Jaw Jigsaw

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...

I can't believe I've made it two weeks! Since my 10 day post I feel like my face changed so much! Still dealing with a ton of swelling but I look a little more "normal." Also this is my first day without the JAW BRA!! It's awesome. I did my hair (aka dried it) for the first time in more than 2 weeks!!! Woohooo!! Food : I'm eating just about everything I can get into my mouth, haha. I mean I had a piece of pizza the other day. It took me like 20 minutes to finish it by cutting it into really small little pieces, but I did finish it! Haha! Except for the crust. Today was the first day I used real silverware (not baby spoons)!! I can control my upper lip mostly now and put my lips together so I am able to get the stuff off of the spoon/fork. No chewing still, obviously, but I've learned to break up what I can with my tongue and bottom teeth. My obsession lately has been bread rolls. HA. Needless to say I've only lost about 10 lbs since the surgery. Defi...

Today is my first day officially by myself. It's nice to not have to talk to anyone. Jon's parents came over yesterday and helped watch Amelia. I gave her a couple of naps which was nice. This splint is so annoying to clean and talk with. I'm so over it. I have a date for the splint removal though! May 6th! Too bad that's more than a month away.... ARGHHH. I'm dreading going back to work with this. Whatever. Swelling is down a little more I think. Sleeping is better. Painwise I haven't taken any painkillers for a while. I should probably take some Tylenol but I keep forgetting. My face is just uncomfortable, but it doesn't hurt. Just a weird feeling. Sometimes tingly so I'm hoping that's the feeling come back into it. So far not much of the numbness has gone. My nose congestion is on and off but it's in general a little bit better, except when sleeping, ugh. Before profile. You can see the swelling better from the side. From the...

I know I said I would slow down with posting but this is ridic. So I know the swelling is still horrendous but I finally found a picture of me not smiling, haha. I don't know why I don't have more but here's the comparison shot!!!! My face is completely different!!! It's so hard to tell with the jaw bra on and the swelling but omg my chin is so much smaller now! Cray cray. Just wanted to post because it's finally a good comparison shot. I can't wait to compare 6 months from now, but I'm happy now with this. :)

My appointment this morning wasn't too exciting. It was mainly to take out the sutures on my face & neck. My surgeon said everything was looking good. He asked me what I thought and then agreed with me that it's too hard to tell with the puffiness. Apparently I'm still 70% swollen. Not cool, man. Not cool. This swelling needs to get the f out of here. I got the stitches out, which didn't hurt despite having feeling there. Then I got some x-rays. I'm not able to put my teeth completely together because of the splint. It's in the way. The surgeon wasn't worried though so I'm not either. He also cleaned the back of my splint!! Food gets stuck in it like no joke. :( The splint has an arch in the back that supports the roof of my mouth that grabs everything. He said that sometimes they cut that part out after a week, but not for me unfortunately. :( He said I was doing an okay at cleaning though other than back part. I've not been trying very h...