Surgery day 19: smiles all around

Woohoo! Look at that smile! The swelling and stiffness has significantly decreased and I can now smile without looking like a weirdo circus clown. Not much has change since I last blogged, except I had a garage sale today and I spoke so well that everybody understood me without question! Yup, today was a good day.

Surgery day 15: long time no see

Hey guys! Sorry again for the accidental hiatus. Now that I'm actually going out in public and hanging out with friends, I forget to post all of the time. 

So yesterday, I just passed my 2 weeks mark and I'm feeling pretty good. This is what I look like now.My cheeks and jowls (I hate that word) are still swollen, but it's definately gone down since I last posted. My main problem now is stiffness. In my lower cheeks, jawline, bottom lip, and chin, I have a lot of stiffness that restricts me from smiling, eating, and talking normally. I'm trying to use heating pads and massages to loosen everything up, but so far it hasn't changed much. 

Surery day 11: fat booth

Hey there! So great news: my bottom lip is almost down to its normal size! I would be more excited except the rest of my lower face is still pretty rough. You guys remember that hilariously popular app "Fat Booth" from a few years ago? Well that's what I look like today. Normal me put into Fat Booth. 

The scarf helps to proportion it better, but regardless of how chubby my face is, it sort of looks like a normal face. Because of this, I'm making my first public appearance at the mall today. I debated wearing a surgical mask to hide the swelling, but I figured that the mask would bring more attention to me than my fat face. 

Other than my appearance, I'm feeling incredible! Yesterday was the first day that I met my caloric goal and that was due to the wonderful fact that I can now take out my elastics and eat mushy foods. It felt amazing not having to drink through the spaces of my teeth! For breakfast this morning, I had eggs and a very thick smoothie and I actually got full! I'm going to be loving this new diet. 

That's all for now, wish me luck at the mall.

Surgery day 10: things just got a lot easier

Oh my god guys, today was a very good day. I just got back from my incredibly good checkup. Here's what it went like:

First, they took off my bandage! It felt amazing to finally have almost full movement of my neck again! In addition to this, the doc said that the swelling in my lip will now start to go down a lot because the fluids can drain out now that the bandage is gone; he thinks the swelling will be almost gone in a few days!

Next, they removed my stitches, which is awesome because now I can stop worrying about them when I wash my face and sleep.

Then he took off my elastics and let me brush my teeth. I was so excited except, when I tried to brush, I realized my jaw wouldn't open wide enough for the toothbrush without locking up. I eventually squeezed the brush in there but I couldn't do very much. This kind of discourage me because I really needed to brush, but it was all ok because the doctor said that I only have to wear 2 elastics now and I can take them out when I brush and eat! You will not believe how good this news is! He also said that my jaw pains will get better and my mouth will start to gain full motion again once I start stretching the muscles, which I can now do because I can take off my elastics. 

Then he told me that I can now add soft, no chew foods to my diet including mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, and maybe even some pasta! I was about to start singing out of pure joy when I heard that.

 The whole visit finished off with him telling me that I looked great, my bite looked beautiful, and my chin will look stunning. 

This past week was pretty miserable, but it is already worth it. Now seeing my face with this bandage off, I can tell a huge difference.

Alright, maybe I'm still a little too swollen for you guys to tell, but the difference is amazing.

Surgery day 9: accidental hiatus

Hey guys! Long time no...write. Sorry for my little break in blogging; it was due to a combination of losing track of time and procrastination thanks to Netflix. Anyways, recovery is going great! I am now officially able to drink from a sippy cup rather than a syringe and swelling has gone down considerably! 

Even my bottom lip has started to deflate!

So right now, I'm in a hotel in Dallas (where I had my surgery) and tomorrow I have my first post-op appointment where I finally get this bandage off! I'm so excited to finally be able to regularly wash my hair and face again! Other than this, not much has changed since the last post except for the fact that I'm craving real food now more than ever. Seriously. I have a Pinterest board titled Stuff I Can Eat When I'm Done With This Stupid Liquid Diet full of recipes and delicious looking food. Why do I torture myself?

Surgery day 6: so much progress

We'll it's technically day 7 due to the fact that it's 12:09 as I type this, but I haven't gone to bed yet, so technically, it's still day 6.

Again, today was a good day; the main reason for this is because my swelling continues to get significantly better. My eyes are pretty much back to normal and my top lip is about half way there. 

