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Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Day 41 post op / Surgeons appointment

I know I was gonna post yesterday after my surgeons appointment but the last couple of days have been pretty shitty. 
However I did receive good news from my surgeon, he says that nothing seems to have moved, meaning no destruction in my plates and no additional surgery! He did however say that my upper jaw is still not fully attached to my face, so there's a chance that if I was to position myself in any other way when the airbag hit... I don't even wanna think about it.
But yeah, since my upper jaw isn't re-attached quite yet, he says that he wants me out of elastics all day, and only in elastics when I'm asleep - this is because there's a chance that when I'm in elastics and awake, the talking or yawning (basically tugging my elastics) is causing stress to my jaws, and not allowing my upper jaw to "firm up", and heal fully. Which is great news for me cause it's less time in elastics!!
I saw my ortho as well and he was curious about my cuts but it was just a quick appointment, he just wanted to take a look and said to follow my surgeons instructions. I asked him about when my surgical hooks are coming off and he said when my surgeon gives him the okay, so I'm hoping that's soon!

Other than that everything has been kinda shitty lately. I'm so broke it's not even funny. I have a list of things I need to buy, a list of things I want to buy, and of course my top priority which is a new car... and that's a whole other situation. My parents are helping me out until I get back to work, which I absolutely hate because I do not like asking for help from my parents, especially in the money aspect of my life. Also, I don't even know about my work, because I can't really do a lot of it. My job involves doing things where you may or may not get hit in the face, especially on a busy day - I remember being hit in the face multiple times. And since I can't risk my face getting hit, I can't do much but clean... and I don't think that's a priority for my boss soooo idk it's just a really stressful time right now. There's a whole lot of personal things going on too that I'm not going to get into because it's a long story and I'd like to keep some parts of my life to myself.

Jaw surgery related... everything is still the same. However, I'm getting a lot of feeling back in my lower lip which I am sooooo happy about! And I cannot wait to start chewing food in 2 weeks. But other than that, there's nothing else to talk about really...
I'll post later on this week or next! Probably saturday cause I'm gonna wanna talk about this party... that I may or may not go to... K byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Sunday, May 19, 2013

5 weeks post op / car accident!

Hey guys, I just had to make a post on my blog today as I just got back from camping, and something bad has happened.

And when I mean bad, I mean horrible.

Friday we left to go camping on my friend Baileys Uncle's property. He owns 116 acres so it's an incredible, gorgeous place to set up a tent and have a good party.

Anyways, we leave Evan's home (Evan and me in my car, Bailey and Brandon in Brandon's car) and we come up to a stop light. The light turned yellow, so Brandon came to a stop. Evan tried to break... but it wouldn't work. I screamed, but it was too late. The last thing I remember was trying to cover my face as we went 50 km/h into the back of brandons car.

Airbags came flying out, glass got smashed, and of course my face got smashed against the airbag. I was only out for a few seconds, but when I came to, I was face-deep in the airbag. I pushed it away, looked in the mirror and saw my face was badly cut up. That's when panic set in. I freaked, jumped out of the car, and started running around the road like a chicken with its head cut off. I grabbed my phone and called my mom, screaming about the accident. I was in a bad state of shock. A bystander came running over and got me onto the grass, we sat down and she rubbed my back while she called 911.

My car was totaled. The hood was bent, the windshield was damaged. It would cost the same price to fix just the airbags as it did to purchase the car itself just last year.

Everyone was worried about my face. I was terrified something happened to it. But I was speaking clearly, forming sentences, so obviously nothing absolutely terrible happened, but I didn't know that at the time. The police and ambulance showed up, and I got in the ambulance a few minutes later. We drove straight to the hospital where my parents were waiting, while Evan stayed back to deal with the police officer and the accident. The ambulance ride was kinda cool, and while I was there they cleaned out my cuts with sterile water. I was only in the hospital for about an hour and a half, I was in the fast track lane and so I saw a doctor pretty quick. He checked me out and said I was fine, that there was no concussion and I was free to go. Evan and his mom showed up just then, she came down to make sure I was okay cause she's the best.

