Just keep swimming..swimming..swimming..

I am now officially a month post-surgery. Yay me.

I had another orthodontist appointment today. He did nothing really, just checked everything, made me open my mouth until it hurt - thanks for that.

What I've learnt today: My horrible headaches are for sure from the surgery. So no, there's no brain tumor or something tragic, just the muscles freaking out and spazzing over the jaw change. My anti-inflammatory helps with that, the rare time I remember to take it.

My swelling, although it won't completely be gone for another 5 months, looks like it's all gone so that's a positive.

I can eat a lot more than usual, e.g. I had chicken thighs last night. Mmm.

Until I can eat a burger (mmm a burger) I'll keep on keeping on.

Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming. . I feel like Dorey.

T-Minus 24-ish Days & Counting

Cactus Club - pesto chicken quesadilla
Earls - clam chowder
Mon Thongs - world's best chicken curry
Fatburger - one decent hamburger and fries please
Genjie's - Super Crunch sushi

All these join my ever-growing list of food items I am more than ready to consume. But as the title of this blog states, I still have a few more weeks (3 actually, and then some extra days) to go. Until then, my swelling will continue to go down, my cravings continue to grow, and the days continue to pass. ;)

I won't be updating this blog as often anymore for the obvious reason as progress has slowed and there aren't any substantial day-to-day activities worth mentioning (unless you wanted a play-by-play on what I am eating on my limited diet!). I'll probably update it once a week now is my guess.


Not very swollen, although the picture works to my benefit for sure. I find I am much more swollen for the first half of the day and then the swelling goes down a bit as the hours pass.

Two Weeks Since Surgery

Alright, it's been exactly two weeks since my surgery now.

I went to see my surgeon today. Yayy. I can now open my mouth (see picture below) but it is limited. I can eat overcooked pasta and rice, ice cream and scrambled eggs for the next month.

Good news though as well. My surgeon is AMAZED with how I am doing. Not only did he say I'm doing fantastic but although I am only two weeks post-surgery, I have the progress of someone who is 1.5-2 months post-surgery so I am WAY ahead of the game here. Praise God. That's awesome.


This is how much I can open my mouth for the next month. Not much, just under half an inch probably but it's definitely better than before (not at all!)


Today was a very good day though. Two of my friends came and visited me which helps with the .. down-in-the-dumps feeling that I was told to expect as I recovered. I can now eat more than just soup and juices and I can talk a bit better now. In other words, no more baby talk. It was disappointing to find out I had to have such a limited diet for a whole entire month still (we thought it would only be two more weeks like this) but at least I can have some protein and heavier foods. I've lost around 8 pounds so far and am hoping not to loose anymore weight.

Day... Million? (13)

The days are starting to go by faster lately. Whether that is good or bad, I'm not sure yet. Haha.

We had an appointment with my orthodontist yesterday just so he could check my bite and make sure nothing had came loose during the surgery, a general check up. He said everything looked "fantastic" and that the sites were looking really good and clean. (Sites as in where they operated on me) which is good because I've not been as religious with doing the salt water rinses to purify the sites this time compared to when I got my wisdom teeth removed so I have been slightly concerned.
Apparently my bite is looking really good, both Dr Bell (my surgeon) and Dr Allan (my orthodontist) have commented on how good it is looking. I am desperately praying that this means I only have a few short months left with my braces on. That would be the best thing that could happen to me this year - to get my braces off before second semester starts in January.

I'm feeling pretty good. I get weak easily if we go out but my stamina is getting better. I get very dizzy very easily as well. But I was able to drive yesterday (did about 30 minutes worth of driving) so I think that shows that I am improving. Yay! It's been so long since I've driven I was worrying I'd lost the ability to drive!!

Day 10 - Something to be proud of!

Finally I can look in the mirror without grimacing.
So the bruising is receding, the swelling is going down. My reaction to the morphine is resolved. My hunger for real food.... not so much.
But today the only issue is that one of the appliances they inserted onto my braces to hold the strong elastics that keep my mouth shut is now piercing through my lip.

Despite that I'd say it's a good day today.

Here are some pictures I just took of Day Ten!

Catch Up; Days 5-9

Wow definitely didn't think it had been THAT long since I updated this little ol' thing. My bad.

Although the past few days, my swelling HAS gone down, in a way, it's almost been harder. I have been much more aware of the state of misery I am in. No talking and no eating real food. Those of you that know me quite well know that those two combined are the equivalent of a Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events book starring moi.
Well okay. Update update.
Everything had been going fine.

