Day 93 - Three Month Anniversary!

THREE MONTHS! all right! =D     I'm not quite sure what to say...Things aren't really much different than at the two month point.  As of the last 2 or 3 days I can feel a little bit of feeling coming back [finally!] in the left side of my chin. Or its thinking about coming back... I'm not really sure.  Its still a little weird and tingly but I'm sensing improvement... I can still poke myself with a needle in some spots though and not feel it.  Very annoying.  But anyway... I think the swelling is down all the way now.  I can finally see my cheek bones again instead of just round cheeks. Thats a good thing I think. =P  I'm still wearing really annoying rubberbands from the orthodontist. blechhhh  I'm actually a little confused on their current procedures.  When they took my surgical wires off they had me wear these rubberbands that pulled my top jaw back a little...Not sure why they'd do that since I just went through *ahem* jaw surgery to bring it forward. So that really messed things up and my top and bottom front teeth were clashing together....not ideal.  So now they have me wearing rubberbands that pulled my top jaw back forward to exactly the way things were right after surgery.  Now, I don't have a degree in orthodontics or dentistry or anything, so if anyone who does would like to explain all of this to me, I'm all ears.  [see new info in dec 2nd post] These rubberbands hurt! Sheesh. I enjoy seeing all the different animals on my little rubberbands baggies though.. Each size and strength of rubberbands has a different animal... So far I've had tortoises,  sea lions and rams.  Who knows what I'll get this month!!

 

Anyway....  I've finally reached a point where I can definitely say it was all worth it.  Yes, it was the most miserable experience of my entire life... But I love my new smile!  And i can chew normally! Yep. Life is good and I wouldn't change a thing.  Have pre-jaw surgery questions?  Or maybe you just had surgery and you have recovery questions? Ask away! - I consider myself an expert at this point. =]

Day 70 - CRUNCH

Enough said.

Day 62 - TWO Month Anniversary!

Hello! Its been a while since I've updated you all!  Miss me?  Of course you did. :)   Anyway, I suppose the reason for not updating everyday is because there just isn't much to tell....and for those of you still in your first few weeks, I know that's a wonderful thing to hear. There is light at the end of the tunnel!  Life really has gone completely back to normal.  There are things that I notice are different or strange because of my surgery, but they don't affect my everyday things anymore.  When I went to Mayo for my 6 week follow-up appointment I had a blood test, and the results said my hemoglobin was a little low, so that explained my tiredness...But that was a few weeks ago now, and already I'm feeling better.  My hemoglobin was reaaallly low right after surgery, which was one of the reasons why walking up a set of stairs was an impossible thing...But blood is an amazing thing and now its back to normal.  All I have to say here is we have an amazing God who knew what He was doing when He designed the human body.  Everything works together to completely perfectly!  The healing process is one of the most incredible things you'll ever see....don't even try to tell me its the result of random chance, unless its part of some sort of comedy routine or something.  :)  Anyway.... I'm pretty much eating everything now.  I haven't bit into an apple or anything yet....But you're not supposed to do that with braces on anyway.  I did chew my first piece of gum a few days ago, though.  I was so proud of myself.  It was a little awkward though.  Chewing is a kind of weird thing right now and I'm going through a re-learning process.  Who'd have thought at 18 years old I'd be learning how to chew? Crazy! =P  As far as numbness goes......the left half of my chin & lower lip are still 100% numb with absolutely no apparent signs of up and coming life. I'm not sure at what point I should start worrying about it.  The right half feels a little weird, but feeling has been back a couple weeks...Whats going on with the left? hmm?  I still get those annoying tingles every now and then too.....And you can't scratch them because you have no feeling! Torture!  But anyway.  Thats life.   95% normal, 5% weird.

Day 52 - Atkins? South Beach? Jaw Surgery?

A lot of people ask if I lost a lot of weight the first month when my diet was slightly drastically limited.  Before the surgery lots of people like my grandmothers were insisting that I over eat and gain lots of weight so I would come out in the end okay.  Actually, now that I think about it, my Greek grandmother/yaya has always been a big food pusher...so not too much of a change there.  However, its really not healthy for your weight to drastically fluctuate so I chose not to go down that road and instead go with the maintenance thing.  And, believe it or not, I didn't lose very much weight at all - only 5 pounds.  I've lost just as much weight with having the stomach flu for a few days... So considering I barely ate for a month, I think I did pretty well.  I've read a lot of jaw surgery blogs though, I don't think most people lose much more than 5 pounds either unless they had some extra weight already.  One guy said he lost 30 pounds and I thought, "oh my goodness! I'm already pretty slim.. I'll die if I lose 30 pounds!", but I read further and discovered that he had intentionally gained the weight pre-surgery and at the end came out around 5 pounds less than he was originally.  The trick to maintaining your weight while recovering from jaw surgery is very simple.  Its the same secret that applies to your weight at any other point in your life.  Ready?  All you have to do is.....make sure you're getting good nutrition and count your calories!  It can be tricky to get enough calories in, but its not impossible.  I recommend investing in a good protein powder and adding it to your shakes and smoothies. (trust me, you'll be drinking a lot of these).  I used vanilla Muscle Milk.  It has tons of vitamins in it, even more calories, and you don't taste it when mixed in your smoothie.

So while we're on the topic, I'll give you a good smoothie recipe.  This is the smoothie that kept me alive. I had it almost every single day and I think its safe to say I'm a little sick of it now...but it was good for the first couple weeks..

