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

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!

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

Day 17 post op / Coconut Oil

Wow I can't believe I haven't posted in 5 days. I feel so bad lol.

The reason for this is because I don't have much to report! Also I was away this weekend at my boyfriends. But that's irrelevant.

So the last 5 days, as I mentioned, have been uneventful. I've ate, drank, slept, laughed, cried, smiled... I know I'm only 2 and a half weeks post op but I feel normal. My jaw doesn't hurt. I eat whatever I want (as long as I don't chew) and my breathing is fantastic.
Don't tell my surgeon but I even eat meat! I cut it up into teeny tiny pieces, put it in my mouth, suck on it for a bit and then swallow whole.
That sounded so dirty.

So for the last few days, I've ate a lot of mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, tea, I've had tiny pieces of peameal bacon, spaghetti cut up into little pieces, popcorn (don't ask how I eat that without chewing) and a lotttt of ice cream.
Evan's mom was so sweet, she made me a separate meal of mashed potatoes for when I came over for the weekend, and went out in the morning to buy eggs for me :)
Evan's brother was sweet too, he made smoothies. Evan and his mom hated it but I loved it, it was really good. Kinda reminded me of strawberry ice cream.

The pain in my face non-existent unless I touch it. For example, I still have bad pain in my left temple/side of head, but only when I touch it. The middle part of my nose hurts, but only when I touch it. My lower plates hurt, but only when I touch it. And my stitches hurt, but only when I'm laughing, like last night when I watched A Haunted House, I cracked up so bad it literally hurt.
Because I don't really feel any pain, I'm not taking anymore pain medication, however I'm still taking my antibiotics... Kind of. I'm doing a horrible job of taking one every 8 hours. More like 1 a day.

As for numbness, I'm actually starting to gain a bit of feeling back in my lower lip/chin!! When I was eating ice cream the other day, I could feel it drip down my chin for the first time. And there is definite tingling in my lower lip.

My swelling has come to a standstill, like I mentioned before. I still have definition in my cheekbones and I could not be happier. My smile is a little off, but it will get better with time.

All-in-all my healing has been wonderful. My surgeon said my sleeping position does not matter anymore, so now that I've moved back to sleeping in a bed, I usually sleep on my side. And Evan says I don't snore anymore so yay :D
I'm pretty sure I've followed my surgeon's instructions fairly well, although I drank the smoothie Blake made through a straw which I'm not allowed to do. I think that was my only setback.
My surgeon did tell me he wants me stretching my jaw muscles more, which means out of elastics for longer. I think I've accomplished this, I only wear my elastics when I'm sleeping..... Lol
The only thing I'm concerned about is my bite. When I'm in elastics, it pulls my jaw forward and to the left a bit. But it's in a completely different position out of elastics. Hopefully this isn't an issue.

So for pain it would be a 1/10
Swelling is... maybe 2/10?
and inconvenience is probably 4/10

The last thing I want to mention on this topic is that my jaw has random spasms. Well, I don't know if you'd call them spasms. It just kind of twitches really bad, like I'll be trying to sleep and suddenly my lower jaw will shoot to the left. And I'm lying here like what the actual fuck beep. I read this is normal though so I'm not too worried.

Okay so I know this is strange, since this is a jaw surgery blog, but I wanted to talk about this since I think it's the coolest thing ever. Coconut Oil!!

My surgeon suggested this to me to hike up the calories and fat in my food so I gain more weight back / be more healthy. I talked to my good family friend about it and she swears by the stuff. She recently went through her second fight against breast cancer (and won because she's a boss) and to keep her weight from dropping too much because of the chemotherapy she used Coconut Oil, so I went and bought a huge jar of the same stuff she had. Then I started doing a little "research"... aka Google search engine... and found out it does wonders for your hair and skin!
I watched a few tutorials on Youtube and so I tried it out for myself. Of course I didn't listen to the tutorials well, I kind of used too much... But let me tell you, it's amazing. My hair has never felt so soft and smooth, and it smells really good! I also put some on my skin... I've had trouble with the blackheads on my nose / cheeks since I hit puberty, and they're gone now. Gone. In one use.
Coconut oil works as a moisturizer and an acne fighter, and apparently it helps your hair grow longer!
Anyways I just wanted to mention this for anyone who comes across my blog who maaaay have issues with dry hair or skin blemishes. However if you don't like the smell of Coconut, I'd definitely suggest not getting it, obviously.