By the way. I now have a HUGE list of food items I will consume immediately upon being able to open my mouth. My Lord.

Anyways, everything had been going fine. The medication was doing wonders, I was resembling a water balloon and the world was at peace. And then came the migraines. Yes they came and came and came. Morphine wouldn't do it, large insane doses of Children's Tylenol wouldn't do it. My two other prescribed meds for post-op wouldn't do it. It was bad.
And then came the night terrors which we later learned were hallucinations. Wonderful. Hallucinations from hell, of hell, of demons, of slaughter houses, of everything. It's awful. Two, or three nights, days. I couldn't be in a dark room, the shadows started my head going on these horrid things yet the dark soothed my migraines.
We called the surgeon and he said it was a reaction to the morphine so we went off it but it still takes a few days to pass through my system. Yesterday I hope was the last day for the symptoms.
I also vomited my guts up on the side of the road one day. Two of the days I slept. Full out. Until around 6pm, woke up for a couple of hours and went back to sleeping soundly.
I've been exhausted.

And now I'm frustrated because yet again my stomach grumbles for real food. Not pureed food and juice.
Cake would be nice, steak, a good burger, pasta, even some ice cream! I must stop.

Obviously I am feeling better enough to complain. Poor mom.



I took this yesterday, the swellings gone down a bit more. Another week and I'll be able to open my mouth a bit more (I'll have looser elastics so I can open enough to stuff gagging scrambled eggs into my mouth and choke on them ;) ) and hopefully after the week, I'll be looking relatively normal!

P.S. Oh! I ALSO got my stitches on the outside of my face removed the other day. That hurt a bit but it's nice to have them not poking now!

Day 4 - Sleep Time

Well apparently my body needed a complete full day to catch up on sleep.
I woke up around 6:30am to take my meds with a liquid meal (these liquid meals are growing old real fast. Give me some chips or something. Dear Lord!) Fell back to sleep till noon. Took a quick, but EXTREMELY refreshing shower praying the whole time that the heat and humidity wouldn't make me faint like the nurses had warned me about. It didn't. It DID however feel so good to get the clumps of blood out of my hair Finally!! Yayyy!
After that I quickly fell back asleep and just woke up.
And I STILL feel like I could remain in sleep bliss until tomorrow morning. After these next doses of meds/liquid meals, I just may do that.
The next two weeks of no talking and liquid meals are going to be a royal pain in my.. butt.

BUT my swelling has gone down a LOT today. Drastically. I don't look as obese! (Yay!) The yellow-orange-green bruising is spreading however but it's better than having an excessive amount of swelling! =D


beautiful flowers from my amazing aunt! I love them.



this is my favorite post-op picture so far =DD looking good now that the swelling is going down and my head doesn't feel like a living, walking, breathing water balloon!



quick look at the bruising. this was taken on my webcam though so most of the details get blurred out. in real life the bruising is more extensive.



Did I mention that today I got to start warm heat pads instead of cold? That was an odd but warming-feel-good switch!

Day 3 - Prayer IS Helping

Today was supposedly the day of dread.
Yesterday we had my surgeon and nurses calling to warn us that today the swelling would be so bad I would just have tiny slits for eyes because it happens to EVERYONE.
But here I am today with eyes wide open. SO yes, you're prayers are working so much and are very very appreciated.
Swelling is spreading down instead of up though. It is now moving down through my neck towards my chest. I had some blood coming from my nose today but that's still from the breathing tube. My throat isn't as gucky as it has been, now it's only hurting because the swelling is spreading there.

I'm looking rather rough today but I did make an effort to look good although in the pictures you would think it's the opposite. But I pulled my hair back and changed. It helped haha. I have moved downstairs for the daytimes though and am finding the couch to be quite an ideal place to hang out.

I got BEAUTIFUL flowers from my Aunt today. My scatterbrained mind forgot to snap a picture of them just now but I will tomorrow or later on today. Daisies. So beautiful. They're now next to "my couch" downstairs.


Swelling has started to not progress as quickly.




bruising on the left side of my head. you can also see the stitches and the sores above my lip and on the bottom of my lip.




I just wanted to get a shot of the sores on my top lip since it makes me queasy to lean into a mirror to get a close up look at it.




right side of my face. mm yum. gotta love those bruises and stitches!! viva la vida!