And after all this... I decided to still go camping. I wasn't gonna let some surface cuts ruin my weekend! And luckily I had a great time. We spoke to my surgeon when I was at the hospital (my mom called) and he said that if I'm not in excruciating pain and my bite is still in the same place then I should be okay, but I'm going to go see him Tuesday just to double check.

The good thing is that Brandons car has the smallest, most unnoticeable crack in the rear bumper. But what really disturbed me about the whole thing, now that I think of it, is that people were driving by, sticking their head out the window, and laughing at us. Staring at me while I was sitting on the ground with a cut up face, laughing. I cannot fathom how fucked up this world is sometimes.

So since then, the only pain I have is right under my right nostril. It's either one of those under-the-skin pimples, or my plates there are damaged or irritated. Or, it's just irritated from the blunt force from the airbag.

And actually, that's probably the only thing that's happened lately worth sharing. Other than that I've been sleeping, eating, and sleeping even more. I'll definitely update after Tuesday... I really hope I don't have to have another surgery but who knows. I am just so lucky and so blessed that nothing more happened to me. Everyone else was okay, but unfortunately Bailey has horrible whiplash and Evan got some rashes and achy muscles. My car on the other hand... is not my car anymore. It was totaled, I signed it over to a towing company who's going to smash it. So now I'm wondering... When am I getting another car?

That's about it, I'll talk to you all Tuesday!

Saturday, May 11, 2013

4 weeks and 1 day (29 days) post op

Hey everyone!!!

I haven't posted in forever and I feel awful about it, but that seems to be the norm with me - I don't post for  week at a time and then I feel bad. But since tomorrow will be May 12, exactly a month post op, and yesterday was 4 weeks post op, I feel that I should post about the last week and my surgeon's appointment/orthodontist appointment I had on thursday!

So for starters, I'll talk about the pain. 
It's been about the same since last week, pretty minimal, almost non-existent. However, I can tell that my jaw(s) is/are starting to heal to my face, because from my nose down is very sore, especially today. It's basically that feeling you get when you get your braces tightened and your teeth are so sore you want to rip them out of your face... except this soreness is more in my incision lines/ where my jaw was cut (obviously).
I have been getting a lot of head aches recently... I believe it's from the pain I still get on my left side of my face. I'm still having a lot of pain in the left side of my head, and now where my jaws connect on the left side, but that's only when I touch/push on it. I'm not sure why all of my pain is on the left, but my surgeon says it's normal, that the pain is tension in the muscles, and that's why I'm probably getting head aches.
And finally, I'm getting pain in my nose! I hope that didn't come across as exciting to me because it actually hurts like a bitch. The cartalidge in the middle of my nose - you know, the cartalidge that keeps you from having 2 nostrils instead of one? Yeah, well it seems to have wanted to curve to the left. And by that I mean that when I stick my finger in my nose (we all do it) it isn't straight like it used to be, I can feel it curved, and not only that, but if anything hits my nose from the left or from the middle, or if I try to rub my nose, it feels like the catrilidge is being pulled off my face. It fucking hurts so much. Bleh.

Okay so now about my appointment with my surgeon/orthodontist. I saw my surgeon a couple days ago, the office was almost empty so I got in right away, as apposed to last weeks appointment where I waited like an hour. So this time, instead of going into one of those dentist rooms again, I was seated in his consultation room, the room I used to always be seated in before surgery. My surgeon came in and talked to us for a few seconds before I sat back in a random dentist chair on the other side of his office. I told him about my concerns with the pain on the left of my face and he said it was normal. He said my bite is stable enough that he's going to let my orthodontist make the calls from now on, but he wanted me to ask my orthodontist how he feels about me wearing my elastics half the time I do now. I wear my elastics 12 hours a day, I think I've mentioned that before. After that I booked an appointment to see him in 2 weeks time and drove to my ortho, who's only just up the street. It was their lunch but they told me to come by after my surgeons appointment. When I talked to him I told him about my surgeon suggesting half time elastics - he said half time for him is 12 hours so I'm still sticking with that. However he wants me to wear 4 elastics instead of 5 - he's permanently taken off my front elastic! But, when I see him in 2 weeks, if my bite has shifted at all, I have to wear the front elastic again. Hopefully in 2 weeks I can maybe have more elastics off - maybe even have my surgical hooks taken off!! :)
I asked when my braces come off... he seemed hesitant to answer so I just said "6 months to a year?" and he was like "sure lets go with that." looooovely.