That's it, hope you enjoyed the read and I'll update within the next couple days! xo

day 12 post op

Hey everyone!

Just wanted to do a quick update on today because I've had a bit of a scare and now my jaw is all funny.

Earlier today my pup came home from her weekly wednesday doggy daycare day. I laid on the ground and played with her, while my elastics were off, and as I tried to get up, my other dog stepped on my hair, yanking my head back and jutting my lower jaw forward, causing stretching and bad pain. I ran and put on my elastics, but a few hours later took them off to eat some food.

I noticed now that when i close my jaw, it doesn't... fit. The teeth beside my canine tooth on my left side kind of hit edges, instead of fitting into the grooves of each other like they used to.

Ever since I have been able to take off my elastics, I noticed that when my teeth are in elastics, they're much closer together than they are when the elastics are off. And to get my teeth that close together when the elastics are off, I have to... shift my lower jaw forward? It's strange. I'm not too concerned but at the same time I'm a little worried that my surgeon positioned my lower jaw while it was shifted forward and not when it was relaxed, so now it's all weird. I dunno.

If any of you guys who read my blog can relate and give me some info I would so appreciate it. Other than that it's been a lazy day with yummy food and now I'm about to make some ice cream mixed with Rolo milkshake mmmmmm

later sk8rs

Day 11 post op: Surgeon's appointment

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeello everyone!!!!

I am in the best mood I've been in since before surgery. I saw my surgeon today and everything went FAB-TAB-U-LOUS

So I got to my surgeons office and barely waited 15 seconds before my surgeon came in. He took off my elastics and asked me to open and close my mouth, all the while smiling insanely. He said the healing looks great and that I'm healing on a faster rate than most people which was awesome to hear. He said my incisions look great, I am allowed using my regular toothpaste and mouthwash, and, the best news, I AM NO LONGER ON A LIQUID DIET!!!

That's right, I'm allowed to eat ANYTHING I want as long as it can be mashed down and able to eat without chewing. I was, I AM, soooo happy.

Now onto the pain. I told my surgeon about the pain in my temple. He pushed on the exact spots where it hurt which was not fun but he said it was because of tension since I'm squeezing my teeth together. He said that squeezing my teeth together is a really bad thing to do. It can shift the plates and cause a lot of tension. Ever since I've caught myself squeezing my teeth a lot and it's frustrating but I'm trying.

I am now only supposed to use one elastic in each spot instead of doubling up on them. He told me to take off my elastics a lot and move my jaw a lot to get the muscles to stretch.

Basically everything looks great and my healing is great and there are no worries. So I went to Nature's Emporium and got some Sweet Potato and Carrot, Shepards pie, and Coconut Oil***. Then I bought some pasta at my favourite Italian eatery and went home. The Sweet Potato and Carrot was mashed, the Shepards pie blended, and The pasta was put in the blender with more tomato sauce and blended up. It was all SO. GOOD. I've ate everything in the house that I can. Oh and I bought Avocados to make guacamole later. UHFDOFH so happy.

However once I got home I noticed 2 things:

One, my back molars on the upper right side are very weak. Even when I brush very gently against it, it feels like it's being pushed on hard. It's weird.

and Two, I took my elastics off for a while and after about half an hour, my joints really started to hurt on the right. But once I put my elastics back on, the pain went away instantly. Also, when my teeth are closed without elastics, there in a different position than when my elastics are on. I'm worried that when my elastics come off permanently, my jaw will stay in that position it's in when my elastics are off and I'll be in really bad pain in my joints. Only time will tell but who knows.

My best friends came and visited me today which was awesome because I haven't seen one of them in months! Other than that I took my dogs for a walk and that was about all I did today.

Since things are pretty much slowing down I'll probably start updating every other day, or any day anything significant happens.

Talk to you all soon!

*** My surgeon wants me to put Coconut Oil in any warm foods to keep my calories up... I've been eating Buttercream icing and ice cream since I got home, I don't think my calorie intake is too low at all :P