9 MONTHS POST OP

I'm sorry this post is late but I was a little busy with finals and GRADUATING from college woo!

I got to walk across the stage without braces and take pictures without worrying about which way my head was turning, I could not be more thrilled and grateful.

Some updates:

1. The left side of my smile pulls up farther than the right side, I assume that is just muscle memory because my jaw was crooked for so long, not concerned about it just an observation.

2. My jaw clicks sometimes, I only ever hear it on the right side and only usually when I am eating something particularly chewy. It also clicks more when its raining.

3. I have been diligently wearing my retainer at night and whenever I am just lounging around during the day, I haven't noticed any shifting so its working yay! I have an appointment in two weeks to get the more heavy duty retainer that I will wear at night.

4. I got a job! This summer I will be a counselor at a camp for children who have experienced trauma which is very exciting! Unfortunately, it also means that I might not be able to post for the last two months of my year long recovery. I promise to update for both when I can as it is a huge event.

Thats all I have for you right now!

THE BRACES ARE GONE

Hello blogisphere, THE BRACES ARE EFFING GONE.

Yeah thats right I am no longer a brace face. I celebrated by going out for drinks with my cousin and some friends and it was wonderful.

I have clear retainers for the top and bottom teeth and I will be getting a "splint" in about a month or so, which I will wear at night, as I understand it, it is just a more heavy duty retainer to wear at night more as precaution than anything. I told them that they could give me head gear to wear at night and I wouldn't complain as long as I didn't have the braces anymore. For right now my instructions are to wear the clear retainers "as often as possible" even if that means just at night or when I'm hanging around the house. This is good because they give me a horrible lisp.

As I was warned by all my friends I have been licking my teeth with my tongue incessantly. Its partially because my teeth feel so freaking weird and also because I need to remind myself that the braces aren't there. It seriously felt like I would have them forever.

I have a great job lined up for the summer, the braces are gone, I'm graduating in a couple weeks and it was 60 degrees today. Life is pretty good right now.

8 MONTHS POST OP

Welp, the braces did not come off on April 13th because there was a space between two teeth that shouldn't have been there so I am going back in a week to see if they are ready to come off then. I really really hope they do.


Other than that I don't really have any updates for you guys! I don't have any issues with swelling, eating or pain anymore and I can open my mouth wide enough to fit three fingers so everything is working out really well in that department!

I will update again when the braces FINALLY come off!

7 MONTHS POST-OP

Okay so 7 months. Damn.

I saw my surgeon and the orthodontist this week and good news from both doctors!!

Surgeon said that everything looks good and he'll see me in a few months and the orthodontist said he thinks my braces can come off on April 13th!!!!!!! Its not for sure yet but he scheduled me for the morning so we had plenty of time to do the work and said that if my teeth look good he will just take them off then and put me in the retainers! I'm going to have two invisible retainers to wear during the day and one "splint" retainer to wear at night that is just a precaution so my teeth stay in place. One of the techs at the orthodontist's office said I was one of her favorite cases and that getting braces off in 13 months is unheard of (5 months ahead of schedule!). I am super excited and I can't wait to celebrate!

Thats all the updates I have! I'll post again on April 13th!!!!

6 MONTHS POST-OP

I can't believe I am halfway through this process already!

I mean what even...

Just on a personal note, I'm doing pretty great. I am busier than I have ever been in my college career but I am loving every minute of my internship and my classes....are tolerable...lol.

I have come to terms with the loss of my ability to touch my tongue to my nose and I will have to find a new unusual talent. Suggestions are welcome.

Swelling/Face Stuff: My right cheek is still ever so slightly swollen but I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who sees it. If you look at the picture you can see that my right ear is a little bit higher than the left ear, which makes my glasses sit crooked on my face but otherwise doesn't bother me. I have most of the elasticity back in my cheeks which is awesome, and there is only one small part of my lower lip that is still a little bit numb but again I'm not bothered by it. Overall, I am so so so happy with the results! Would I do it again? I definitely don't want to relive any of the awful uncomfortable, painful parts but I am a much happier and more confident person now and that is so worth it.
 
Pain/Jaw Stuff: I don't have much pain anymore, unless I eat really chewy pizza crust or I try too hard to stuff a sandwich in my mouth. I can open the width of two fingers now which isn't quite as wide as a normal person can open their jaw but its functional and I am totally okay with it. I noticed that my range of motion is coming back, I can move my jaw a minuscule amount to each side and I can push it forward a little too! I haven't been exercising these new abilities though since I don't want to cause any damage. The twitching stopped too which is great since that was uncomfortable and worrisome. 
 