The 500 Calorie Smoothie

1/2 cup frozen strawberries - 50 calories
1/2 frozen banana (slice it up, then freeze) - 50 calories
1/2 cup whole milk - 75 calories
1/2 cup GREEK GODS plain yogurt - 130 calories
1 Tbs - strawberry jam - 100 calories
3 Tbs - MUSCLE MILK (vanilla) protein powder - 100 calories
_____________________________________
One really good smoothie   - 505 calories

Enjoy!

Day 49 - Goodbye Surgical Wires

I had an orthodontist appointment today.  It involved a handful of people looking and poking at my mouth.  Pretty fun.  Actually, I was scared that after everything my poor mouth went through during that appointment that I was going to have to undergo a 2nd jaw surgery.  Thats kind of the way most orthodontist appointments go I guess.  I always walk in feeling great and excited to be getting one step closer to having my braces removed, but I'm grabbing for my ibuprofen as I walk out the door wondering, "Is this really necessary?".  At least everyone at the office is very friendly and nice.  I wish they were mean horrible people, though, because then I could hate them for hurting my teeth. But no, we're good friends.  I've been going there for 10 years so they've pretty much watched me grow up and that office is my home away from home.  Anyway...enough rambling. The most important thing about today is that my surgical wires have been removed. Hallelujah!!!  No more poking! No more food getting stuck in them!  No more looking like I don't have teeth, only gobs of metal! If only the would have taken off the braces with the hooks...then I would have been reaaally happy.  But this will do for now, I suppose.  Those surgical hooks didn't come off without a fight though.  I recall them being extremely painful going in too...Is that normal?  But yeah, they're out and a normal wire has replaced them along with one of those fancy little rubberband chains across my top teeth.  Luckily that rubberband chain is CLEAR instead of some obnoxious color.  Why call anymore attention to your braces than the braces themselves already do?  Thank goodness for clear. As far as the other rubberbands that are attached to both the top and bottom jaws go.... I enjoyed 4 short days of freedom, and now my orthodontist has mandated that the wearing of them be reinstated. Wonderful.

Day 46 - 6 week appointment with my surgeon!

No posts the last few days because I've been busy driving back and forth to Rochester, Minnesota.  We spent 12 1/2 hours driving up on Thursday, and spent 11 1/2 hours returning on Friday. Thats a lot of driving. The focus here, though, is on the few hours I spent in between all of that driving at the Mayo Clinic meeting with my surgeon.  Because Mayo is so far away, I've had two follow up appointments with my orthodontist instead of my surgeon and since everything has been going smoothly that's worked out well.  However, we made the journey to see him for my 6 week followup.  Just as I thought, everything is looking great and my bones are healing very well.  No issues whatsoever! Here are some questions I asked:

How is the numbness progressing? .......As to be expected. It takes about 3 months to get most feeling back, but it won't be 100% until the 1 year point.  It could potentially not come back 100%, but whatever I have at one year is probably what I'll have for the rest of my life.  As for now, the right half of my chin is healing far faster than the left.  There is a line directly down the middle of my lower lip and chin that divides zero feeling, and a lot of feeling. Its kind of weird but kind of cool.  The feeling isn't quite normal though, but kind of tingly. I'll take it over zero feeling though!

How much longer do I need to wear rubberbands for? ........Completely up to the orthodontist.  From a surgical standpoint, they are no longer necessary but if they are necessary for orthodontic purposes, I'll continue to wear them as my orthodontists instructs.  I've taken full advantage of this and haven't worn them since yesterday morning after my appointment.  =D ....This also applies to the surgical wires.  The orthodontist is free to take them out whenever they wish.  I'm hoping this is on Tuesday.

Is my energy coming back normally?  ....Pretty much.  Jaw surgery is major, you lose blood during surgery, your body spends a lot of energy on healing, and your diet isn't normal so you don't receive the nutrition you're used to so it takes a while to be 100% again.  But because my parents were concerned, I had some blood drawn to see whats going on...just in case.  Most likely my blood just is a little low on iron and this can be fixed with a better diet or iron supplements.  No big deal.  I'm not expecting anything too noteworthy to come back with the blood test.

When can I chew normally again?   ....Now. I'm now allowed to eat anything I want without risk of damaging anything.  However, the jaw muscles are super weak so just because I'm allowed to eat anything, doesn't mean I'm capable of it.  For instance, I'm pretty sure if I tried to chew an almond that it wouldn't work.  But say, chicken - that's something I can manage easily.   Now that I've been given the go-ahead, I'll be giving that jaw lots of big work outs!   

And that basically sums everything up.  I had some x-rays and photos taken.... so be watching for before and afters!!!

My fantastic surgeon, Dr. Rieck and me!

Day 42 - 6 weeks! picture!

Six Weeks! woohoo! I have posted a picture to celebrate this wonderful day because everyone knows that blogs with pictures are more interesting.  Really, anything with pictures is more interesting, and if you're me, pictures of food are particularly appealing.  Thats why I view my Nom List daily.  I love looking at it.  But anyway, as of Sunday night I'm finally back home from our family vacation and am adjusting back to normal life very well.  I worked my first full shift yesterday, which involves 6 hours of solid talking on the phone and I accomplished this without any jaw pain or anything! I don't even think my jaw was that tired.  Definitely a good sign! Being able to work my full regular shift is a major step of improvement for me; it makes me feel a little more normal again. =)  I'm also a sophomore in college this fall and  really enjoying getting back into my classes.  I love being busy... and after a month of recovering and doing absolutely nothing, functioning normally and being busy again is WONDERFUL.