Five-month update

Sorry for not updating this sooner. It's been five and a half months since surgery now, and recovery continues apace.


I can eat most foods at this point; the only ones I have trouble with are those that are excessively hard or chewy or require grinding. I've gained back about half the weight I lost, and a lot of that is muscle since I've been hitting the gym again regularly. My jaw still doesn't mesh, but that's what the braces are for. First few months of treatment are to rotate my teeth into position, and come January, she'll begin bending up upper teeth outward so they hang out over my lower teeth like they should again. Currently, they're edge-on and make grinding food impossible because my teeth don't connect anywhere but in front. That makes eating a leafy salad, say, very problematic.

The benefits of surgery continue to be realized. I'm off the machine, I can fall asleep on my back, I hear myself snoring sometimes but don't sense any apneas. There's some occasional morning congestion that can cause issues on my back, but that's it. And there's also the bonus effects of no more heartburn, greatly lessened gag reflex and improved TMJ issues. I can now open my mouth to the width of three fingers, which is good enough for most things. I can eat a burger, which is the biggest thing I care about. I can't quite open my mouth as far as I could before, but it's good enough.

And yet... the one thing that I wanted most out of this surgery continues to elude me. Namely, a full night's sleep. I can't shake the old pattern of sleeping four or five hours, waking up, and then either not being able to fall back asleep or only doing so very for an hour or two. It remains almost impossible for me to sleep in or nap, and I'm still tired most days, not getting what I need. The apnea is knocked out, I've gotten a new and better mattress, sheets, and pillow, and yet... still not sleeping properly.

What does it take for me? What am I missing? Currently trying out Lunesta at my sleep doctor's behest. She actually gave me two drugs to try, plying me with free samples. The first one was Rozerem, which did absolutely nothing for me despite taking it for two weeks. Saw no difference in my sleep at all. Moved onto Lunesta, which has some effect... I'm still waking up at the four or five hour mark but able to fall back asleep and squeeze out another couple hours, mostly rolling from side to side. It's not as effective as Ambien on me, and also has the added side effect of leaving a metallic taste in your mouth. It's not that bad at the 2mg dose, but at the more effective 3mg dose, it's very noticable and yucky. Makes water taste bad.

That's the thing of it, though. All drugs have side effects; there is ALWAYS a trade-off for taking one. That's the reason I've always been so reluctant to take them, knowing that the cost was dependency and severe rebound insomnia when I came off them. But... I'm out of options here. I have to break the old cycle and see if I can get my body to start sleeping normally again, and perhaps a month or two of drugs is the answer. They do say it takes 30 days for a habit to become ingrained.

I don't think it's going to be Lunesta, though. I'll discuss it with my sleep doctor, but I believe it's going to be Cyclobenzaprene, the muscle relaxant and generic equivalent of Flexeril. That's the one drug that I *know* works for me and lets me sleep all the way through the night. I took it for the better part of a year when I first had TMJ issues. I didn't realize how much it was doing for my sleep until I came off it. Ugh.

I stopped taking it because it was making me... uneasy. And I think I know why: that drug worsens sleep apnea--if you relax your muscles, that includes your airway, aggravating your symptoms. I don't believe that's an issue now, however. There is a hangover associated with it... there's one with all of them. But it goes away after a few nights of it as your body gets used to it.

That's my plan going forward. Also, I'm seeing Dr. Jelic again on Thursday for my six-month follow-up and presumably some x-rays. See how well the bone has filled in at this point.