Happy New Year!!! Trying to focus on the positive stuff right now. Feeling a little better. It really helps to get the sucky stuff out and try to not think about it. We took the kids to the movies, with my scarf of course, and then went to my aunt's house for a big family lunch. We usually have New Year's Day lunch at my house but I was happy my aunt decided to host since I don't want to have to clean up for company right now. My mom made me my milk gravy and my grandma made stuffing as a side for lunch. I was able to eat the stuffing but some of it was a little chunkier than I thought and got stuck behind my two front teeth and my splint. I always brush my teeth as soon as I finish eating and I knew something was stuck as soon as I started brushing my teeth. It would not come out. It is soooo annoying to get stuff stuck behind those two teeth. Thank goodness my mom gave me a portable waterpik that I carry around with me. I usually can put it at the tiny gaps between my front four teeth and it will shoot onto my tongue and I can spit it out. I tried to do that and it would not come out. I tried a couple times and still nothing. I was able to turn the waterpik nozzle around and spray from behind my teeth. Did that a couple times and it finally came out. I will post a pic of the waterpik. Don't know where she got it from but I couldn't eat without it. It seriously drives me crazy when I get something stuck behind my teeth and my splint. I highly recommend looking for one if you are having surgery. You need to ask your Dr when you can use a waterpik though because they all have different recommendations on when you can start using it. Mine said I could use one the first week of surgery.
My nostrils hurt sometimes. My surgeon stitched them down during the surgery and they killed the first 2 weeks after surgery but only every once in awhile since then.
Kind of gross but I finally was able to lift my upper lip up enough to see more stitches. This picture doesn't do justice to how gross it looks in person but I was glad I was able to get a pic of it.
You can see the neat close stitches my Dr did. Those stitches attached my soft tissue, lip area, back to my gums. If you lift your upper lip all the way you will see where he cut it all to do my upper jaw surgery. He told me they are like that across my whole upper jaw, from my back molar all the way across my jaw to my other back molar and up each side of my mouth a little. I wish I could get a pic of the back of my mouth. You can see a lot of stitches from the upper and lower areas. Also this pic doesn't show all the ones right in the middle of my lip and gums. There are more there and they hurt when I smile too big or laugh. I can feel them pulling my skin. Also, this is the first time I am able to lift my lip this much. My upper lip is becoming more pliable and trying to go back to normal.
I'm too scared to look at the stitches, I haven't taken a peak yet. You seem much braver. When were you able to take your first look? I think I have some scar tissue in one area upper jaw because it hurts when I smile on that side and seems to get "hung up." I'm going to address it with my surgeon next time I see him. Anything I can do to minimize scar tissue do you know?
ReplyDeletelol. I wanted to know what was going on in my mouth so I didn't hurt myself. I was looking around as well as I could the after the first week or so. Whenever it didn't kill me to brush my teeth I started trying to look. I couldn't get my upper lip up that much until I took this pic. It was always super rigid closer to my gums and I didn't want to push it. The stitches right in the middle were hurting a lot because I was laughing too much so after they settled down I wanted to check them out to see why they were hurting so much and was surprised my lip lifted as much as it did.
ReplyDeleteSorry I don't know anything about how to help scar tissue but I would love it you could pass the info along when you find out.