Eight Months: The Grind

I am still alive! So the thing about continuing to heal is you start actually living life as normal. It has been 8 months since my surgery and I still have a bit left before getting back to being totally normal.

The Feels:

March 2016

VS

December 2015

 Okay, nerves are kind of jerks. So slow to heal…. but thankfully I can look back and see how the progress has been…progressing. When you live with something day to day its hard to reflect or see any changes. I still have hyper active bits - green - these bits still go through the gambit of feeling and are very sensitive to touch, temperature, ect. The little blue dot is the "meh" zone. If i touch this spot i feel it a little bit but it doesnt bother me… its not a big deal. This spot was off and on numb for ages. It has been upgraded to a code: meh. Also, if you cant tell from the photos, I can wear make-up again without it feeling super odd.

Being Human:

Not only have I been trying to phase some
make-up back into my life but I finally got my hair cut and dyed. It took a long time to human again.

Since I feel like Ive grown into my new face, having the bones settle down / start knitting together, I had my husband help me get some artist head shots done (It has been almost 5 years). Really it is the first set of portraits ever taken that I actually like. Its hard to explain but I feel like I now have all my bones are in the right place.

I have also pretty much regained all face making skills. Oh, I can also almost whistle again too! I do still have trouble with talking. The letters "E", "F", "S", "V" & "Z" are still setting off crazy flares in my skin and teeth. Also words like "Bouillon", "Tactical", & "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" are pretty tricky too. Im just learning how to move my face again, thats all. Just severed nerves and sad muscles…pfft, nothing.

I am back to the full time work and work out game. My face still can be distracting but I have too many exhibits to prepare for… so I am hoping the exhibits will now be the distraction from the nerve-crazies.

Except now I also have a ganglion cyst in my hand from working so much but thats just another can of worms…

Food:

Oh, food… I miss all of you. Yesterday I was actually able to unhinge my jaw enough to eat a large fancy sushi roll!! I have also had a sandwich last month!! It was a smaller sandwich but it counts. Cant eat a sub yet, my teeth still have a lot of patches of numbness so its weird to eat complicated food. I did try almonds recently…I can bite through them but one at a time and super slowly. Progress!

The Grind:

So today I took a trip to Dr. Nealis to get my teeth shaved down. Shaved down like a domestic rodent. Since my teeth were worn unevenly pre-surgery I need to get everything levelled out.

I cant think of a better way to find out that you have over active and super sensitive saliva glands than to make it almost impossible to get this procedure finished. I was there for about an hour struggling to get this done. To mark the teeth, to shave the appropriate spots, the teeth need to be super dry. womp womp. So I got 1/3 of this done… I have to take a pill to dry my mouth out for a few hours to finish this up. SO WEIRD! My teeth also now feel crazy because full / different sections touch. The photo above is the last section that needs to get adjusted.

Well… I will get this done in a month or so. I still have my essex retainers, I have been wearing them as often as I haven't. Soooooo Ive been bad…. but i wear them every night.

When I work i tend to push my tongue to the back of my teeth and I get crazy tooth sensitivity. I think Ive discovered my stress tick…. I have resigned myself to wear these retainers when I have long work days / tight deadlines so I dont mess up these chompers.