Two months on...

Had another post-op appointment on Wednesday, two months and two days after surgery. They now come only every other week instead of weekly.

The news continues to be good... he said my crossbite is correcting nicely (thanks to the 'in-to-out' rubber bands I have to keep on 24/7), and much to my surprise and delight, said he'll clear me for a regular diet in just three weeks instead of the five more I thought I'd have to wait. Basically, the bulk of my recovery is completed in twelve weeks instead of the projected fourteen. I'll take it.

Seven weeks. And a milestone...

Seven weeks marks the start of the soft food stage of the diet--if the surgeon is satisfied with the healing he sees. To do that, he needs to take x-rays and see how things are going with the bone grafts, whether they're filling in or not.

And are they? See for yourself. These X-rays were taken this morning:

Five weeks...

This past week was a mixed bag. Had my sixth post-op appointment today, though it was uncharacteristically late starting--Dr. Jelic and his staff is usually quite good about having appointments on time, but this time it was twenty minutes late, another ten before Dr. Jelic came in. His assistants are quite good, though, and his secretary came to visit me as she normally does to chat for a bit, tell me how good I look and how well I'm doing. Maybe she's just saying it, but I still appreciate it.

Highlights of last week...

One month-mark... and pictures!

Wow... a whole month since surgery. I say this a lot, but... hard to believe it's been that long already. This day last month, I was just coming out of anesthesia. The very first thought I remember having was... is it over? I don't feel any different. Of course, at that point, the pain, pressure, swelling, etc hadn't yet registered on my senses. They certainly would over the next hour or two.

Returning to work tomorrow

This last week passed by quite quickly. Last week of freedom, if you could call it that, before returning to work. I made the right call in not returning last week; I really wasn't up for it. I'm feeling much better now; maybe about 70-75% normal as opposed to the 60% it was this time last week. But... back to it tomorrow. We'll see if I can survive a full day. If not... a couple weeks of part time work before resuming full.

Dilemma

I faced a dilemma this weekend over whether to return to work today, at least part-time. I estimate I'm at about 60% now, and can work from home if nothing else.

In the end I decided not to. I still feel a little fragile, tire and lose focus easily, and know that stress or tension causes my right jaw joint to flare, so it would be best to give it another week and see if I can regain some more energy and give my jaw joint a chance to improve. I originally made arrangements to take an entire month off for surgery starting June 17th, and not return until the 15th of July, so to that schedule I will now hold.

3rd Post-Op Appointment

The third post-op appointment actually happened two days ago now, coinciding with the two-week mark post-surgery.