Almost 5 Weeks Out and BACK TO WORK!

The good, the bad, the ugly post...

I shall go in order since we all know how tidy and calculated I am (I make myself laugh sometimes)

THE GOOD:
I saw the ortho again last Wednesday and although he still couldn't move anything around yet, he says it's all healing up beautifully and he wants to see me every 2 weeks until we get back on program which is hopefully a total of 8 weeks from surgery day.  My new instructions were to try to use my electric toothbrush again to get rid of the uneveness in my gums and start using Colgate Peroxyl mouthwash.  I did a puppyface thing and conned like 25 free packages of this stuff from the front desk ;)

In other news, I'm back at work!  So far I've definitely needed more food /energy/sleep but it's good to be back!

THE BAD:
I saw Dr. S on Friday and after taking x rays and thinking everything looked good, he recognized that I had an infection where my plates are at.  My sutures healed up just fine but my body may be rejecting the plates BUT NO WORRIES (his words, NOT mine).  Meanwhile, I'm like almost in tears but we are somehow talking about his kid's costume while he gives me a prescription for a strong antibiotic for the next 10 days.  The pharmacist took one look at me and said, "this is going to be a problem... you kind of need to eat a huge meal everytime you take this FOUR TIMES A DAY, oh, and it may give you diarrhea for the next three months..." NO BIG [insert eye roll here]

THE UGLY:
I know what you're thinking, infection, da poppy pants, what could get uglier?  Lol, i guess I could have just those two into one.  My swelling hasn't gone down AT ALL in 2 weeks but I'm hoping the antibiotics help.  Will update soon!  xoxo

Latest Doctor's Visit and Jaw Progress

Last Wednesday was a huge turning point in the healing process as Dr. S was ready to see how far I could actually open my mouth.  I thought he was kidding but he removed my bands and left the room with the strict instructions that when he got back, I better be able to fit a tongue depressor at least in my gap.  He was gone for fifteen minutes and I managed to open my mouth THIS much {}.  Impressive, eh?  LOL.  It was NOTHING.  He then jammed a tongue depressor in between my teeth and said, Lara, you're never going to graduate to soft foods if you don't try to open your mouth.  I don't know if it was anxiety, pain, or both but I had a hard time following this instruction.

Nevertheless, my mother immediately became excited, managed a lunch date with my hubs and an hour later I found the three of us at a Thai restaurant and me with a bowl of curry under my nose.  Sheer will and hunger forced about 1/8 of the curry down my mouth but I quickly became sore and stopped.  It's been 5 days since I got the OK to remove my bands to eat and I'm so much better.  My favorite foods have been oatmeal thinned with milk and a dollop of jam added to it, rice with tons of sauce of some sort, vanilla and apple milkshakes and Italian Wedding Soup (but w/out the meatballs) and Naked Juices.

I had thought all my stitches were out but when the doc removed my bands on Wednesday, I spit 2 more out :P But none have come out since then so that's awesome!  I can now open my mouth 2 mm's worth and actually brush all my teeth!

What my stitches look like, SO GROSS!

 

There were like 100 of them in my mouth!

The pain is actually always constant but that's because my nerves are coming back together and I can feel more.  The pain is mainly in my chin, where the surgeon says all the nerve endings are, and in my actual teeth.  I don't nap all throughout the day anymore and my energy level is up as long as I eat constantly.  I'm down 14 lbs and am ALWAYS hungry, lol, so that's going to be my biggest challenge when I go back to work on Monday.  My next appointment is this Friday to get the all clear to return to work.  I'll get another set of x-rays and see how everything is healing :D

Thanks for following, as always.

3 Weeks and 4 Days out

Where do I even begin?  So much progress has taken place the last week so I'll try to sum it all up.

Last weekend was my first weekend out in public (with people...eeks!) when I got voluntold to sell tickets at Oktoberfest.  This is my mom's way of telling me to suck it up and get out there ;)  I ended up having a super hard time yelling out answers to millions of retarded questions through that little spot in the ticket window but I'm really proud of myself for lasting through two consecutive day shifts of that.  About 50% of the people just nodded when I yelled (to be nice for sure) and the rest just pointed at their own mouths and said "ohhhhhhh" as if they knew what was going on.  There are still quite a few letters I have a hard time pronouncing so I was semi frustrated but it was nice to re join the public again!

