I'm still slowly getting better. Just got through my first week of work since the surgery, and made it through okay. I'm estimating I'm about 80% of normal right now in terms of endurance and energy level--certainly enough to work and be productive in it. Got a little tired a couple days early on this week, but nothing I couldn't handle.
Appearance
My appearance continues to improve, and I'd say the swelling is down about 85% now. There's only two spots where I can still feel some--that same spot it was really bad on my lower left jaw, and in and around my right TMJ. The pain there has been slowly ebbing. It flares some when I practice my jaw movements at night after taking the rubber bands out, but goes away within a few minutes. It hasn't been disrupting my sleep of late, so that's all I really care about.
Here are the pictures:
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| At this point, it's hard to see that anything was done in neutral profile. My nose is a little crooked but it always was. |
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I'm holding the before/projected after pictures Dr. Jelic gave me last fall. You be the judge how close he got. Also have to take into account the now-20lbs of lost weight, which results in a much thinner-looking face. |
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| Right side looks pretty good! Swelling almost entirely gone. |
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| Still have a little visible swelling on the left side. Dr. Jelic says that the last bit of swelling tends to take a long time to subside. |
Sleep update
I'm still having issues sleeping through the night. It's hard for me, and I can't seem to sleep in either--a problem I had before surgery as well. I did discover that part of the problem was I was overheating, but a change of blankets and thermostat temperature has helped that. I'm generally finding it a lot easier than I did before to fall *back* asleep after I wake up, and I'm having a lot of dreams when I do sleep. I guess since that sleep isn't apnea-disrupted like it was, it's a lot easier to have dreams. Still... I'm suspecting that some of my ongoing issues are related to my mattress or pillow. Hard to stay comfortable. I'll have to look into replacing them down the line.
Food update
The craving of the week was Mexican, so I went to Moe's Southwest Grill on Tuesday and got a chicken quesadilla, loaded with beans, cheese, ciliantro, pico, and jalapenos. It pureed in taco sauce and chicken broth quite well and tasted heavenly going down. So much so, in fact, that I went back the next day for the same thing. After that, I went to Chik-Fil-A and got a chicken nugget meal and chicken salad sandwich. Pureed the nuggets in bbq sauce and chicken broth, the fries in milk and ketchup, and the sandwich in mayonnaise and milk. Oh, and... hit my coke with a shot of rum.
May sound disgusting, but it was all actually quite good, especially the sandwich. At least to someone who hasn't had solid foods in a month... only problem with any of it was that the sandwich was grain bread, and those grains didn't break down in the blender, ending up stuck in my braces. Cleaning was a chore. But it was good for two meals--dinner yesterday and lunch today.
Oh, and I did finally try pureeing a slice of pepperoni pizza. Didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped; most of what I tasted was crust. I try that again, I'd ask for extra tomato sauce to puree it in.
Overall...
I'm doing better, and things are looking up. I now have less than three weeks until I can take the rubber bands off during the day and enter the soft food stage of my diet. Scrambled eggs and mac & cheese, here I come... I'm not looking forward to what it's going to take to get my jaw to open back up--lots of exercises and probably some pain... but compared to what I've already been through, who cares?
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