It's always a good feeling when you walk out of your surgeons office feeling his absolutely beaming vibe.  That is the only way I can describe it-- he's beaming. Same vibe I get from my ortho.  Like a sense of relief and genuine happiness, and hopefully some pride in the job they've done.  I am sure seeing a good result after all of the hard work and planning is super fulfilling for them, so I hope they are feeling energized off of this good result! And they should!!  Seriously-- I know I've said it a few times, but I was (am) a TOUGH case, and these guys should be damn proud of their work!  Anywho, the guy was smiling ear to ear when he walked in the door and saw me.  He again is happy with the way I look visually and reminded me that I am actually still quite puffy and shouldn't be in a hurry to see that go away any time soon, especially since this was a revision.  He said especially on my left side I am still more swollen (you can def tell in the picture/video updates with this post that my left side is bigger, but it's not awful). I reminded him that I am in no rush, and based on what happened last time, I am in for the full year of waiting for things to slowly get better and settle and I definitely won't be banging down his door in a month asking, "are we there yet?!"  So, same as the last few appointments, he took a look at everything and said I am healing nicely.  I am at the point where I can start being a little more aggressive with my chewing. He was quick to remind me what I already knew from last time, it won't be easy for the first 4-6 months.  Remember that whole robot jaw thing I was talking about in the post where I got the splint off?  Well, yeah, something like that.  It takes a whole year for the joints to remodel and muscles to build up and function fully in their new home, so it takes a while to get that chew force back. Timing sounds about right, because I think it was around 3-4 months post op last time when I was able to fully chew something like a chicken breast.  Regardless, I remember it's a slow process to feel normal chewing again, so I am in no rush the next few months while things continue to settle.

My bite is looking great.  He said my right side is already closed up nicely thanks to the work of my ortho. He wants me to get out of the bands a little more and start doing some stretching exercises he gave me.  He's happy with my opening (a bit more than 2 fingers, which is pretty good at this point when 3 is about normal opening), but said I can definitely start getting to work on it a bit more to get back to 3 fingers soon.  The last week I've noticed that my joints are giving a little crunching noise here and there again.  I had this happen last surgery too for the first 3 months, so I wasn't worried about it.  But the other night it felt like my right joint totally slipped for a hot second.  I don't want to say it fully dislocated, because it wasn't loud and it wasn't super painful....more just awkward and took me by surprise.  Dr. Karas was a little intrigued, but not super worried since it wasn't painful/locked/popped. He said that side was under some decent stress from the torque of my jaw being swung out the other way for the last 2 years, and it also saw the biggest change from surgery to bring the joint back to where it should be, so it's going to take time to settle and the inflammation to come down in the joint and the tissue around the disc.  So, this is all probably just normal aches/pains of healing again. So, cleared to slowly integrate more than soft chew, and cleared to get back to some normal light exercising (sans my impact activities where I could take a hit and mess up the joints remodeling over the year, so no road bike for at least a few more months, and still plan to be out of skydiving and stuff through the spring/summer....and seriously considering the rest of the year to really be sure my joints fully remodel in the right place without being smacked and ruining all of the hell I've been through to fix this!). I am in good enough shape to go on my own the next 6 weeks before another appointment.  He wants another xray to check up on everything then.  Otherwise I am released to my ortho for him to do what he wishes now.

Speaking of the ortho... I did stop in after seeing my surgeon.  Right away he asks what I think of everything.  I told him I wasn't going to say anything to see if what I thought was going on what actually what was going on.  Sure enough, it was!  Ha!  He basically just smiled and said, "this is why I left it up to you to know when to stop by between now and your next appointment." So, like I thought, I do have a smidge of overjet popping out, and the bands closing my right side are actually causing my left to open up a tad and my midline has floated off a touch to my left. BUT, we're still way OK.  With the future band configurations he's going to do and the work to correct the tooth size discrepancy on my top teeth and bring them back in together, he's got this planned out to where it should all come together.  I can tell he knows exactly what he wants to do, and I fully understand his plan and know it what we should be doing, so I am 100% not worried about this.  I see the ortho again in two weeks for my first post op wire change and I am sure he'll update my bands.  For now he took me out of the triangle and the up/down bands on my right and just put me in straight up class II config on both sides (see pictures and video update-- just one band on each side going from lower molar to upper K9).  So, my rubber band jail has been loosened for the time being.  Yay!