Fantastic things that happened this week:
1. My nurse came up to my ticket window at Oktoberfest which was a total surprise and we both kinda looked at each other like "Do I know youuuu?" before she yelled out "OMG! ARE YOU ALL BETTER????? I WAS YOUR NURSEEEE!!!!"' I shared her enthusiasm because she took such good care of me so it was nice to see her again and meet her son.
2. I managed to stay away from the beer garden.  This is not fantastic, however, since I couldn't eat anything there and I wasn't drinking due to all the meds I'm on, my awesome hubs and his bestie took me out to dinner which leads me to thing number two: not only had our server had jaw surgery herself at 14, she blended me up some pazole soup that was delicious!! I made a complete mess, had cilantro hanging out of my teeth, used seven napkins but I felt like a princess.
3. When I went back to class on  Tuesday night, my professor announced to the whole class that I was missed and what I'd just gone through and asked me to smile big for everyone to see.  He is a cruel, cruel man.  Lol.  Turns out my classmate to my left had also had jaw surgery and shared her experience with me, way cool.

In other news, I am becoming Martha Stewart Jr. from the sheer bordeom of staying home.  I have so far made the following items which I cannot eat:
1. Homemade Strawberry Jam (yes, I know, I'm amazing ;)
2. Homemade Creamy Peanut Butter
3. Banana Bread from scratch
4. Italian meatballs from scratch
5. Chive and Parmesan and Spinach stuffed Chicken Breast
6. Chicken Rissoto
7. Halloween Crafts with cool lollipops

The moral of the story? I NEED TO GO BACK TO WORK.

 Week 3 shots... still lots of swelling but bruising is ALL GONE!

I will post a separate post about the doctor's office visit last Wednesday.  (special hello and good luck to my online jaw buddy, Tiffany, who is having jaw surgery tomorrow morning in the UK!)

Almost 3 Weeks Out! Time flies when you're having oh, so, much fun...

Morning! 
A lot has happened in the last week but I haven't had any energy to update for some reason.  I'll start with the monumental stuff:

1. I can now use a spoon (although it is extremely messy and not worth it so I'm still slurping everything out of a cup)
2. I discovered Pumpkin Spice Lattes.  'Nuff said.
3. I started going back to class last night which means... I DROVE.  aka I did not take any Vicodin yesterday :(  I had some liquid Tylenol to keep me going and I was fine throughout class but I was starving and could hardly focus.

This will be quick because I just realized I have a post op in 20 minutes and I'm sipping a shake and am in pjs, as you do when you're a responsible adult.  I'll update more after the appointment as I have a bunch of questions to ask him anyway.  :D

2 Weeks are OVERRR!

 

WHOO HOOO!  The worst is officially behind me in terms of pain/swelling and such so I am totally looking forward to making as much progress as I did these past two weeks into the next two weeks.  I went to my surgeon's office yesterday and he again took x-rays which I am totally cool with because I get to see how amazing my new bite is!  I've included the photo above (ignore my caps and nose ring, lol) but feel free to stare at the beautiful alignment going on up there! :D  ALL of my teeth touch where they're supposed to and this is the first week I'm actually aware of them so it's kinda cool to know they're actually on top of one another. I can't wait to actually use them, (hint, hint Dr. Schoeman).

But alas, all good news must be followed by crappy news at the doc's office unfortunately.   Although I'm healing on schedule, I was told that as long as I could handle it, I should really maintain the liquid diet for another 6 weeks.  He said back in the day he would wire patients shut for 6 weeks but lately they've had some empathy (yes, I know, I too was surprised at this word escaping a doc's lips) and they've allowed patients to try to open their mouths at 2/3 weeks to get some soft food in but you really do risk nerve damage/weird bite alignment if you try too hard. So back to soups :(

My next appointment with him is next Wednesday when he'll cut my elastics and try to open my jaw with me to see what my capabilities are at this point since I mentioned to him I was terrified of trying myself... haha.  Other than that, I was told to keep my 4 elastics on at all times and to cancel my dentist appointment that was supposed to be in 2 weeks as they really won't be able to do anything for me.

Right before my appt... you can ALMOST see the old Lara in this one :D

Today I went to see my orthodontist, the amazing Dr. Mayer, just so he could check out my bite and elastics configuration.  It was a super quick appointment; he just let me know that my bite looks awesome, my hair was too wild for his taste and that he expects it to be red next time I see him, and to come see him again in 2 weeks (very efficient this guy ;) to see if I could open my mouth up any.  Oh, also told me that I'm probably going to have to do some physical therapy to help with relaxing my jaw muscles and such.  I'm SO looking forward to those awkward appointments [insert eye roll here].