But that's really all that's been worth talking about! 
I'm still on a soft food diet, but I do eat food that's needed to be chewed - I just break it into a ton of pieces and swallow it.
Actually the weirdest thing happened, I blended ground beef and mashed potatoes in the blender and when I was eating it something really sharp cut my throat so bad I couldn't breathe or swallow or cough... My mom was going to call 911 but I managed to get my breath back and it was sore for a while.
This week I've spent a ton of time with my bff (boyfriend forever lmfaaao) and it's been really fun! 

But I've completely lost focus on what I'm writing so I'm just gonna publish this and hope it makes sense. If anything more comes up ill post about it :) lateeeeeeeeeeeeer

Friday, May 3, 2013

3 weeks post op!!

Hey everyone!

It's been a while since I posted, to be honest I haven't got anything new to tell you, other than my appointment with my surgeon yesterday.

I waited over an hour to see him, since his office was so busy. I think Thursdays are wisdom tooth extraction day, who knows.

Anyways, yesterday was my 3 week appointment/ X-ray day! When I got there I was almost immediately taken to the X-ray room - The woman who does the X-rays stared at me for a few seconds, then said "Did you have surgery?" I told her I did 3 weeks ago and she said she could barely believe it, that there was no swelling at all.  For some reason the X-ray machine took a few tries to work but I finally got them done and sat back down... to wait another hour to see my surgeon. But I was finally called into a room that looked a lot like a dentist room... hmm.
My surgeon came in and started looking at my X-rays, it was so cool seeing the screws and plates in my face! It doesn't even feel like it's there. I had forgotten to put my elastics on before I left for the appointment but it didn't seem to bother him. He used some metal plate to pull back my cheeks, each time telling me to open and close my mouth. He kept saying "wow" in a good way, as if he was thinking to himself "wow I'm a hell of a good surgeon!". It was pretty funny.

He asked me who my orthodontist was, and was confused that I haven't seen him yet. I told him that my orthodontist said to book an appointment only when the surgical hooks had to come off. This is where it got confusing... my surgeon told me I had to continue wearing my front elastics (I use 5 now, do I use less??) but also said to make an appointment with my orthodontist. I tried questioning him on why but he kept talking so it was useless. I'm seeing him in less than a week so I'll ask him why I need to see my orthodontist again. I need my surgical hooks to keep my elastics on, but if I go to my orthodontist he'll take them off.
Also, my surgeon told me I could have my elastics on for weeks or even 3 - 4 months. I hope he isn't talking about the ones on my front teeth that literally hold my jaw shut together.

He asked me how much weight I had lost, I told him about 7 pounds (although I'm quite sure I gained it all back) and he told me I should buy stretchy pants? Like I have the money to go shopping right now. I had to call my gym and bug the manager until she gave me 2 months of no pay. Which is actually really cool.

Anyways I have to have my elastics on for 12 hours out of the day. I sleep for 10 hours so that shouldn't be an issue.

Other than that everything has been the same, I still eat ice cream and mashed potatoes, my jaw hasn't been hurting, although I still have a pain in the left side of my head.

Here's the best part....
I don't snore anymore!!!
Quiet as a mouse. Woohoo

BUT I do have something to share with you jaw surgery buddies... If you're going through jaw surgery or about to have jaw surgery, and maaaaybe you're getting tired of ice cream or you're lactose intolerant, I know just what you can eat for a sweet...
Cotton Candy!
or Candy floss. Whatever you call it

It just melts in your mouth so no chewing and it's sooooo good. I bought a tub of it the other day... gone in 6 hours. SO. GOOD.

In personal news, I am having a wonderful week with my boyfriend and I am so glad he's home. We've been watching Misfits and it's sooo good. If you don't know what Misfits is, I feel bad for you.

Now I am off to do some shopping for my boyfriends birthday, so I'll update laterrrr