Otherwise, things are coming along.  Still puffy.  I pretty much have almost all of my feeling now in my upper face.  Upper right lip is desensitized but on it's way back.  Lower lip and chin is slowly improving.  Almost all of my nerve healing and feeling has come back in exactly the same pattern it did last time.  So, I have a feeling the left side of my lower lip and chin is going to make it's way back first and then slowly shrink in to the strip that was left numb from the first surgery.  Could that numb strip actually improve?  I don't know. I haven't asked my surgeon because it's honestly not at the top of my priority list in terms of things to be concerned with at this point. If the nerve was pinched off from the old hardware or a piece of bone and that source of impaction is now removed, then yeah, I guess I could get full feeling back, but it's definitely not anything I am close to expecting.  Whatever I am left with, I am left with and will be the cost of doing business to get my jaws and face straight again.

Here are a few shots from the last week or two.  Still learning how to smile again.  Things will be stiff for months, but even outside of the stiffness, learning how to smile with your new jaw position is a totally weird feeling.  You're so used to smiling a certain way or posturing your jaw a certain way to mask whatever discrepancy you had that it's weird to NOT have to do that. Takes a while to break the posturing habits, which in my case was not smiling all the way to avoid showing more gum in my gummy smile, and then sliding my lower jaw forward to make it look like I didn't have buck teeth.  I put the 2013-2016 progression pictures together last night to respond to a thread online where somebody was asking for before/afters.  I'll have to update that when I get new progress photos at my surgeon and ortho, but for now I took ones yesterday and put them at the end for my after revision pictures (at least for now, even though I am still plenty swollen at this point).  Weird looking at the progression though.  I know there is a lot left to settle, but I am not sure I am a huge fan of some of the aesthetic changes from the front.  I mean, my face is just different and maybe not different in a bad way, but it will just take some time to get used to. Could also just be swelling still.  And then the nose getting wider.  I wasn't a fan of that after the first surgery either, but I think overall it's actually been brought in again a little and the width I am seeing now is swelling still around my nose.  So again, that will take time to settle for sure, so no rush there.  Either way, I am OK with whatever is left.  I made it very clear to my surgeon that I was willing to trade a few aesthetic things I didn't like if it meant functionally fixing my bite and making my overall jaw/tooth health better.  So, it is what it is, but still interesting to see how it evolves.  I do like my side profile better.  Definitely look less class II finally!  Scary thing is... I kind of look like my little sister now, which is definitely OK at the end of the day because she is the cute one in the family!  If you want to see a larger photo, right click on one in the gallery and hit "view image," and that will open it up a little bigger for you.  The one like the progression pictures comes up a little small in the weebly gallery viewer and I am too lazy to code something different myself ;)

Today is my last day of leave from work.  I took more time off this time for surgery.  I needed more time off this time since I was in a splint, banded shut longer, and in general with it being a more complicated and invasive surgery, recovery was slower as well.  I took 12 days off ahead of surgery, and holy crap did I need that.  I was barely functioning at work.  If I was not a federal employee and could get disability, I would have been out probably two months before.  I was barely sleeping, I was in a ton of pain, headaches were awful, and I was super irritable for all of it.  By the end right before I went out, I felt like I was just so done that I was delirious.  So, I needed the 12 days to rest and get my wits about me before going in to a surgery that was going to just deplete me again, and then I had to prep like mad too.  My ortho is 45 mins away, my surgeon is up to an hour away, and all the other pre op appointments in between.  Running around like a chicken with my head cut off and doing a ton of food prep on top of it.  It's all a blur at this point.  I went back to work at 4 weeks post op last time, but I was also unwired at 2 weeks and had 2 weeks to get more calories in, get stretching my jaw and talking and eating better again, etc.  This time I was splinted and banded tight until almost 4 weeks, so now I've taken this extra week to adjust before going back.  Could I have made it back last week?  Probably, but I am still exhausted and really want to make sure I can get every ounce of energy back and get my immune system back up before returning.

