Monday, December 19, 2011

Day 19 and Before and After Smile

Saw my surgeon today and he said everything looks great and to keep doing what I'm doing.  He also told me to keep streaching my mouth so when he does let me eat I can do it. 

Don't think I posted this before but when I sneeze I do it with my mouth open.  It feels weird but I'm afraid to sneeze with my mouth closed.  I don't want to accidentally hit my teeth together forcefully.  I read that if you sneeze too early it will feel like your head explodes.  That is enough for me to happily sneeze with my mouth open for now.  My nose started running again last night.  Don't know why but it is only my left side, which is the side that wouldn't stop after surgery. 

Slept a lot today because my days and nights are still messed up.  My awesome cleaning lady came to the rescue and cleaned my house an extra time this week.  It was so awesome to wake up to a clean house.  I kept the kids outside for most of the day because I didn't want them to make the house explode again.  Bored kids can do lots of damage to the house.  My Aunt Elaine was so awesome and came over to make one of my favorite meals, milk gravy.  It is a family recipe and I looooove it.  It is poured over bread normally.  I usually love big ripped up pieces of bread.  She shredded the bread really tiny and put lots of gravy on the little pieces, then she stirred it up into mush.  It didn't look bad and was sooooo good.  Didn't take as long as I thought it would to brush my teeth so that was super good.  My father in law makes the best homemade macaroni and cheese and I was thrilled that he made me a mini batch for dinner.   Soo yummy.  When I eat food like the milk gravy and mac and cheese I need to have my syringe with my drink nearby so I can shoot liquid to get the thicker pieces to go down my throat.  The macaroni was awesome but it took forever to clean out of my mouth.  I always brush my teeth as soon as I'm done eating but it felt like something was stuck behind my upper molar.  I carefully brushed and brushed and it wouldn't come out.  I felt around my teeth with my finger because I can't feel anything with my toothbrush anyways and can with my finger.  I felt a lot back there but no noodles.  I got a flashlight out and looked in the mirror and saw craziness.  I had all these stitches coming out of my cheeks and gums.  Mostly on my left side but some on my right too.  I know I didn't feel those there before and I'm not sure how they are coming out.  Today was a yummy food day but I think I need to go back to my liquid diet for awhile.  I'm afraid to brush with all those stitches and I don't want to have to brush as long and hard and no chew food requires.

While my aunt was visiting I asked her if she wanted to see a video of the type of surgery I had.  I actually found it months ago on youtube.  It is pretty intense.  She was very interested in it until they started breaking the bone.  She was actually doing a small scream out a couple times.  I wish I would have recorded her reaction.  It was very expressive and kind of funny.  I also told one of my friends about the video and she watched it while we were talking on the phone.  She told me she doesn't get grossed out by that stuff.  But when she saw the video she was yelling out, "She is still alive!  How are they doing this to her?!"  I laughed and reminder her that they did this to me.  lol.  I was totally able to watch this video before my surgery but I don't recommend it to others.  I just looked at all the positves about why I was doing this and didn't care how scary the surgery looked.  I'm glad I saw it before because it helped me to understand what they did and how they did it.  The work these surgeons do is amazing.    

Interesting stuff.  I can feel my lower lip and move it more.  It is weird because I can feel me touching my lip and chin on the top layers but the deeper layers still feel dead.  My husband kissed me today and I could feel it on my top lip but not my bottom lip.  It felt weird to me to not really feel it.  Even though I felt the touch of my top lip I couldn't feel it like a kiss.  Sorry if that is too much info but just trying to keep all the details in.  lol.  He said it didn't feel weird to him.  This was something I wondered about before surgery and thought would be good to post on this blog.  I will let you know when things feel more normal in that area.  :)





Before smile and nose
Super gummy :(


After smile and nose  :) :) 
Still swollen and not as natural as I would like but look....NO GUMMY SMILE!



7 comments:

  1. Hi Jen, thanks for posting on your blog. This is super helpful to me as I prepare for jaw surgery next week.

    I also watched surgeries on youtube - they are very graphic but I wanted to know exactly what they would be doing to me. I'm weird that way and am glad to know I'm not the only one. :-)

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  2. Thanks! Good luck with your surgery!!! Thanks for reading my blog. :) It really helped me to watch the surgeries before I experienced it because I wanted to know why I was sore and what was going on in my mouth. It is graphic but still glad I watched it. It also makes me realize how amzazing these surgeons are to be able to do all that craziness to our mouths.

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  3. Jenn you're looking great! I'm a couple weeks behind you - today is day 10 for me. I find your comment here about kissing really helpful because I came to the same consensus yesterday. Matt said it felt normal to him but I could only feel the upper lip kissing him. I can tell when I'm touching my chin or lip but I don't know how I can tell I just do. Does that mean I have some feeling in certain layers of the skin? I cannot feel any sensory like if I lightly run a finger across my lip or chin i feel nothing. I have to really touch it to know I'm touching that area and even then there's no real feeling. My chin and lower lip feel stiff to me and I do get tingling mostly though in the lower lip. Is this how you were in the early days and when did you start noticing it get better? It sure would be nice to know a timeframe for this because those areas are the most bothersome for me. I can't eat without drooling and kissing doesn't feel right. Any details you can offer are greatly appreciated so I have something to compare to!

    Tara

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  4. Wow amazed at how different you look without the gummy smile! Amazing!

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  5. Wow your talking! Looks like you're donig great at day 19!

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  6. Sorry I didn't respond sooner Tara. Didn't see these comments. Just reponded on your recent post. :)

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