13 weeks post op Update

Great news everyone! (You definitely read that in Professor Farnsworth's voice)

So I had my appointment with my surgeon on Tuesday. Nothing new had been going on until that point... well, actually one thing. But I'll mention that in a second.

I went to see him and he told me that he's pretty much done with any adjustments he had to do and that it's all up to my orthodontist now! I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. I told him about the pain in the side of my head, and he said it was all muscle tension, and that, as time goes on, it should go away. I'm skeptical but somewhat relieved. And for the best news... I can finally chew!!!

However... as much as this was great news, I wasn't nearly as happy as I should have been. Sunday morning I woke up to immediately find out that a boy I know well, who knew and was friends with almost everyone in town, was hit by a taxi around 3 am and died. Jake was only exactly a month away from being 20.

It's been a horrible week. I've cried every single day and I can't stop thinking about him. It's wonderful that I can chew again, but I'd give up chewing for another 3 months to have him back. We weren't even close these last few years, and it's devastated me. All I hope is that he's in a better place now, and that he didn't suffer any pain. 

Anyways, back to my appointment. You read this blog for my updates on my post op progress, not to hear about people who have passed away. So I have about a 90% diet now, which means I can eat almost anything. I can't remember what I first chewed... all I remember is telling myself that I'm probably gonna forget what I first chewed lmfao. However later that day my next full meal was Quesadillas and salad. 

My teeth have been super sensitive these past couple weeks, so it was hard to chew at first. A lot of what I was eating was cold and it was a bit of a struggle, but it's gotten significantly better. My jaw hurts after I chew a lot though, so I try not to overdo it. The funny thing is that my left jaw is starting to do very small clicks. It used to be my right jaw that clicked! Too weird.  

So I went after my appointment with my surgeon and saw my ortho, and since he can do whatever he needs to do, he took off my surgical hooks!!!! I'm really happy about that, my teeth look so much better, I can't wait until my braces come off. I am still wearing elastics in a triangle shape, I need to start wearing them more so I get my braces off quicker.

Nothing much has happened since I last posted, just some personal things. Saw my nana, did some shopping, put out resumes cause i'm broke and in need of a job, etc. I hope to before and after pictures in the next couple days!!

As for my future plans.. I'm going to my cottage for a week at the end of July, and I'm going to stock up on stuff for residence :) we rent this cottage out but we're thinking this is gonna be our last year, for a lot of reasons. I think I already mentioned this before.. or maybe not. I don't know.

That's about it! I don't see my surgeon for 2 months and I don't see my ortho for a month, so this blog is probably going to become more personal :) I'm gonna stop rambling now, talk to you all soon :)

10.5 weeks post op - Ortho appointment

I wanted to make a quick update, since I promised in my last post that I would when I saw my surgeon!

First off, lately I've got a lottt of views on my blog. At first there weren't many, and so I just wrote whatever, but suddenly it jumped and tons of people have started to view all my posts, and it made me realize that I actually kind of have an audience and I shouldn't be so negative all the time! I'm the kind of person who always tends to look on the bad side of things (unfortunately) but for the sake of all of you who are reading this, I will try to include a lot more positive things about the surgery and post op process, as I'm sure some of  you will be undergoing surgery soon and I don't want to make it seem like it's all bad!

Anyways, my ortho appointment. I didn't have a set time that I was supposed to be there, just as long as I went today. I think the receptionist didn't give me a time because she assumed I was coming straight from my surgeon's office like I usually do. Anyways I saw my orthodontist almost right away, he took a look at my teeth and said I needed to wear elastics again :( to be honest I'm not all that surprised, I've been watching my bite like a hawk these last couple weeks and even I noticed a difference in the way it looked and felt, so I'm actually kind of relieved that elastics are on again, now nothing can move out of place! He put the elastics on each side, in a triangle - what I mean by that, is that the elastic is hooked onto the top and bottom hook like usual, but stretched farther back and looped onto the next hook at the bottom. I'll post pictures soon if that doesn't make sense!
I have to wear the elastics like this all day every day. Which doesn't necessarily bug me. What bugs me is that none of my surgical hooks are being used, and yet my ortho won't take them off, cause I see my surgeon in 2 weeks time, and my surgeon might tell me I need them again. Understandable but it still sucks.

Other than that everything is still the same as the last time I updated. I really need to talk to my surgeon about the pain in my head. I found a sore spot, pushed on it, and the pain was so excruciating that I just cried for hours. Right now I'm going through a bit of a stressful time, I have to worry about paying tuition and residence fees on time, I'm completely broke, no job, worrying about my jaw... It's not that bad, but it's still more stress than I've gone through in a while.

So what's everyone doing for the long weekend? For my Canadian friends, I mean. Canada Day is monday!! I'm so excited cause I'm going camping again at my friends uncles. You know, the place I went to just over a month ago when I had my car accident? I really love the place and I'm pretty excited.

Anyways, I hope you guys are having a good start to your week and I hope the rest of the week is good to you as well! I promise to update soon.

xo

Tomorrow is 8 weeks post-op!!!