So, what now?  I'm prepping soft foods to take in with me. I've got some boosts left to use.  I'm bringing in my ice and heat packs again since I'm still doing either/or depending on how I feel 3-4 times a day (especially that nagging hematoma up under my eye!). Making sure I have extra elastics and elastic tools in my purse.  I'll make sure I have plenty of advil too.  I'm still sore under my jaw in my lymph node area down my neck, a little sore in the joints, and sore across my cheeks and nose.  It goes up and down, and just like the swelling, there are good days and bad days.  The last two days have been not so great, waking up more puffy and in pain under my jaw in the lymph area and across where I believe the fracture line of the top jaw break is.  I think maybe I've been clenching in my sleep the last two nights with some anxiety of getting back to work and life as normal again. It could also be the elastics yanking down on my front and right side to close my bite up.  Just the last few days I feel like my teeth started touching more on that side, so makes sense I have some discomfort there.  Speaking of that, I am not supposed to see my ortho for another 3 weeks, but I head up to see my surgeon for a check up in a week.  My ortho did say to feel free to drop by and get a quick looksie, and I may take him up on that.  I am pretty sure my bite is changing in the way that he wants, but it will be nice just for him to look at it and assure me so.  I think he knew I was going to want the assurance, which is why he invited me to stop in. 

Speaking of my surgeon, I got an email from them today letting me know that insurance approved my surgery and will pay in full!!  WWaaaaaahhhhoooo!!!  This is huge.  So many people have issues getting their jaw surgery covered, and I was really hoping that I wouldn't fall in that crowd.  I didn't think I would because I knew 1.) my plan covered it, and 2.) I was well past their minimum measurements in terms of what discrepancy they considered severe enough to require to be fixed medically and get covered.  But, you always think "what if it doesn't go that way?!"  I was a little worried about it.  I think it was mentally eating me up because if I was stuck with the bill, that would be around $30,000 that I would have to pay out of pocket to cover what Kaiser did to me.  Pay for somebody else's negligent error.  That would eat me up so bad!!  So, I am glad I am covered fully.  Phew! 

So, that's that.  Back to the real world tomorrow.  Not looking forward to having to find time to sneak away for breaks to ice/heat my face during my shifts. I'm in a career environment where you'd think I could get breaks for something like that, but some days my job doesn't work like that.  Ironically enough, those are the days that I talk the most and end up the most sore and want the heat on my face bad and then I am not able to do it.  Go figure.  Oh well.  I see Dr. Karas a week from today, and I'll probably stop by my ortho's office to say hi too.  At that point I'll be just a few days short of 6 weeks post op.  Time flies! 

 

I'm fffffrrrrreeeeeeee!!  Splint is out!!!  Just a few days shy of 4 weeks post op today, and splint came out yesterday.  It was my third check up with my surgeon too, and all looks well again.  Most of my incisions are looking great, except my lower left side is a little raw still.  He said probably because I am reaching back there to put rubber bands on the hooks right around the stitches/incision and I've probably irritated it a bit by nature of having to do the rubber bands there.  I know a few times I've had a rubber band malfunction and it's snapped back and got me right in the incision area.  Talk about ouchie, so I totally believe that one is healing slower because of the irritation with changing my bands.