Braces: ARE COMING OFF IN APRIL JUST IN TIME FOR MY 22ND BIRTHDAY!! I still have one band on the left side that I have to wear for 12 hours a day but who cares?! I will be braces-free in only two months!!!! Thats 5 months earlier than they originally anticipated! I will worship Dr. Jeff forever.

Just hang tight fellow jaw surgery recipients, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. (Pretty sure its the orthodontist's head flashlight thingy shining into your eyes as they remove the braces).
 

5 MONTHS POST-OP

HOLY SHITBALLS BATMAN IT'S BEEN FIVE MONTHS. Almost...I am three days early but honestly, I'm bored and I took a cute selfie yesterday. Don't judge me.

Swelling: Mostly gone but when its really cold, I sleep on one side too long or I eat something particularly chewy I notice some extra swelling. But for the most part its gone, Mama lady even says that I'm getting my cheekbones back.

Eating/Braces: EVERYTHING. I can open almost all the way. I can fit two fingers in my mouth but I'm a little less than 40-42mm according to my orthodontist, who by the way says the braces can come off in March/April. All thats left to do is move one tooth and how long can that take really? He put a bend in the wire that is supposed to do that, and gave me new bands (penguin size whatever that means) I only wear one on the right side and only at night/at home. I have found it to be too much of a pain in the ass to wear bands during the day in public.

Jaw Pain: When its really cold/raining/snowing my jaw hurts pretty bad and it twitches but apparently that is normal...I emailed Yale about it. Nothing Tylenol can't fix. But I don't feel like my face is broken anymore so thats awesome!

Weight Loss: I lost almost 50 lbs. But I gained about 7 of it back over break though because I haven't been working out the way I do at school. I go back next week though, I start my internship and I will not have time to relax and lay in bed anymore so I'm not that concerned about losing it again. Again, let me emphasize that that is NOT normal for most jaw surgery recipients nor do I recommend a liquid diet or a restricted diet for weight loss. The first 15-20 lbs was lost thanks to the restricted diet, the last leg of the weight loss was largely due to stress, walking everywhere and small portion sizes.

Advice: Once you're comfortable chewing again, chew gum. I think doing that has really helped increase my chewing tolerance and my range of motion.

4 Months Post-Op

I'm a day late but...FOUR MONTHS WOOOOOOO! Not much to report unless you want to hear about my finals.

Swelling: Just a little on the right side as usual. Bleh.

Eating: Anything I want! I have been eating sandwiches recently but the catch is that I have to squish them flat first, I've been really into grilled cheese.

Jaw Pain: Not too much, my joints hurt when its really cold out. I still can't open my jaw all the way so when I open a little to wide (like when I'm eating a grilled cheese sandwich) I do feel some pain, my jaw shifts side to side a little more now but it also twitches randomly and that can hurt a little bit. Its not so much that any of that is really painful as much as its just annoying or achey.

Weight Loss: None of my pants fit. Its really annoying. Good, but annoying. Leggings are my best friends.

That is really all I have for you this month...but I will have more updates after my next visits with the ortho and the surgeon while I am home on break!

Happy Holidays!!

Day 103 (14 weeks post op...Right?)

So I mean this is pretty cool. I look like a totally different person. Thankfully I don't have anything exciting to update about this week.

Swelling: That right jaw dude. It's been a little extra swollen lately but I've been sleeping on my face a lot recently but I'm not sacrificing comfortable sleep for being a little less swollen.

Eating: ANYTHING I WANT YO. Except sandwiches because braces and I can't open all the way yet but I'm getting there. I've been really into pretzels with Nutella lately. So good.

Jaw Pain: My jaw muscles do feel extra tight lately and opening wide is a little more uncomfortable than it has been, but I'm pretty sure thats most likely due to the weather, cold wind and rain are harsh on joints. Bright side: I can almost fit two fingers in my mouth I am so so so so close to being able to do it. 10 more millimeters to go before I can open all the way! I'm really trying to be mindful not to force my jaw open because the surgeon told me that jaw exercises could damage integrity of the surgery and I definitely do not want to do that. Another thing I've noticed is that my joints are twitching like they did way back in the first few weeks post op. Which I am taking as a sign that my muscles and joints are rebuilding.

