen yogurt, half of a Special K protein shake, banana, strawberries, and blueberries in the blender for a yummy treat with quite a bit of protein in it. 

This afternoon I went back to the oral surgeon's office where almost everyone knows me by name now. My surgeon is still on vacation, so the other surgeon looked at me again. He said that the rubber bands did the trick, and my bite is falling nicely into place. He left the rubber bands the way they are which was a huge relief for me. I was nervous that he might tighten them and I would have to go back to the syringes. He also said that I'm looking very cute and should be excited about how everything will eventually turn out. I go back again on Tuesday for another check up. The surgeon said they will probably remove the heavy duty rubber bands and replace them with a weaker elastic. At the end of the visit when my mom was making me another appointment, I saw the surgeon's prize jar and they let me pick out what I wanted. The picture below shows all of my "prizes" for being a good patient :)

Later in the afternoon my mom took me out for some retail therapy. I got some new shoes, a skirt, and two tops. Even though I was exhausted by the time it was over, it was definitely worth it!

Also, the last time I took medicine for pain was last night before I went to bed, and my mouth is barely sore at all. 

Here are the rest of the pictures for today. I'm looking a lot less swollen, although the one side of my face is still a little bit slower to go down. 

Day 8: Still Making Progress

Nothing too exciting happened today.

The war with nutrition continues and I'm still working on making sure I eat enough. This afternoon I was able to make myself a strawberry and banana smoothie and I also tried a Special K protein shake. My mom also bought me some gourmet mashed potatoes which tasted great because they had some actual texture.

I'm still taking motrin once during the day as well as during the night. The pain seems to get a little bit better everyday and is turning into more of an annoying sore feeling that is tolerable. My chin and lower lip are slowly but surely regaining feeling and tingle quite a bit.

My tightened rubber bands feel a lot better today, and I can tell my jaw and teeth are trying to figure out where everything is supposed to go. Today, I was also able to open my mouth enough to eat with a spoon and was syringe free! I go back to the oral surgeon tomorrow to see if they need to make any more adjustments.

I'm hoping that I can get out and about in the next few days because I'm sick of just hanging around the house.

In addition to the usual pictures, I added this one today. Last night after I brushed my teeth, I noticed that I was able to close my mouth all the way. It still is not completely natural but it looks SO much better than attempts at closing it before surgery. I think I stared in the mirror looking at myself with my mouth closed for a good five minutes.

Here are the regular shots.

My sisters made me laugh right before I took this picture :)

Day 7: It's Already Been a Week!

I can't believe that it was already a week ago that I was spending my first night in the hospital after surgery! Time really has passed by quickly!

Last night I tried to go to sleep after only taking prescription motrin instead of percocet. It worked out fine until I woke up around 3 AM with a lot of pain on the side of my mouth where they tightened my rubber bands yesterday. I then took percocet which knocked me out for the rest of the night.

Last night I decided to track the food I eat every day on MyFitnessPal.com to make sure I'm getting enough nutrients each day. I realized that I'm not getting enough protein in my diet, so I worked on that today. I was able to eat some yogurt with a syringe this afternoon and I also made sure I ate more substantial food and drank some milk. Eating is definitely one of the hardest parts of recovery. It takes a long time to eat pretty much everything. For example eating a small container of yogurt and a cup of chicken noodle soup took about 45 minutes. I can only eat small amounts at a time and it seems like as soon as I finish eating one thing, I'm already starting to get hungry for something else. On the plus side, when I had Max and Erma's chicken tortilla soup for dinner tonight, I was able to eat with a baby spoon instead of a syringe.

Some friends came over to see me today, and it was very nice to see and talk to them since I've pretty much been hanging around the house all week.

The swelling is still pretty bad and uneven, but hopefully it continues to go down over coming days and weeks. Here are your pictures for the day :)