I was SO looking forward to getting this thing out, but at the same time dreading it because I knew it was going to be nasty.  And boy was it nasty.  Took a few minutes, but after a snip of about 4 wires that were wiring the splint to my top teeth, it was free.  As soon as it broke free from my teeth, I got a whiff of nasty that came up and assaulted my nose.  I let out an audible "ick" and my surgeon kind of laughed and said something along the lines of "yeah, that is how these usually go."  Yuck, at least it's not just me.  So, he warns me to be gentle with my teeth feeling them out together for the first time without the splint.  Everything is in new positions and it's going to feel funny.  I remember this last time I got unwired, so I was totally expecting the initial weirdness again.  And it's just as weird as I remember it, even though last time my teeth really weren't touching in the right places like I thought at first.  My left side feels pretty good, and as advertised before surgery, my right side is a little open....but barely.  Only a millimeter or two to close up there.  We're pretty close and my surgeon was pretty happy.  And I am pretty happy!  He held up a mirror while I was in the chair, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.  My teeth meeting together for the first time in my life.  So weird looking at it AND feeling it for the first time.  For the first time my bicuspids have pressure on them from meeting a bottom tooth under it.  Usually I just bite on my back molars and that is it.  Now ALL of my teeth are engaged, and it feels really funny!  Something to get used to for sure!  I got cleared for soft chew and I am already experiencing that robotic feeling of trying to chew.  You're still numb and teeth are all in new spots hitting new teeth they've never met properly before, and it feels like you're trying to chew with a robot jaw.  It's hard to describe and only something somebody who has gone through this will definitely understand what I am trying to say.

I was sitting in the chair and kind of started to get a little teary eyed again over all of this.  It's so overwhelming. My surgeon knows this is especially true for me after the long road for my case.  I again took the chance to thank him. Told him that I am more than aware that he didn't have to take me on and how difficult of a case I was.  And not that I doubted him and what he could do, but told him again how all of this has just exceeded the realistic expectations I set for what I wanted out of this correction surgery.  He said I sure was a difficult case, but he was happy to help me out.  And he doesn't blame me for having doubts, and it's super common after what I experienced through my initial case.  I took that chance to tell him I am also thankful that he not only dealt with a difficult medical case, but he took on somebody who was emotionally broken and had zero trust for any doctor, and he did it with such patience and understanding.  I hope he really knows how much I appreciate all of his work and patience. 

My ortho too.  He's had to deal with the same physically and emotionally broken person.  Speaking of that, I went over to my ortho's office right after my surgeon.  More smiles from everybody there too.  I can tell everybody is really genuinely happy and relieved-- probably as much as I am! My ortho has this different vibe to him.  Like I can feel his relief and satisfaction too, and he looks kind of excited/giddy to do his magic and perfect his art. And I still can't get over how involved he has me with everything. He asked me how everything felt, and I could tell he was genuinely interested in what I was saying when it came to feeling out my bite.  And like he said to me a few weeks ago, he really trusts what I say since I'm usually not wrong, so if I say it feels a certain way, he's taking it seriously.  I told him that my left feels pretty OK, and my right side feels open but not to a point where I am worried we're not outside of the "normal" range where it's fixed easily with ortho post op and pretty much feels how my pre op molds showed it would.  He said "yep, exactly!"  So, he didn't waste any time and right away put me in 1 class II heavy elastic on my left to keep my bite in line, and then on my right he's got an up/down band between my molars and then a triangle between teeth 5/6 and goes down to my lower K9; hopefully this closes my bite up on this side and gets me class I all around.  He said he's going to set my appointment for 4 weeks, but for me to feel free to drop in any time in between without notice if I want him to check on anything or just want to know if everything is looking OK.  Again, sweet of him to do that.  I mean, I think he's doing it for him because it gives him a chance to monitor more, and also for me since he knows I am still kind of walking on egg shells and do need the extra reassurance that we are in fact OK this time.  Otherwise, he plans on a wire change at the next appointment.  They cut my surgical hooks off the front of my teeth and kept the ones on the sides for the elastic configuration he has me in.  Both he and the assistant both jumped and kind of went "whoa!" when they saw how wide I could open already.  Like last time, I think I have more opening than most people get right away.  Less this time vs. first time since I am in bands not allowing me to open as much now, but still more than the normal patient.  So, I think he knows he is more than OK to do a wire swap on this next appointment.  Another sweet thing that happened when I was leaving the office is the treatment coordinator, who I don't talk to much but has been such a sweetheart from the moment I talked to her to book my initial consult, stopped me for a second to take a look at my surgery results.  Again like the doc and all, she just looked so genuinely happy and caring.  She said she was so happy for me and can still remember my first time in her office to meet them and hearing my story and seeing my tears thinking they weren't going to want to take me on as a patient and that I was screwed.  She said she is so happy it worked out this way and they are so happy to be the ones to help me get to a happy ending after such a sad story.  It really means a lot to me how much everybody across the board on my new team really cares, and rightfully so, they are proud of the work they've done to get me out of a really bad place my last team left me in.

