Days 15 - 29

Four weeks down, three to go! Until I can eat, anyway. Probably another four to five months till the braces come off, which is somewhat depressing. I haven't posted for the past two weeks because not a whole lot has changed. I still can't chew on anything and my face is still puffy. I do look more normal now, which has allowed me to go out in public without being self-conscious. I also got my surgical hooks removed at my orthodontic appointment yesterday and it was truly exciting. My mouth is no longer being ripped to pieces by those sharp metal posts. So far, I've had my doctors tell me a couple of things that are not consistent with most of what I've read of others' experiences with jaw surgery. The first thing is that I will be able to eat after seven weeks, not six like I've heard almost everyone (including the nurse at his office) say. I know one week isn't a huge deal, but I am dying for some real food. The other thing is that my orthodontist told me that even though my teeth are almost perfectly straight right now, he has to leave the braces on for six months. On various dental, orthodontic, and oral surgery websites, it says braces can be removed anywhere between 3-6 months. My surgeon has also said this multiple times. To just be wearing braces for so long without them actually doing anything is incredibly irritating to me. Is there a reason for this? After a total of over 8 years of these evil things in my mouth, I am more than ready to get them off.

Anyway, overall this experience has gone smoother than I expected. At times, it does get extremely frustrating, and I feel like I'm super paranoid about something going wrong. But I like my bite and my profile much better now, and I think once this is all over I will be so happy I did this. I think my swelling has gone down enough to do a before and after. I'm still swollen, especially under my jaw line, but it's cool to see the slight difference that makes me feel 100 times better about my profile.


Front before and after...not very different

Left and right profiles before and after...the difference isn't huge but it's noticeable to me and I like it lots.

More later!

Days 9 - 15

So, it's been a week since I last posted and a lot has happened. Let me start by discussing the nastiest part. Hematomas. EW. A hematoma is basically a pool of blood trapped somewhere. In my case, at the site of the incision/breakage. After the surgeon sewed me back up, my veins decided to keep bleeding. The blood was then trapped by the sutures and had nowhere to go. As it sat, it coagulated to form hard  lumps on my face. At first, I couldn't really feel them due to the massive amount of swelling I had. But as the swelling went down, they became more noticeable. Then, they started popping. Right after I posted my last entry on this site, I got up to take a shower and noticed a weird taste in my mouth. Blood. Lots of blood. I freaked out. I was bleeding for a few hours, and didn't know what was wrong. It was strange, because my swelling had gone down considerably after all that bleeding. I told my dad that I would go to the doctor the next day (Thursday) if it hadn't stopped. Thursday night, I started bleeding again, and Friday morning I was in my surgeons office. He told me it was the hematomas working themselves out. Nothing to worry about. So, ever since then I randomly start bleeding. It doesn't last too long anymore, which is good, because it's disgusting. But the stupid hematomas are still here, making me retain my fat kid look. Especially from the side. Hopefully they will work themselves out in the next week. 

My surgeon said that my swelling right now is down 1/3. He says by my appointment next week I should be down 2/3. I'm hoping that will be enough to allow me to feel comfortable in public. Right now, it's not enough swelling to KNOW something's wrong with me, but just enough to wonder if I'm really ugly, or if I have a slight deformity. My head is sort of the shape of an eggplant. I will admit that it's starting to get to me a little. I just can't wait to look normal and do normal things. I am also getting really tired of this diet. My appetite has almost left completely and I never want to eat. It's become more of me forcing food down my throat. It's just tasteless. I'm not sure if thats because it's all the same texture and mostly the same type of things, or if it's the antibiotic because that makes my mouth taste metallic. Whatever it is, I would like it to stop. I lost a good 10 pounds in the first week, then gained about 5 back. I'm guessing it was mostly water weight I lost initially. But now, I have lost the 5 back again, so I'm still at 10 pounds lost. That's at least something positive! I started at about 143, and now I'm at 133. Goal weight is 125 and I feel like I will have no trouble reaching that after I'm recovered.

In other news, our power went out AGAIN last week and our air conditioner was broken for 4 days in 100+ degree heat. I couldn't sleep and have been incredibly tired the past few days. I think everything culminated last night. I felt extremely nauseous and burnt out. But after sleeping for an entire day, I feel a little better. All in all, things are going ok. My bite is still straight, and the doctor says everything looks good. This process is really long and frustrating, but I know it will be worth it. I have an orthodontic appointment tomorrow and I'm weirdly excited about it. Maybe just because it will get me out of the house and I will be in contact with people. Anyway, I'll leave you with some photos from this past week. Enjoy!

 Days 9 - 12

 Left profile - Day 14

 Right profile - Day 14

 My face today - Day 15

Days 12 - 15

More soon!

My Head is Still a Bowling Ball and I'm Craving Chips and Salsa AHHHHH (Days 4-8)

Ok! So I've made it a week and a day...excitement! Here's a rundown of what happened:

Things were going swell. I wasn't taking any pain medicine whatsoever, I was sleeping alright and getting a decent amount of food into my system. Then, on Friday afternoon, the skies turned black and all hell was unleashed on northern Indiana. We hid in the basement and watched trees get ripped apart. The basement might have been scarier than the storm. I used to tell my friends it was a dungeon. Anyway, the power went out and we soon learned that over 100,000 people were stuck in the same situation. No power, anywhere. We sat in the dark and hoped for the best Friday night. Saturday was filled with board games and movies on my computer which still held some charge. By Sunday, the house was over 80 degrees and I was not feelin it. We got a hotel downtown. It had a great view, which was a plus, but I had to walk through the lobby and risk making people think the zombie apocalypse was truly happening...a definite minus.

The first four days starting top right, top left, bottom right, bottom left

 I have always hated sleeping in hotel rooms. The blasting air conditioning never fails to make my throat hurt and give me a bit of a cold. After one night, I started to really feel like dirt. I wasn't eating much because we didn't have the blender or any of the food I could eat. To make matters worse, I tried eating some pasta from a place down the street and it must have been too much for my mouth to handle. All night my mouth throbbed and ached with pain, and I felt like a limp and feverish noodle. I tried to ease the pain with the Mario Brothers.

The power finally came back Monday night. It was so nice to sleep in my own bed with my little fluffy dog. In the morning, I had to go see my surgeon for my weekly post-op check up. He said everything looked good and he took the two rubber bands that were holding my teeth together off. I thought it would hurt, but it didn't at all. He said I could take them off whenever I eat or brush and that was honestly really exciting. I can eat my assorted mashed food items about 10 times faster now, meaning I can eat a larger amount of food. This is good because for the first week I think I was probably between 500-600 calories a day or less. I did lose around 10 pounds in 7 days, which is kind of awesome. But I can't be losing 10 pounds every week.

Last night my family and boyfriend decided to go to the drive-in...one of the few outside-of-my-house activities I can do seeing as I still look like a monster. It was nice, even though I got eaten alive by mosquitos. Today is the Fourth of July and I think we're going to have a cook out. I will be eating noodles, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Nom. KFC really has THEEE best mashed potato/gravy combination. Maybe that will help me keep my weight up. Any-who, here are some photos. The swelling is still pretty prominent, so I cant really be sure of what I'm going to look like yet.

Here's day 4 through 8...the swelling has seemed to start to plateau.. meaning it will take a while to get from here to normal again :(

Left side profile...the difference is small but I can see it! Sooo wishing the swelling would disappear

Right side profile lookin HAWT

My teeth are touching its amaaaazzinnn!

That's it for now! I'll update again in a few more days. Happy 4th! Amurica.