Two Months down…

It has been 2 months since my face off adventure! Here is my 9 week time-lapse. It is really interesting to flip through all my photos; You can even see the moment where I got my splint out and my face puffed up again:

Slowly slowly…

Things are moving right along, I am mostly just frustrated I am not at 100% yet. I'm impatient. I have a ways to go but progress is being made. I have decided to not work more than 3 days a week. Getting back in the studio is important but i need time to relax as well. I am happy that I do work for myself going through this, but it is stressful not making steady income. If I worked for an office I wonder how the transition would be. Operating a sewing machine for the first month was definitely not happening.

Working out

Today I successfully completed a full 75min spin class! I cant do everything to the same degree but this time I stayed the whole time. I have also been cleared to get back on the treadmill. I have to go super slow, light jogging at the most. No bouncing around, no clenched jaws. My goal is to go from 2 gym days to 3. So, 1 full rest day, 3 work days, 3 workout days…they may not be the same days.

Eating & Feeling:

The feeling (or lack of) is still super annoying. My chin and lower lip are still very confused. While there appears to be an awakening, a stirring, it is pretty void. If i run my finger along my chin there is a delay. If I drink something cold it feels like there is cold liquid pouring down my face (but there isn't). If I put cold cream on my face it feels like there is cold liquid in my mouth (there isn't).  There is a constant coldness, hotness, spikiness, tightness. I hate washing my face or even touching my lip or chin.

The feeling on the roof of my mouth is also coming in. Currently it just feels like I burnt the roof of my mouth with hot cheese two days ago.

I also get random spasms. I will be sitting on the couch and my jaw will make a quick movement, quickly shut or quickly twitch open.

Here is my (still) current feeling chart vs earlier in recovery.

Eating is still a challenge. Even tho I am getting a normal amount of calories, about 1500, my body still holds on to everything. I think it is still "doomsday prepping". I also play "guess whats on my face"daily.

I feel like i was eating more variety on a liquid diet as well, which may or may not be true. I try to get lots of veggies but i have to cook everything down. I think the hardest thing I can manage is a kernel of cooked corn. I sadly could not eat croissants i bought last week…tragic. I keep trying different things but often land on pasta, arugula and  feta. I feel like i got sick of having the same meal a lot quicker when everything was liquid. Maybe it was texture based bias.

Teeth:
Ever since I got the bands adjusted to slightly larger I have not had any of the tooth / jaw pain. They still aren't quite right but i cant tell which ones have feeling just yet. I still hate the way my teeth touch properly. They do not all have feeling, really not comfortable in there.

I did have my first tooth nightmare. I dreamt that, even tho i had braces, my teeth were falling out. They were cracking and falling out of my mouth in pieces. I was running around in the middle of the night trying to find someone to put my teeth back together. It was kind of terrible…Maybe I was grinding my teeth in my sleep.

Visits:
I got a great, even tho short, visit from my good friend Dawn and hubby Ben. They had a long layover and it gave me a good excuse to take my first long drive. I also got to eat some ramen and buy a sweet bun. Oh, and work out those smile muscles :)