Some "Befores" and "Nows"

The Profile:
 

From the front:

I am quite pleased with the results of the surgery.  Now I am just in the mode to retrain my muscles for what is the new normal.  I spent so many years with my muscles putting my jaw into one position and now they are having to learn a new position.  It’s like jaw boot camp.  Practice makes perfect, right?

 

The swelling is almost totally gone.  You can tell in the front shot that my face still has some swelling down towards the jaw line and in the neck.  Basically right now my face looks as if I am 10-15 pounds heavier (which is fine).  Funny thing is that I’ve lost about 6 pounds going to this liquid diet.  I haven’t continued to lose weight now that the swelling has decreased, my mouth is healing nicely, and the raw feeling and huge taste buds are subsiding.  So all in all I can eat “normal” foods again – just not chew.

People do keep asking me what I’m allowed to eat.  The answer to that is truly anything.  There aren’t any forbidden foods except the foods that are “no-no’s” because of braces.  I’m just not allowed to chew anything.  I can’t put anything between my teeth and gnash it.  Not for another 4 weeks anyway.  In 4 weeks, I’m going to eat a hamburger or something. 

So in an effort to break out of drinking all of my meals, I have upgraded to scrambled eggs, avocados, Sheppard's Pie, chili, vanilla wafers in milk, cottage cheese, cream of wheat cereal, oatmeal…  so soft things, but manageable things.  Things small children with no (or hardly any) teeth would or could eat.  That’s me…minus the baby food and formula/milk. 

I am planning on heading back to work on Tuesday.  I have to get a note from Dr. D tomorrow to get released to go back to work.  Plus someone once told me that you should never return to work from an absence (vacation or otherwise) on a Monday.  Sounds good to me!  Ha!  I’ll use the extra day to check a few more things off my random house project “to do” list. 

Friday was the first day that I had the itch to get back into the gym.  I was hanging around Friday morning and thought to myself “Man, I want to go to the gym!”  That was honestly the first time I had thought that since my surgery – so I must be feeling better!  I decided to hold off on reacting to that itch until sometime this week.  When I asked when I could be released to exercise – I was told that I could exercise whenever I felt ready and that one women who ran 5 miles/day was back to running after 2 weeks.  Since it hadn’t been quite two weeks yet – and I think that lady is more hardcore than I am – I decided to continue to park my behind on the sofa and chill.  Actually, I just ended up running errands and doing chores around the house…but that’s neither here nor there. 

I do have some more good smoothie recipes to share.  Those will be coming soon!