So, all continues to check out.  I see Dr. Karas in two weeks, and Dr. Cuenin in 4.  I am cleared for soft chew!!  Yay!!  I ate scrambled eggs this morning, and it was SO glorious!! Planning on soft white fish, quinoa, and some overcooked veggies tonight.  So looking forward to that!  I can't stop looking at my bite-- for a few reasons.  1.) I still can't believe my teeth are sitting in the right positions finally, and 2.) I am still waiting for the other shoe to drop and see the bite start to go all crazy and out of alignment, so I'm paranoid checking it all the time to make sure we're still good to go.  I had trouble sleeping last night, and I think a little of it was anxiety that my bite was floating back where it shouldn't be now that I am out of the full tight bands across my front teeth.  I have a feeling this will just take some time to get over.  Otherwise, quick update on the numbness and everything else.  I've had a huge improvement in feeling in my upper face.....finally!  So, feeling good there.  Lower lip and chin I feel like is getting more tingly, but still not super bad nerve zingers yet.  So, hopefully a good sign there, but overall I would still call it dead numb for now.  Swelling is still the same-- the puffiness left, and will probably linger the next 2 months or so.

Time to stop rambling.  This has already become a much longer update than what I expected it to be.  Here is a short video update and some shots after my splint removal.  Don't mind the just rolled out of bed head on the video.  One of these days I'll actually put some make up on and something other than my PJ's to do an update! Look at that bite!!!!  I still can't believe it.  Like, I keep having to pinch myself!! 

3 weeks post op....you know what that means?!  Only 4 more days until the splint is out!!!!  The splint was supposed to be off in 2-3 weeks and a little break in the rubber bands after 5 days with another change at maybe day 10 at the second post op appointment....but we're not completely going as planned there.  It's OK.  Still normal to have the splint and full bands in that first 4-8 weeks, but it wasn't quite what we originally planned.  Better safe than sorry though if they think my bite needs the extra guidance longer. 

I would say the biggest change the last week has been more mental than physical.  I think I am kind of in a slump. I would even go so far as to say maybe I am a little depressed?  I am so used to being active and in control, and I have been neither the last month. Like last time, I am pretty low energy, except this time I feel like some of that is mental (like when you're depressed and don't feel like doing anything) and not pure physical.  I am sure some of it is physical too since I am not getting full calories in (below 1000 calories/day still at this point).  I still have a brain fog going on like last time too, to the point where I am not 100% comfortable driving yet, but I'm driving when I have to.  Only thing I can compare it to is when you have a head cold and take medicine and you just feel all floaty, brain fogged, and out of it.  Last time I think this stuck around for about 6 weeks.  Who knows if it just naturally works out of your system by then, or if it was in response to getting more food and better nutrition in at that point.  I am definitely not as food deprived this time around.  At least not for being wired in a splint still.  When I was wired shut last time I was only getting broths in.  Being able to take the bands off quickly to eat has been a game changer this time.  I have been able to get thicker pureed foods in this time.  I have been hitting the Indian hard core.  Last night I made a thick sambar to get in.  So good, but I am left craving animal protein still after.  Ugh. 