Weight Loss: I dropped the Thanksgiving weight already and I'm sure if I keep up with eating healthier and exercising I will drop a few more pounds but I am pretty comfortable where I'm at right now so I'm not actively trying to lose weight anymore...mostly because I can't afford to have to buy new pants every few weeks. Thank god its leggings season. Judge me all you want for wearing leggings as pants, I'll fight you. And I'll win because I will have full range of motion because I'm wearing leggings.

Numbness: That one part of my lower lip is still numb but I barely notice it now, and all of the numbness in my chin is gone! Wooo!

Day 100

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I know I did...I gained four pounds this weekend but it was SO WORTH IT.

So last Tuesday I saw the surgeon and the orthodontist and my visit with the surgeon was less than ten minutes and it all looks good! He said definitely no jaw exercises because they don't want to force my jaw in any direction and my full range of motion will come back the more I chew and talk.

Right now I can open 30 mm and I need to get to 40 mm. But that seems doable.

After that I saw Dr. Jeff at the orthodontist and NO MORE BANDS (for now, I might need them again in a few weeks but I'm going to enjoy it while I can) OR SURGICAL HOOKS! They put a chain on my teeth because they were a little gappy in the front, took the zig-zaggy thing off too (yes that is the technical term) which I found out was to keep my teeth from getting loose and moving around during and after the surgery. My teeth feel so much lighter without all that gear on them. Then the girl who was putting my new wires on promised me that at the very latest, the braces will be off by May for my graduation!

I was a little extra swollen after the ortho because I had to hold my jaw open for so long but its going down now.

I will add pictures tomorrow but I am off to a concert with some friends tonight, I just wanted to update on the 100th day because I mean how cool is that?

Day 90 (3 MONTHS POST OP!)

Three months. It has been three months since I had some surgeons break my face. What?
Speaking of surgeons, I will update on this again after I have my 3 month appointment with them next week.

I've answered this questions a million times but since this is another one of those huge mile stones (my bones are supposedly all healed now) I think I will answer it again: Would I do it all over again? Honestly? Seeing the results and having all the shitty parts of this recovery behind me, yeah I think I would. I feel different, I look different and as cheesy as it sounds, it really did change my life and I don't think I could go back to being the person I was  all of the 21 years prior to the surgery. But again, I definitely would have not scheduled the surgery for right before my senior year of college, that was just bad planning on my part.

I'm only 90 days post op and technically that means I have 275 more to go before I am considered fully recovered so I still have a long way to go but I think its really important to celebrate or at least acknowledge the milestones otherwise its easy to lose sight of where you came from. So with that in mind I decided to put together some of the pictures from the highs and lows of this recovery so far just to show how much progress can be made in 90 days.

1. Before. You've seen it.
2. Day 8: when my face swelled up a ridiculous amount because I was allergic to NSAIDs.
3. Day 9: They took the bands off that kept my mouth closed and the gross chin bandage!
4. Day 10: I CAN DRINK THROUGH A STRAW!
5. Day 16: I CAN EAT MASHED POTATOES!
6. Day 19: I moved into my dorm room.
7. Day 21: My smile doesn't look that creepy anymore...right?
8. Day 27: I took Turmeric to help with jaw pain and ended up with kidney stones.
9. Day 40: FINALLY feeling better after the kidney stones.
10. Day 41: Six weeks post op = I can start chewing...Or not because then I got a site infection.
11. Day 50: HEY LOOK I HAVE FACIAL EXPRESSIONS AGAIN.
12. Day 61: 2 months post op!
13. Day 66: Look at how far I can open my mouth!
14: Day 70: 10 weeks post op!
15: Day 85: 12 weeks post op!
16: Day 90: AHHHHHH!

Finally, the updates.

Swelling: As always my right cheek is ever so slightly more swollen than the left side but I'm pretty sure only I notice.

Eating: I can eat pretty much everything including pizza and salad. The only thing that gives me some issues is cut up melon. My school sells fruit cups with huge chunks of melon in them and if I don't cut them small enough I can't chew them and I have to gracefully spit out the melon chunk into a napkin and hope no one notices. I think I could probably do a small sandwich too but I haven't tried more because of the fear of getting mushed bread all up in my braces.

Jaw Pain: My jaw doesn't feel broken anymore really, I am so close to being able to fit the two fingers in my mouth but I am not quite there yet, I am hoping at my next appointment I can get some jaw exercises to do to help move that along. I do notice my jaw twitching on the left side again, but it usually only happens when I'm chewing something particularly hard like the melon, so I think its just muscle spasms. I also notice that sometimes if I sleep on one side all night I might not be able to hear as well out of that ear the next day, again residual swelling is probably to blame.