Post Op: 6 weeks down

Last Thursday I went to the Surgeon and the Orthodontist… It was just as bad as I had imagined. At least I wasnt disappointed?

It was time to get the splint removed…you know, the one held in by terror and twist-ties. They set right to work, I had an audience of residents…there to watch the torture with bated breath. Dr. Olsson said "Okay dont be nervous it will be over before you know it", I then asked "Do I get everything numb again?". The answer was basically, no. I would not have a ton of feeling. That was not correct. They were very nice and did everything as quick as possible but, come on, I had wires in my gums. No picnic was had.

I did wear my festive tee for the occasion…a little morale boost to my brain. Im also now very popular in maxillofacial circles.

I had 5 or 6 sets of wires to be removed (I lost track of the count do to my panic). He would clip the underside wires, the ones attached to the splint, it would pinch my palette because I have spots of intense feeling. Then the wires would be pulled swiftly thru the gums. A bit twisted and maybe a little sharp. They tried to do it quick…I felt almost everything. When all was done, only a few short mins later, I had a good flop-sweat going and I was light-headed. Rinsed with the medical mouthwash and was good to go…when my heart started again.

I get a headache just looking at these…

I took a quick photo of the splint (the exhumed corpse). It is a nice gross color from the plastic it is made from mixed with blood…dont worry its in the background of the photo and just looks like a tiny raw chicken. :P

Matcha madness

After IT was removed from my body the inside of my mouth felt like I had been in the pool too long and the skin had gone all prune. There was some time to kill before the next stop on the pain train so my husband and I stopped in for some tea. I got an iced green tea and HOLY COW…cold is realllly cold, hot is really hot and flavors are a thousand times different.

So ice-cold shock and I was on to the Orthodontist office…


I was there to get new wires, fix brackets and do a general reset to my orthodontics. I was hoping with the nerves still being damaged that this would be a breeze. Ha…

Awaiting launch

My face is a mess of crossed-signals…faulty wiring. One tooth could be completely numb and another can have a billion times the feeling. What gives? The appointment was about an hour and I felt every min. Dr. Huang was apologetic and as quick as he could be but the tech was a little more fumbly than I would have hoped. I think i made her nervous, I had involuntary jerks of my lower jaw (it still has no idea whats going on) and my eyes wouldnt stop watering. New metal and bands later = a dose of advil. "I am like an alligator, I have amazing bite force but have trouble actually getting my jaws open if someone uses a bit of tape"

You cant even tell there was metal in my gums!

The rest of the day was spent in pj's with a sore face. The following day my face and jaw started to swell up again, which is normal. Over the next few days I realized my bands are super tight…like hard to open my mouth again, headache inducing tight. I was resorting to stretching out the rubber bands between two hair clips so I could get them in without pulling too hard. Finally I called today and was told I could trade out for a lighter option so Im happy. The bands go all the way to the back teeth on the bottom to near the front on the top so getting them in has been a challenge.

The bands do come with this handy little extender / installation hand but its still a bit of a dance. My jaw has a mind of its own and likes to fight anything I do to it. Hopefully when the less tight bands are in my possession it will be less stressful.

Numbness:
The dead zone is still quite that…but…now if i run my nail along my bottom lip the tiniest spark trail follows. If I touch the base of my chin I feel a few teeth fire off. If i run my finger on the chin itself there is a delay and then it has that fallen asleep feeling, a very deep sleep but the tingling is starting to emerge.

Food:
Everything is pretty much the same. I was told I should be able to progress the eating, gradually eat harder things. Just go slow and try things out…dont go crazy. So Friday Jarrett took me out for sushi and ramen! I could eat tamago sashimi and age tofu AND THIS:

Shrimp and scallop ramen = yum!

I had to take out all the shrimp and cut them into tiny bits. Also all the veggies were still too crisp but it was all very exciting. A Lychee martini was also fantastic and helped the soreness of my teeth. I really should have tried chopsticks earlier in recovery. I was worried they would be hard to eat with but because they are low profile it made getting the food in way easier than a fork. Oh well!

Working out:
I managed to go to the gym once but because my face has been a pressure pot I decided to back off a bit. Maybe tomorrow…

Misc:
Still going slowly but in the right direction. Cleaning the final 2 rooms in the house this week and then I should be able to spend some studio time. Hoping September will be a time for me to get to a bunch of personal projects I never had time for.

Also practicing my face movements by torturing Tanuki. She's a lover…

 Another very thoughtful gift landed this weekend. Super appreciated! So much toothy goodness!

 AND…My friend Tim, who lives in FL, sent me this tee he had made. He used to make all these funny stick figure doodles in high school that made me giggle, the new drawings are just as awesome! The tee is inspired by our online xbox play dates, we go in for the zombie, monster, horror co-op games. Now we have a 2-person team uniform. <3