Hey everyone!

So so sorry that I haven't been posting lately. I don't actually remember the last time I posted... How sad is that?

Anyways I wanted to do an update because up until the last couple days, everything has been normal with my jaw and my life. But since a few things have arisen with both my jaw and my day-to-day life, I figured it was time to make an update. So yes, this will be an update on both my Jaw Surgery progress and my general life happenings.

So first I'll start by saying that tomorrow I will be exactly 8 weeks post-op!! And everyone knows what that means... I finalllllyyyy get to chew!
I've been pretty bad when it comes to eating though. I've literally ate everything I'm not supposed to. Bread, Meat, big chunky pasta, you name it. Well... I haven't ate crackers or pizza, so I guess I haven't been too bad. And I never actually chewed any of this... except the bread. I took little pieces and mushed it behind my back molars where my wisdom teeth used to be, the gummy part. So actually I have been pretty bad.
My next appointment with my surgeon isn't until Tuesday and I know that most people would wait until they see their surgeon to start chewing food but when I saw him last week I said "So I can start chewing 2 Fridays from now?" and he replied "Yes, but start off with the soft foods you've been just swallowing. You can't go straight to meat and raw veggies. Cooked veggies and pasta are a good starter." So That's exactly what I'm doing. Tomorrow Evan is coming down and we're having lunch together so he can see me chew my first meal since surgery. I'm so excited it's not even funny.

Now onto pain. The last couple days have been weird... I'm not sure if I mentioned this, but after surgery I developed pain on the left side of my head, right above my ear and in my temple. It was never that big of an issue for me, because I only felt the pain if there was any pressure on that side - if I leaned on my hand with it, if I pushed it, etc. But today has been strange... I've been getting bad pain in my temple / side of head, and I can even feel it behind my eyeball. It's more irritating than painful, but it still bothers me that there's something wrong there and I don't know what it is. I kind of consider myself a... Hypochondriac? If that's the name of someone who thinks they have every disease and issue in the world then that's definitely me. I don't think looking at this screen is helping either. When I see my surgeon I'll bring it up and maybe he'll do a 3D scan of my head. Who knows.

Numbness! I'm actually really excited to talk about the numbness in my face and I don't really know why. Over the last couple weeks there has been a dramatic difference in numbness. Originally my lower lip and my chin were completely numb. Now, I would say I have about 90% feeling back in my lower lip, and 80% back in my chin. There is a spot right in the middle of my chin that's at about 30% but it's getting higher every week. I have an optimistic feeling that I'm not going to have any numbness in my face in a few months. But here's the really cool part - I was putting on lip balm the other day and every time I got to this one spot on my lip, a hair that had fallen off my head and gotten stick to my lipbalm kept tickling the same spot in my chin... or so I thought. Turns out that it wasn't a hair at all, it was just my nerves! It was the coolest feeling, and since then the feeling has intensified, every time I touch that spot on my lip the nerves in this one little spot on my chin go crazy! They go even more crazy when I rub the edge of my lower lip under that one spot. Oh, and I put something cold on that spot on my lip the other day? I felt the coldness in that spot on my CHIN, not on my lip! It's amazing.

Onto other surgery related things. I can fit 2 fingers in my mouth, and almost 3 if I really push it, which I don't want to do. I can easily move my jaw side to side, and I can shift my lower jaw forward enough that my lower teeth are actually significantly more forward than my upper teeth. I think I'm pushing it too much though, and that may be why I'm starting to get noticeable pain in the side of my head. My surgical hooks are still on but I'm praying they come off soon. I'm so done with these elastics, let me tell ya. Still wearing 4 of them, still wearing them when I'm asleep. The shitty part is, I don't even need my bottom surgical hooks so I don't even know why they're still on.

When it comes to my looks, I'm really on the fence. I love how I have a defined chin and it seems to fit my face well. I love how I have defined cheek bones as well. However I absolutely hate my nose. It's so upturned that it looks too short and very piggy. And I dislike that my lips aren't noticeably closer together. If you've read my old posts, you'd notice I talked about how my biggest desire out of this surgery was for my lips to close. I knew they couldn't be closed all the way without making myself look unattractive but I was hoping for a bit of a difference. Since I am able to pucker my chin muscles a little bit without making it noticeable, I can make it look like my lips are naturally closer together, when in reality I'm actually putting the same amount of force into it than I used to.
All in all, I'm on the fence about whether or not the surgery was worth it, but I'm leaning more to the "Yes" side. My bite is beautiful, I'm generally pleased with the "new" features of my face, and my numbness is almost 100% gone.

So that's pretty much it. I'm really lucky that the car accident didn't affect my jaw at all. Going through another surgery would be hell.