I think that is a sense of frustration and feeling a little down about too.  I am REALLY sick of this diet at this point.  I pureed chicken livers and spooned that in the other night.  The thought of that makes you want to yammy, right?  Yeah, well, that is what I have had to deal with.  Not fun.  Still hitting the boost up for breakfast in the morning, then getting some of the chicken livers and mashed pureed veggies through the day.  I've been putting full fat milk in my coffee in the morning and using more butter and oil than I normally do in my veggies when I cook them down for puree.  I must be doing a decent job sneaking the calories in there, because I have plateaued on the weight loss and have been sitting at 132 the last few days.  I am so sick of the texture of these foods. I'm getting the taste and spice still, which is great, but damn would I like to chew.  I am craving just a soft boiled egg so bad for breakfast right now, and I can't have it.  I really hope this splint gets unwired on Monday, because I am reaching a breaking point with the diet right now and really need to move to soft chew.  I am also sick of not having the emotional or physical energy to do anything.  I am not motivated at all.  I can just sit on my couch and watch tv all day.  After 3 weeks of it, it's getting old, but there is nothing else I really want to do since I'm so tired.  

Because I am emotionally kind of "blah," it's also impacting me physically.  I feel like I've slowed a bit more in healing too.  I have been comparing how I healed last time to this time, and it's getting me a little anxious.  By 3 weeks post op I think I had most of the feeling back in my cheek/nose/lower eye.  This time I am having issues.  It's improved a bit, probably 50%, but I am still pretty numb in my right cheek, nostril, and lower eye lid down to my lip.  I know it can take a few months, but since it came back so fast last time, it's making me nervous that I am not seeing the same improvements this time.  My chin and lower lip is DEAD numb.  Like, that fat lip kind of heavy numb feeling.  No serious nerve pains yet, although my bottom front teeth are starting to have that weird feeling in them that I remember from last time.  Hopefully that is a sign of the nerve zingers to come.  Again, something that happened in that 2-3 weeks post op period last time.  I feel like the lingering swelling is worse this time too.  My nose is still pretty swollen.  My right cheek up into my lower eye is still bigger too, and the plates along the right cheek are more tender too.  My left side feels pretty damn good. I can even press on the plates/screws on that side and not have a ton of tenderness.  Oh well... it's only 3 weeks, which is REALLY early in the grand scheme of things.  I always tell people it's not a race and stop comparing your recovery to others since we all heal differently, but here I am comparing myself to..... well, myself! I need to stop comparing to what happened last time, because it's different circumstances.  With revision you're going to heal slower.  They cut through a ton of new bone over the old hardware, scar tissue, etc.  My face as been through a lot, and it's going to take a long time to recover from that. 

Hopefully getting the splint out and getting another clean check up will reinvigorate me.  I've emailed my ortho to tell him I am feeling great and getting good range of motion back (just from the few minutes I get to stretch while I am cleaning with the bands out), so if he wants to plan on a wire change or anything on Monday, I think I could take it.  Looking forward to getting that umph of energy back soon. I think I am just getting tired of the liquid diet, tired of being numb, tired of being tired, and tired of drooling all over myself (yes, the drooling has been bad this time for some reason.  And since I can't feel my chin at all, I just sit and it's like a waterfall down my chin and I don't even know it until my shirt gets wet.  Ick)  I am scheduled to start getting back to work in a week and a half, so hopefully something kicks in to gear with me next week.  I don't want to have to take anymore leave, but if I am still this tired next week, I may have to. 