If you'll notice, the brusing on my neck and cheeks is getting worse, but it doesn't bother me that much. If you'll also notice, I REPLACED MY BANDAGE AND WASHED MY HAIR. We'll I guess you couldn't see my hair, but anyways, my parents forgot that they gave us another head bandage so that I can wash my hair and change it, but I could only do this once and had to be very careful and may need to see a specialist in our area to help. So I figured today would be good because it's just a day over the halfway point to actually getting the wrap removed on Friday. The hair washing was amazing, but I was really excited about getting a glimps of my new lower jaw and chin, and let me tell you, I was a little freaked out. It looked...strange. I know that it's hard to tell because of all the swelling, but my chin didn't look that much more foward rather then deformed. I would panic but in just about every single blog I've read or video I've seen, the people always say that it's going to look very strange during the healing process, but you'll never know the actual result until you're fully healed. Which is very reassuring. 

And speaking of the healing process, feeling is definitely trying to return to my chin; I've been feeling lots of tingles and, unfortunately, sharp little shots of pain. 

I also have a new worry: weird pain inside my mouth. 

I noticed it yesterday when my tongue felt very rigid and it felt like I had scratches on the roof of my mouth. Then today, when I tried to drink my orange juice and later on my tomato soup (I'm thinking anything acidic) it burned my tongue, roof, and even my throat. The rigidness of my tongue is worse, too. If you've ever had an orthodontic appliance in the roof of your mouth (like an expander, retainer, etc.) and sometimes you wake up in the morning to find that you're tongue was mashed up against the appliance all night, and now you're tongue feels like its coated in gravel, then you know how I feel. Except, there's nothing on the roof of my mouth; not to mention the feeling of little cuts everywhere. I don't know if this is dehydration, something not right with my diet, or just the fact that I can't brush my teeth, but it's getting very uncomfortable and making it hard to eat. I'll probably do some research tomorrow and see what I can find, and if I turn up with nothing, I'll email my doctor. 

That's it for now, can't wait to see what kind of progress I make tomorrow!

Surgery day 5: out of the house!

So today was significantly better. The swelling around my eyes has drastically gone down and my cheeks definately look less fat. My lips haven't gotten the memo however. So that's what I look like today (you can see my greenish bruising on my neck and cheek) and if you'll notice, I'm in a car! Today I finally got out of the house! Well only for 15 minutes to go get some yummy soup from Mcallister's with my grandma, but still. It feels good to get out. On a more serious note, I'm having two major problems right now. Weight loss and possible infection. Let's start with the first. Going into the surgery, I was 101 pounds (I'm very petite, mind you) and as of now, I am about 94.8 pounds. I knew that I was going to lose weight, but due to my already low numbers, this much is no bueno. I have already noticed that I'm starting to look like skeletor and I've also been getting colder easily. I'm trying to reach my calorie goal of 2000 but it is very hard when you're trying to syringe feed liquid through your foul tasting mouth into a nauseated stomach; that is if you can not let it seep out of the gap that my catipillar lips create. 

Optimism, optimism. 

So anyways, I'm trying to start counting my calories and try and try to get closer to my goal.

Now onto the infection.

I say this because that gross smell that moved into my mouth a few days ago has very much intensified into a sour, awfully putrid odor...and taste. Also, whenever I try to brush my teeth, there is an extremely tender spot right underneath my bottom teeth. No matter how much a brush or use my medicated mouthwash, the smell never leaves. I don't have any fever or visible pus yet, so I'm trying not to panic, but I will be watching very closely. 

That's all for now guys! Sorry for such a long post. 

Surery day 4: feeling better

Sorry about yesterday, I now realize that post was kind of depressing. Anyways, today started off bad, but I decide to stop feeling sorry for myself and turn it around. Let's start off with why I was upset this morning. I was upset because when I looked in the mirror this morning, I saw this. 

Yes my right eye was completely swollen shut and the left eye was just about there. I started crying. But I told myself "this is just a part if the healing process, it will get better" And it actually did. I drank an entire bottle of Ensure today in one siting, not to mention soup, a milkshake, a smoothie, and even some hot chocolate. To add to this, I only had I take my pain medicine twice today in comparison to every 4 hours. Around noon I decided to try and brush my teeth, and it worked. I had to use a little baby toothbrush and I'm only able to brush a few teeth, but my goodness it felt amazing. Around this time, the swelling actually started to go down! My eyes opened up and my cheeks depuffed a little bit! I was so amazing at how fast I went from looking like I did this morning, to looking more like i did on day too (except for the lips, those are still as huge as the first pic). Bruising also started to show up today; parts of my cheek and my neck are this weird greenish color. Still to light to really notice, but bruising is a good sign of healing. Last night was also the night that I pretty much slept throughout the night; although still no luck with the uncontrollable drooling due to the fact that I have a gaping hole between my lips that I can't close right now. But I really don't mind the drool all that much because most of the day, I'm sitting comfortably in a recliner watching Netflix and keeping the drool where it belongs. 