Other than that, life has been pretty basic, with a lot of random drama. For one, I was having a hell of a time with this gym membership. Not sure if I mentioned it already... but even if I have OH WELL. So I joined this gym 2 weeks before surgery.. they told me they could postpone my payments while I'm on medical leave. So I emailed the girl then night before surgery (like she told me to) never heard anything, and they were still charging me. So about 3 weeks after surgery I called and spoke to the manager, and she said she would postpone my payments for 2 months. I thought the situation was dealt with... and it wasn't. 3 weeks ago tomorrow, I noticed they were STILL charging me. So 2 weeks ago I walked into the gym and asked to speak to the manager. They called her down but she was just about to do a conference call or some BS so they took my number and said she would call me... she never did. So last week I got fed up and called. I spoke to the manager and although I was nice about it, I definitely made it clear that I was not happy. So once again she said she would deal with it... she said she would send me an email confirming that she did it, like she said she would last time and never did, so I hung up and waited for the email. Never got it. I was so mad at this point... I seriously thought I was gonna be charged again... So Friday came around and I checked my account... and so far they haven't charged me a thing! So glad that's dealt with.

Another issue is school... I've been trying to get in contact with someone for a bit about some accommodations. I have A.D.D. (Attention Deficit Disorder, although now they classify is as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and after calling a couple times I finally spoke to someone about it and got the answers I needed.

And looking for a job! I messaged my boss a couple weeks ago about working... but she texted me back and said I wasn't needed for a while. Apparently things are slow at the Groomers and since I can't work with the dogs... I'm not really needed. So now I'm onto looking for a new job. I'm ridiculously picky when it comes to jobs. But I found my dream job... It's pretty much Pet Retail. The place is very laid back and it's not too far, it still concerns animals (the last time I was in there, there were cats chillin on random posts) and since I've had experience in retail I think I'd do well there... Except you have to apply online, and that location isn't hiring. The closest location is in Toronto. Hell. No. Nonetheless I'm going to walk in and hand in my resume one of these days.

Other than that, my life has been about, eating, sleeping, and watching make up tutorials on Youtube. Evan got a job working Night shift, it was supposed to be part time but since a couple people have left he's working 40 hrs a week. It would be easier if we were in the same town but since we're not, I never see him. Boo hoo. :(

Well, that's all the bitching I need to do for today! I hope you jaw surgery under-goers or survivers enjoyed this post and found it informative. And possibly found humor in my pathetic day to day life? Who knows.

I'm making it my mission to post before and after pictures this week, but until then here are a couple recent pictures of myself! Talk to you soon xo

A day after the car accident

In the hospital after the car accident.

again

I got bored idk.

Sasha :)

Blurry but this my profile 6weeks postop.

camping right after the car accident

baby goat :)

probably my favourite picture of my profile.

he kept biting my fingers lol :)

Chloe :)

again :)

Sasha's silly face

<3

Evan <3

my favs

<3

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

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

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

Surgery Update: Surgical Hooks on and ONE WEEK TO GO

Hello again everyone!!
I am happy to tell you all that I finally got my surgical hooks on!!!

I went in today and got them hooked onto my braces, the cool thing is that they're bendable so i can bend them in such a way so they don't annoy me. But at the same time it worries me that they won't be strong enough to hold onto the elastics post-surgery. Oh well, we'll see.

This is what they look like:

Excuse my ripped up lips, when I get anxiety I tend to tear them apart.


ONE WEEK TO GO!!!
My anxiety isn't that bad right now. I'm actually very excited to see my new face... Well kind of. I keep looking at all the old pictures of me and my boyfriend, or me and my friends/family, and I'm finding myself sad that I'll never be like that anymore, that eventually I'll look at these pictures and not recognize myself, basically like looking a stranger. But I'm keeping optimistic. I'm just excited to get the first week over and done with...

So anyways, when I saw my orthodontist, I was having a bad case of sniffles, since my cold is still going strong. He said that if I still have a cold by surgery time then it might not happen. NOT impressed. I will admit, I wasn't the nicest to my boyfriend for a couple hours after that, who gave me the cold.

In more surgery related news, my surgeons office called yesterday and said my surgeon wants to take a photo shoot with me this upcoming Tuesday; I guess to make sure that everything he's doing to my face won't make me look funny. I actually don't know why. But the lady I spoke to and I both laughed at the thought of having a photo shoot with my surgeon lmfao.

Nothing else is new other than that though. Today I got a hair cut & ombre highlights, just so I can still feel slightly pretty after surgery. You can't really notice them to be honest. They're very subtle. The cool thing is that they'll lighten in the sun this summer and then my hairdresser and I were thinking of dying my hair RED... oooooh.
 I also did most of my surgery/post-op shopping today but I still need to get more stuff, and I'm just nursing my cold basically. I pray to god that I don't get a sinus infection like my boyfriend did, and that I'm fine for surgery. I've waited 3 years for this, and my surgeon is away on vacation the following week, so I refuse to postpone this any longer.

Once I finishing buying all the shit I need for surgery I'll post pictures of it all :)

I shall leave you with a picture I just took of sick Becca with her new haaaaaaiiirr chillin beside a Honey Badger
TTFN
Ta Ta For Now