A Smile Connects Us You And Me

Today I finally got my x-ray pictures in the mail from Dr. Gunson's office! I am so excited!! I made a video of the before and after x-rays. There are 2 before and 2 after pictures. I would have just put them up as pictures, but I think this is more exciting :) Feel free to stop it when the credits start rolling, I couldn't figure out how to cut the music so the video goes on longer than necessary. I have more to blog on, but don't have the attention span to do one tonight after just making this video. I had a good Christmas, after a rocky start (details to come!). I love my bite, my pain is at a 3-4, swelling is holding out on me still, my jaw is ready to be in movement. It feels a lot better when I have the bands off...only 2.5 more weeks of full time bands! Will post again soon! Smiling :)

Today is 48 days post-op...tomorrow is the 7 week mark! Phew! My pain level is good, at about a 4/10 still. I am still annoyed with food, or lack there of. However, I am very much looking forward to three weeks from today when I get to chew something delicious! I have noticed more recently that my taste buds are off. I liquefied corn chowder last night (a soup I usually love!) and it tasted terrible. For comparison, I had Sam taste it and he said it was good...tasted just like corn chowder. Hopefully this side-effect from the medication will go away soon!! I want to be able to taste and enjoy food when I can! Here is today's picture...my smile looks contrived. It is because of the hook. It all comes back to the hook. I cannot smile without feeling like I am tearing my inner lip, thus causing a lot of pain. This is new in the last couple of days. I don't know what is causing this but I do not enjoy it! Here's the ' ol close up of the face. The left side is still a bit m...

Wow! Sorry about no blogs this week! I guess it has slipped by the wayside in the preparation for the holiday's. Let's see, I'll try and recap the week...Tuesday I saw my Osteopath (Dr. Myers). She is still pleased with my progress, but we were both disappointed with the return of some swelling after seeing Dr.'s Chira and Mac. I also made gingerbread houses with some friends I hadn't seen a while, and it was nice to see them! On Wednesday I found out my cat passed away @ 14yrs. He had a tumor on his brain and it took over in the last month...which is very sad to me because I wasn't able to spend time with him since surgery... On a happier note-I was able to see different friends, catch up, and think of what I am going to do once the healing is done...how am I going to transition into teaching after being out of "the game" for so long? Lot's to think about on this... Thursday was very relaxing and the heat was FINALLY turned on in our apartment! It...

Last night (Sunday night) I had an appointment with my Orthodontist (Dr. C) and my NYC Dentist/Periodontist (Dr. Mac). The appointment was from 8:15 to nearly 10PM. It was a good appointment to see them both and hear what they have to say about my surgery (all positive). Dr. Mac worked on stabilizing my teeth a bit. I had some metal on metal contact with the bands in the back. My biggest concern at the moment is the hook. Below is a picture of the screw on the top, I connect the band from the screw to the wire hook (that is in my jaw bone & through my flesh). As stated in my last post, this pain is excruciating, stomach churning, pain. Last night Dr. Mac put a special topical ointment on the area before attaching the band and I could still feel it. The Dr's discussed how to maybe alleviate some of the pain. The solution last night was to put the band under the top wire (shown below) instead of going over it. This did not see to feel any better last night, and today it just made...

Today was a very productive day...Sam and I did grocery shopping & spend quality time at the laundromat. It cleared me of any energy I had, but it felt good to get out and be productive! It is cold and snowy up here which isn't very motivating to do much of anything. Still relying on the space heater for heat...Dec. 16th can't come soon enough! I'm pretty sure the botox has started working. If I try to tense my masseter muscles it is pretty impossible...so yay?! I mean that is the result we were looking for, but it is weird not being able to use them. My post-botox appointment yesterday was very anti-climactic. Dr. H came in to look at me, we talked about how my muscles felt and about the spasms I was still having. He also checked my "wobbly" area's that I had earlier in the week. They are no longer wobbly. I go back in a month (a couple days after being in CA for my post-op) to check in. As a result of my masseter muscles not being active my joints hurt m...

My lip & chin do this a lot throughout the day/night. It is completely involuntary. It's my nerves waking up, which is pretty cool to see. Sometimes it's just my chin, sometimes just my lip, and sometimes-like in this video- it is both at once. It usually isn't painful, unless it spasms VERY hard/tight. Anyway, enjoy :) Smile!

Here we are, 5 weeks post-op. We've made it halfway to the soft-food diet! Only 5 more weeks and I can have mashed potatoes! Yesterday's botox went....well? I mean I got it done, and it hurt like hell because I had to clench my already stressed muscles while Dr. H injected the bottle of botox. He did two shots on each side. The shots were done in my masseter muscles . These are the muscles in your face that are right below your ear on your jaw line. If you want to see a picture click on the link above. I don't know if the botox is working yet. I know that I have had 3-4 jaw spasms on the left side since the injections. These are painful. The first one was the worst, it actually shook my entire head. So I don't know if my "masseter muscles" are better, I do know my joints are more pissed. I have been using heat pads to try and help the spasms and overall pain. The swelling is continuing to go down. The left side is still more stubborn than the right, and I stil...