I felt much better today, and I'm sorry for freakish anybody out with my last post. This whole thing is sort of an emotional roller coaster, but if you keep fighting and keep yourself very busy, you'll find that it is much easier to get through the day. 

Surgery day 3: spoke too soon

So yesterday sucked pretty bad. But I kept telling myself that tomorrow is going to be a lot better due to the fact that the swelling shouldl begin to go down. I was wrongly mistaken. 

This is what today looks like.

I have no idea why I'm this swollen, because they didn't even touch my top jaw, yet I'm so swollen I can barely open my eyes. I have a theory that it has to do with this head bandage; maybe it's making the swelling much worse than it needs to be for some reason. If that's the case, then I'm in for a long, miserable week because this thing isn't coming off until Friday. As in 7 days from now. I forgot to mention that because of this bandage, I cannot wash, brush, or do anything to my face and hair. Plus I can't brush my teeth yet because the swelling is just too bad and my mouth is starting to grow a new species in there. This, of course, makes me so nauseous that I dont want to eat because it makes everything taste like the taste of my mouth. 

Several times last night and this morning I have said to myself "I can't do this". I'm getting very discouraged right now and all I want to do is just rip off this stupid bandage, take out this awful splint, tear every single one of my elastics off, and just pretend this whole surgery never even happened. But obviously I can't. So I'm just trying to get along one day at a time and tell myself that today will be better. I just don't know when that is actually going to start being true.

Surgery day 2: the peak of swelling

Man am I glad to be home, no more elevated beds, no more nurses checking on me every 6 seconds, however I do miss my suction thingy. Anyways, this marks about 48 hours after the surgery which equals the peak of swelling, and I am feeling every last bit of it. I got so discouraged this morning because I couldn't get a smoothie down because the swelling was so bad. I tried and tried but it would just fall right out of my lips or suffocate me. Needless to say, I had to give up on my big breakfast this morning. After that, everything kind of went downhill. After taking my pain medicine, I had some awfully strange dreams that led to me waking up about every 20 minutes in a drooling fit. Also, I found out that we couldn't get a post-op checkup date until next Friday, which means I have to wear this god forsaken bandage for 8 more days, and now, due to my massive swelling, the bandage is about 50x more uncomfortable. 

As you can see, bruising has started to kick in, which makes me now feel pain in parts of my face and neck that I couldn't feel before. 

So today has probably been the worst day yet, mainly due to the swelling, but I'm really trying to stay as positive as I can through all this. 

Day 1: Going home

So we finally got discharged from the hospital; they said I was doing very well and everything looked great. You know, if you count this as great. 

Ok so I know that I look like absolute crap, but it really doesn't hurt at all. The worst part of it all is all of the bandages and the splint the have in me right now. The purpose of these is to keep everything steady and to retrain my muscles to hold my new jaw in place (because apparently they were all sorts of wrong), however, this means that I will be barely able to get food past my teeth until my check up in 1 week. They will definitely remove the bandages at this time and maybe the splint too. 

Other than that, the only thing I'm worried about is the 5 hour car ride home that I'm about to have to endure after we get all of our prescriptions soon. I'm hoping I'll just sleep the entire way, but I course, this will be very difficult due to the fact that everything is just awkward and inconvenient right now. 

Surgery day

Disclaimer: I apologize for any typos or nonsense, for I still am pretty loopy from the morphine.

So today I had orthognathic surgery (jaw surgery) and a geinoplasty (chin augmentation). So whenever I woke up from this surgery, I immediately thought "why the hell did I do this" and to be honest, I'm still having those thoughts. It's been about 6 .5 hours since my surgery and my mouth still us bleeding pretty badly. I have to use one of those dental suction thingies to to drain out blood about every  3 minutes. I did have some pain in my jaw joints (no doubt due to my tmj issues) and I also experienced pain right underneath my chin. As far as swelling goes, the top part of my face is completely normal, however right at my bottom lip and below, I'm a blueberry. Except you know, not blue.

See what I mean? 

 The worst part for me right now is the discomfort, blood, and my hunger. I have not had anything since 11:30 last night (now 8:45) and my stomach is making noises like it's being totrtured. They gave me a cup of water to try to drink out of, but honestly I scared. I have no idea how in the world they expect me to drink that because it literally feels like I don't have a bottom jaw right now. But I'll give it a shot because my throat definitely needs it. 

Well that's all for now, I'll try to update tomorrow, but if I don't, except one soon :)