Friday, April 18, 2008

5th week post-op

Where's Megan? I still look at myself in the mirror and I don't recognize myself. I catch myself looking in the mirror alot in hopes that my old self will suddenly appear. Iam still taking pictures of myself as well, to see if there is any little hint of difference. People I haven't seen in a week or two say that some of the swelling has gone down. As for my husband and I, we don't see it. The other morning he greeted me with, "hello, swollen." Yup, I know. I posted some pics for this week. The picture doesn't do justice but if you look at the right side of my face in the pic it is more swollen. That is where the doctor cut into this week.

Clenching....does anybody else feel themselves clenching their jaw for no particular reason at all? I can be driving or watching tv and there I am clenching away. I don't even know why I am doing it and have to actually think of my bite to even know that I am doing it. Weird!

Food....same ole same ole. my diet still consists of smoothies, ice cream, soup, yogurt, and lots of starbucks! Man I am on a kick! I can't get enough of starbucks sugarfree mocha frapps. Yummy! I usually make some oatmeal in the am and grab one of those on the way to work. I think I am keeping them in business. I know where there is a Starbucks where ever I go. You name an area, I'll know where one is located. New foods...I ventured into having tuna,peas, and some really soft pasta. Even those things I have to work a little in mushing it up on the top of my mouth. It's funny...at first I really missed a big juicy burger. Now if someone is eating one, I just think if all the work my jaw would have to do to eat it and I am instantly turned off.

My splint...it comes out next week! It's really kinda weird. my splint felt like a part of me at first. Now I can tell it's ready to come out. At times it feels as though its seperating from the roof of my mouth. I guess that's a good thing. It means my bone is healed. So I am a little anxious for the removal. I keep falling asleep or not falling asleep, wondering how it is going to feel while he's trying to yank it out. My jaw is still hurting from earlier in the week when he was jabbing into my cheek to get the infection out. He has given me the option of putting in an IV to sedate me a little. I am still weighing that option. Last I talked to him, we had decided to just do a local and laughing gas. Is that going to relax me enough? I've never had it. Even when he was doing an I and D (incision & drainage) on my cheek, it made me nervous. The cutting, pushing and pulling...eeew! Will the laughing gas make me so I am not as aware of what he is doing? I mean come on! He has to take the thick wires that are on one side of my gum and unscrew them to take them out on the other side. Then there is the yanking! Ok it is a week away and I am freaked. It is probably all in my head.

3 comments:

ingrid said...

The swelling definitely suck. Its ao hard waking up everyday and not seeing any improvements. But just one more week in the splint for you! I'm sure the splint removal will be ok, especially after all that you've already gone through :)

Aimee said...

Hi! Thanks for commenting on my page. I haven't had a chance to read blogs for awhile. I see that you're a nurse ~ I am currently in my 9th week of nursing school and that is keeping me insanely busy!! Congratulations on your surgery! You look great. I can't wait to get mine done, especially now that I am starting to look deformed. It's getting hard to talk and eat. I can't wait to get some time to catch up on everyone's blog! Congrats!

ingrid said...

the only pre-surgery picture i have here is in one of my first posts, right before the surgery. i didn't think to take profile pictures before, i need to try to find one somewhere...
i can kind of talk, it is a bit hard to understand. my fiance has gotten really good at understanding me, but i still have repeat a lot of times. when i try to talk my jaw gets sore really quickly too.