Right now I am feeling not so great after having the botox this morning...I think it is starting to have an effect on my muscles and they feel worse right now...hopefully they will get better. I was feeling no different than yesterday just half an hour ago, so I don't know what cause the change. My jaw is now feeling very tight and like it is in an even greater spasm (if that is even possible). I had an unexpected spasm on my left side that felt so violent it moved my head. This stress really makes me miss eating solid food. Trying to stay positive. I was really feeling okay until half an hour ago...I'm not trying to sound very negative, it's just the way it is right now. Still pleased with my bite and the rest of my recovery areas thus far. Tomorrow is the 5 week post-op mark, lets hope it is a better day. I will post pictures.... smiling :) I will not let this botox get me down.

So tomorrow morning at 11:30 I go in to see Dr. H to get my bottle of botox injected into my face. Awesome. (Note sarcasm.) I am quite nervous about each shot, not knowing how many they are going to need to do, but using a whole bottle of botox sounded like a lot from what his office said. Hopefully it works. Hopefully I don't have a bad reaction from it. I hope that they put some sort of numbing cream or something on my face before doing the shots because I have feeling in my face, unlike right after surgery. I really am more nervous about this than I was about my surgery. I think it's because I just don't know that much about it. However, that being said, I trust in my doctors and that this is what I need to force my muscles to cooperate. Today I had my weekly appointment with my ortho . My ROM is up 1mm to 14mm. She was concerned because part of my mandible is/was "wobbly." Now "wobbly" isn't a term that anyone really likes to hear unless they a...

So here I am 32 days past surgery! Yesterday was a good turning point for me. We took a walk downtown to do some Christmas shopping and grocery shopping. We were out and about for a couple hours and did quite a bit of walking. We went to a restaurant, I tried having the tomato soup, but it was too thick...but it sure felt good to out in the "real world"! Instead of getting more and more tired as we were downtown, my tired level stayed the same. Which I think is good. I took an hours rest on the futon (which included doing my exercises) when we got home. Then I made chocolate-peanut butter no-bake cookies followed by chicken cordon bleu. Then I was able to serve Sam and two friends a delicious dinner of chicken cordon bleu, stuffing, and broccoli. I also sat at the dinner table, but I had my naked drink and water. Making all of the food actually didn't make me miss eating, it helped. After dinner we went to the A.A. Bondy concert. It was good; however, not what I needed. I...

I haven't been sleeping well the last few nights, more than even before. I have also lost my ability to nap during the day. I don't know what's going on, but I am not a fan. I think I need to try to be more active during the day...but how? I am not allowed to start even light exercise till next week. Oh well, at least it's Friday. Sam and I will be setting up our Christmas Tree this weekend & going to a concert tomorrow night to see A.A. Bondy . I am excited to get out and feel a bit normal. It isn't very warm up here in the NE so I think that isn't helping my mood. I do break down almost everyday because this whole process is so frustrating and can be isolating...not to mention physically exhausting. I really think doing "normal" things this weekend will help. I am having more nerve related pain, which is good because it means I'm getting feeling back. However, it is still pain, so it hurts. My muscles in my head have got to stop going into sp...

Here's the smile at 4 weeks post-op! My left side is more swollen than my left. I have to practice my smile a couple times every time I take this picture because it still does not feel natural...it could be all the bands and metal in my mouth...OR the major reconstructive surgery...who knows... This is the promised ROM picture. This is what 13mm looks like. Oh, and you can also see where my left top tooth bonding was chipped during surgery...that's something that will be fixed at some point down the line. I think I'm looking pretty good now, it's just the pesky swelling that still insists on sticking around. The left side more than the right. If you touch my cheek you can feel how hot it is. It is working overtime trying to heal I suppose. Now here is a special little treat, A MOVIE! It's of my exercises, I know reallllly exciting. This is my life for 15 min. twice a day, so I thought I'd share. At the very end I am trying to move my jaw from side to side and th...

I've made it to 4 weeks post-op! I'm currently playing the waiting game on the Botox . Doctors playing phone tag on opposite sides of the country...I hope they connect soon so these muscle spasms can stop... My pain level is the same, I really hope I can start going to PT soon because I think it will help. I am tired...always tired. I have been trying to get more calories and protein in. I think eating more and doing some light exercise would do me wonders. Although, slow and steady wins the race, right? My exercises and mouth stretching are going well. It does take a while for my jaw to "warm up" and reach it's max ROM of 13mm right now. I am making progress brushing, really focusing on trying to open as wide as I can to see my teeth in the mirror. This is very exhausting, but is worth it. I've decided that I still really enjoy cooking even if I can't eat the food. It makes me feel useful :) I think I'm going to keep this a short post and post again l...