         BEFORE PROFILE SHOT:                                                         AFTER PROFILE SHOT:

So far what I love the most is NO MORE FAT CHEEKS, my nose looks smaller and I actually have a chin!  Can't wait for the swelling to take a hike so I can see my new face for real.

Before I say good night, I just wanted to add that French Onion soup (complete with all that gooey cheese) in the blender set to 'Liquify' is the MOST. AMAZING. THING. I'VE. EATEN. THUS. FAR.  Do yourself a favor and get some of this stuff from a good restaurant if you're in recovery.  Thanks for all the kind  words/emails/comments this week! <3

Almost 2 weeks out! Days 10-12 :D

Hola friends!

I hope everyone got a chance to go back and look at before at after pics because I know I lagged it at the beginning and didn't post any.  The past few days have been, oh, like a million times better than the past two weeks.

UPDATE: stitches are officially falling out.  I can't keep track of how many as I get an instant vomit reflex when I feel one on my tongue and I have to guide it through the gap in my teeth and use a dental pick to pry it out.  I'm assumming this is the first sign of healing?   We'll ask at the next post op... And don't even ask me how they get on the INSIDE of my mouth behind my teeth.  A mystery that shall remain unsolved.

Second item on the agenda: if I hear the word SOUP! (yelled with that affliction), BOOST! (as in the shakes) or HEAT PACK! (which are suppossed to be on my face) out of the hubs' mouth again WHILE he eats an E-N-T-I-R-E California Pizza Kitchen BBQ Chicken Pizza to his face, we may have a problem on our hands.  Yesterday night he was kind enough to shove the pizza into my lips and get sauce all over my face so I "could at least smell it!"  I think I'd prefer to be waterboarded.  He then sent the dogs to lick it off my face since my tongue is currently being held hostage by my teeth.


I really hate soup.  I hate it.  I don't want any more of it.  People, please post some new recipies.  Oh! I almost forgot... here is my new favorite!

3 Chocolate Chip Cookies (stolen from hub's batch of 2 dozen cookies he baked on Sunday after which he stated, "Babe, I can't suffer just cause you're suffering)
2 cups milk

Blend, enjoy, send thank you emails to maclean.lara@gmail.com

Today my lovely mama forced me to get my roots done and get outta the house to watch "The Help" with her.  Made my day <3

Thanks for following!

Starting to feel human again!

9 days of this crazy adventure behind me and I'm finally starting to feel good again :) Yesterday was basically a blur of "A Baby Story" on TLC and 20 minute bursts of napping (don't even ask why I watched 5 hours of that show-and cried; I have no valid excuse). I ended up finally going to bed around 3 am after a mixture of feeling super weak and super hungry but ironically having no appetite. When I woke up this morning, I felt like a whole new person. I was able to shower and wash my hair on my own without feeling like I was going to pass out in a puddle of shampoo and sadness. I also somehow managed to drink half an Ensure, a little bit of orange juice and a whole cupful of asparagus soup (sounds like a delightful breakfast, I know, please keep the jealousy comments to a minimum). After managing to garden for 15 minutes and a crack at fixing my running toilet, I felt good enough to attempt some mashed potatoes. Mom whipped us this amazing mixture of sweet potatoes, chives and the hubs mixed in some garlic paste and I was oh so ready to down this mixture. I even took my bands off, got a drink, got super excited only to find out.... yeah.... I can't exactly get that past my teeth yet :( I was super frustrated/sad/defeated and was in a state of self pity for a good 20 minutes. When I re-emerged downstairs, my mother in law and sister in law were here to visit (with gifts)! I got a super cool pair of Victoria Secret sweatpants and two shirts to match :D As if that wasn't cool enough, Mom called and decided that I needed to finally leave the house and was determined to come pick me up to do some Halloween decoration shopping for my house. After finally being convinced to go back to eating out of the syringe, I managed to eat a whole cup of chicken soup that I threw in the blender which had mushrooms, corn and shredded chicken and I watered down with chicken broth... OMG, probably the best thing I'd had all week. So I set out for my big, outta the house trip. The first thing I saw on the shelf was this delicious looking candle which I promptly ended up smashing into my chin since I have no concept of where my facial features are anymore. It hurt like hell but I was still able to find some super cool Halloween decorations and quickly rushed home as I was super tired. Tomorrow I'm going to venture to make some Creamy Chicken Wild Rice soup that my bestie, Alexis and her husband, Matthew brought for me yesterday. Let's just hope that rice blenderizes as well as I hope it does! Time to cuddle up to Finding Nemo... not my idea of a typical Saturday night but I better get used to it until I gain my strength. Night!