Day 14: Maxillofacial Activity

Post-Op Appointment

Today I saw Dr. Tocchio. Everything is looking great. My incisions are all healed and my bite is perfect. My swelling is almost all gone. They showed me how to remove and replace my elastics. I’m allowed to remove my elastics to eat, brush and do exercises for up to 2 hours a day. I’m using a stop-watch so that I don’t lose a precious second of that glorious time.

 

I’m able to smile much wider today. It’s amazing the progress from one day to the next. Using a straw and laughing and smiling a lot have really helped.

And below shows how wide I can open my teeth right now. This will probably improve dramatically tomorrow because I exercised a lot today. I still can’t fit a baby toothbrush into my mouth and can’t use a spoon. When I walk around without my elastics my bottom teeth rattle against the top. This doesn’t hurt but you can hear it. This will go away soon when my muscles regain strength.

 

Here is the elastic configuration I’m going to wear for the next two weeks. There are only two elastics now, so there’s a lot less pressure! I can open my mouth a couple millimeters with these elastics. I still feel very banded shut while I’m wearing them.

Talking

My speech becomes clearer every day. At this p0int I can answer the phone and go shopping and talk without having to repeat myself, although it’s obvious that my teeth are banded shut.

Liquid Diet

My surgeon has given me the go-ahead to start eating soft foods like eggs and pasta. However, I can’t even fit a pea through my teeth right now so that’s a little ambitious. He said “Whatever you can fit in there!” I started by eating a lightly blended split-pea soup. Let me tell you, there were peas everywhere, it was a bit overwhelming and I almost choked twice. But it was freaking delicious. I haven’t been very hungry for two weeks (in fact I had to take Gravol to stomach some liquid meals). But as soon as those solid peas hit my mouth I was suddenly starving! Tonight I’m making a cookie milkshake and I can’t wait for that. Every day I’ll challenge myself a little bit and I bet by the end of the week I’ll be eating eggs.

Pain & Discomfort

My pain is completely managed with Dermetol [Edit: Demerol. It must be working.] and Advil. I have to take one or the other every 5 hours. If I wait too long, the pain gets a bit much. The pain is around the incision sites and in my chin. My chin has actually become the most painful part of my face. I feel like I have a permanent charliehorse in my chin. It feels like my chin is straining upwards, it’s extremely painful. I can’t massage this pain away and ice and heat only aggravate it. I’m not sure why because they didn’t move my chin during surgery. It must be a good sign, because some people feel no sensation at all for weeks or months.

Sleep Quality

I’ve been sleeping like a baby for a couple of days now. Last night I slept 8 hours straight, the longest stretch without waking up in pain. It was amazing. My nose is not as congested as last week. I still clean it regularly using a flashlight and Q-tips. Sounds gross but it’s necessary to breathe. I also use the Breathe Right Strip during the night, but don’t need them during the day anymore. I’ve seen so much progress in my healing since I started sleeping more.

Crying

I’ve been doing a lot of it. Not bad crying, just very emotional, happy or whatever. I think my balance is off and I’m very fragile right now and it doesn’t take more than a video of a puppy or a baby to set me off. I’m not surprised considering the medication I’m on and what my body has been through physically.

That’s all for now! My next post-op is in two weeks and my surgeon will tell me to start eating a normal diet at that point. How fast the time flies! Soon this will all be a distant memory.