Day 16 post op.  I've been really trying to hold off making a dedicated post about comparison between surgery results since I am still swollen and haven't really seen the full revision results yet, but I can't help myself.  Each day I am seeing more and more differences.  The big one started with the pano.

The first pano on the left is about 6 days after my original surgery.  It's a mangled mess.  Both the surgical work and the ortho work.  My teeth were all over the place post op, brackets were all sorts of broken. My teeth shifted and started to go all crooked again.  Hardware is all crooked.  The pano to the right is 5 days after revision.  Everything is just so much straighter and neater.  Not perfect, but way past my expectations for what I thought I was going to see on the first film.  Like my pictures, the teeth in the xrays will never completely line up again thanks to the lower front incisor I had extracted as part of this round of ortho treatment.

The thing I really wanted to hold off making comparisons on is physical/aesthetic changes.  I'm still swollen and will be for months, but the first huge chunk of swelling has dropped and I am already seeing differences.  After the first surgery I had sunken in dimples on one side and bulged out with no dimples on the other.  At first I chalked it up to swelling, and then later learned it was because my jaws were so offset and yawed out to the one side.  I noticed about a week ago I was getting BOTH dimples back.  Yes, I have both sides of my dimples back!!  And my face is much more balanced too.  The sunken in side is more full now, and both gonial angles looking more like the other again.  I am seeing symmetry in my face again.  Not that it was so bad before that strangers would look at me funny walking down the street, but it was for sure something that was noticeable to my closer friends and family, and especially to me.  The other big change, that I could even see right away as soon as I woke up in the hospital, is I have my upper nasolabial area back!!  That space between the bottom of your nose and your upper lip, it was WAY too full on me after my first surgeon moved my already too forward upper jaw another 4mm forward without my knowledge or permission.  It's been the cause of a lot of strain in my face, and aesthetically unpleasing.  I totally lost that little line that goes from your nose down to your lip, and now I have it back!  And the strain is gone too.  I really can't wait to see how this feels when even more swelling drops.  

There will definitely continue to be changes as swelling drops and things settle.  I will be able to compare the bite better once I get the splint off too. But for now, these are the things already strikingly obvious in a round 1 vs. round 2 comparison this soon post op.  I'll make sure to update when able to do so.  Hopefully my ortho does some new records and I can compare the original post op with the new ones.

So today is day 13....well, kind of day 12.5 since Thurs at 12:30 is officially two weeks from the second surgery started.  I had my phone in my hands and decided to do a quick video log update.  I remember reading blogs that did a lot of Vlogs and thought I could start incorporating them more in to my blog, but I just never end up doing it for some reason.  Probably because I am lazy and it's easy to just whip open my laptop and start typing and doing a video is just another step or two.

Anyway, here's the Vlog.  Forgive the nasty looking teeth.  I'm cleaning as best as I can, but there is only so much you can do since 1.) The splint is covering up a lot of my top teeth, 2.) I can barely open enough to get even a finger in when I take my bands off, 3.) I still have fresh stitches all over and I am afraid to just go to town with a brush all up in my mouth, and 4.) I've just been brushing light with a peroxide/water mixture. I'm still not wearing make up or doing my hair, but I don't care.  Not here to win Miss America right now!  I've honestly barely had enough energy to get up off the couch and clean my teeth let alone get all dolled up.  We're definitely not at that point yet!

Anyway.... down to the residual puffiness that will stick around for a another 1-2 months if all goes the same as last time.  Bruising is looking much better.  Numbness is decreasing in my upper face and cheeks.  Chin/lip still numb but not that fat feeling dead numb anymore.  No major nerve pains yet, but I'm on the look out for it.  I think they hit me hard around 2-3 weeks post op last time.  My teeth are all sensitive again like last time, so I am sure the nerve pain is right around the corner. Still all drooling and muffled when I talk, but that is pretty much going to be this way until I get out of the total banding and splint configuration on the 14th, which will be just under a month post op, so I am proud of myself for sticking this out for a lot longer this time!