Jaw Jigsaw

THE SPLINT IS GONE!! I chewed chicken and vegetables today! It was great! Although a little sore. It took me a while to get the hang of it. Mostly because my upper teeth are still numb. I kept chewing on my cheeks. I don't even care. My mouth feels like 10 lbs lighter without the splint and all my surgical hooks! Last photos with the splint in! My swelling has really gone down. Although still noticeable to people who don't see me often. The surgeon appointment went well. It took all of 2 minutes to get the splint out. A lot of facial stretching and then I got to BRUSH MY TEETH. That was amazing. Said I was okay to work-out, just no contact sports, lol. Took x-rays. Said everything looked good. The gross splint!!!!!!! You can see all my plates and screws! (And crowns, lol) My teeth touch!! Amazing!! Between the surgeon's appt and the ortho appt- I got chicken nuggets, lol. They were awesome.  I walked into the orthodontist's office and the ...

Okay so I wanted to make this post about what items were useful during jaw surgery. I think everyone does this but everyone's recovery is a little different. Things I loved (the good ): Jaw bra - it held bags of peas and ice packs so beautifully. And it was so easy to take on and off Aquaphor - Amazing for my lips that were all cracked, etc. Still use it!!! Stool softener - Trust me. Boogie wipes - My nose was the grossest of gross. These were SO amazing. Protein powder - Put it in all of my smoothies Neck pillow - Wore it around the house. Loved it. Vaporizer - Get one. Now. Recliner - It was the only way I could sleep for the first week. This was one of the main reasons I stayed at my mom's, lol. Their recliner is seriously the comfiest chair in the world. And it's biggg. Although the cats usually take claim over it so I had a few cats jump on me in the middle of the night, but nothing too painful, hahahaha. Squeeze bottle for water - Only way I got m...

April 24. One month after jaw surgery! I can't believe it's been a whole month. My baby girl just turned 9 months old. And I had my jaw broken one month ago! It's been a ride. I'm still the kind of tired that sleep can't fix, haha. Perpetually tired. Swelling : It comes and goes. Always worse on my left side. Still look like a chipmunk. Makes me very sad. I just need to remind myself that it won't be there forever. And I had major surgery a month ago. I can't expect things to go back to normal so quickly. I think I just had expectations that after 3 weeks most of the swelling would be gone from looking at others' blogs. I guess everyone is different. Whatever. I'm trying to get over it. I just make people take pictures of me from my right side. It's a little less swollen, haha. Numbness : Been getting a lot of upper lip and below the nose tingles! Little tingles on my cheeks, too! That's a good sign! In the past few days a lot of feeling ...

So things have been basically the same. Swelling on my left side is still out of control. I have no idea what the problem is but it makes me really sad. Pain: It's manageable. The only thing that really bothers me is my front top teeth. They had to cut my top wire so it's super sharp and now that I can feel my inner, upper lip it hurts like a biatch. Wax actually helps and I can wear the wax like all day since I don't chew. It's still sore though. Numbness: Got a lot of feeling back this week. Can feel under my eyes more now. Just under my nose and the apples of my cheeks are super numb. Can feel my left cheek more than my right. I don't really mind the numbness anymore. Wanted to show you the splint. The bane of my existence. It catches all foods and is a bitch to clean. I cannot WAIT to brush my teeth after this. Only 17 more days!!!!!   You can see the arch near the back. It's sooo super annoying. It's a pretty gross pic so I apologize lol....

Met with my surgeon today. For like 7 whole minutes, haha. It was weird because there's usually like my surgeon in the room, the resident doc and like 2 or 3 students (it's at the Pitt dental school). But today there was just my surgeon. I have to say it was nice. Usually he just talks to them about me like I'm not there, lol. I asked him about all the problems I have been having. I only really had three issues. My stuffy nose, the bump on my incision and my jaw swelling/pain. He gave me a z-pack for my nose. Even though all of a sudden it's not as stuffy, but still not completely better. But he said that should clear it up. I'm glad I didn't have to bother my PCP with this. He said the bump on my incision is just extra tissue and it will smooth out no problem. So that's not really an issue. Lastly he said some days the pain & swelling will be worse than other days. Duh, Larissa. I feel a lot better than the weekend today. My left side is still s...

I sneezed! My jaw didn't fall off! Accomplishment. Lol. So things aren't great. I don't know if it's going back to work or something else but I am miserable. Also have a head cold/sinus infection. Or something, lol. Some bad things have been coming out of my nose, haha. Pain: Yesterday I was crying my face/jaw was hurting so much. Not sure why. It seems to have subsided today. Everything on my face was just burning and aching. It was like my tooth abscess all over again. So that was fun. No pain medicine helped. I was going to call the doc this morning if it wasn't better, but it was. I'm going in to see him tomorrow anyway. Headaches on top of headaches. I think I've just been pushing myself too hard. Taking care of Amelia and going back to work. Numbness: I have a lot more feeling back. Just under my eyes and a little under my nose is numb. I contribute some of the pain to that factor. It's mostly my lower teeth in pain. Can't really complete...

So this day has not been great. I know I made this decision to go back to work, but I'm regretting it. I'm just so tired. Luckily, Amelia gave Jon and I some GREAT sleep last night. She has been battling an ear infection since Friday. No one has really slept since then. =\ The only sleep I was getting was after Jonny and Amelia left for the day. Yesterday my mom came over to help, but I'm mostly on my own these days. Last night Amelia slept from 7-10 and then woke up once. Then again at 1 am. But then she slept until 5:30 which was pretty amazing for her. That's what time I had to be up anyway. Yay. Overall, I'm just frustrated. I felt pretty great on Monday. But yesterday and today were pretty sucky. I feel like I'm back pedaling. Some things that are making me angry: My swelling has actually INCREASED in the past 2 days. I look like a serious chipmunk. I'm hoping it'll go away and it's not because of some crazy infection or something. It rea...