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! 

Read more...

One Week Out

Let’s just show some pictures here first… 


Super Bowl Sunday – around half time

I was trying to get a good shot of the sexy green bruise on my neck. 
 

This was one week out from surgery.  Feelin’ good!

That thing that looks like a shadow on my neck is some bruising.  It doesn’t hurt, it just looks ugly.  Yesterday was the first day that I just felt really, really good.  I had energy and was laughing and joking at the doctor’s office.  It felt so good to feel like I was getting back to normal again. 

My biggest complaint yesterday was that the rubber bands were just digging into my cheeks from the swelling and it was painful – so it’s like a Catch-22 because the pain was causing it to swell more.  The other biggest complaint was that the inside of my mouth was just so.raw.  As in it felt like I ate an entire pineapple in one sitting raw.  I stuck to creamy, easy, bland food yesterday.  I did take a sip of wine that The Mr. was bottling and it burned like hot alcohol or mouth rinse.  I am also keeping wax on the spots that are problem areas to help out also.  Getting the swelling down will help me keep things clean easier plus keep all of this stuff in my mouth from digging in. 

My appointment with Dr. D went really well yesterday.  He adjusted the rubber bands to get them out of my cheeks.  It puts them more towards the front – so it limits my bite and being able to get forks & spoons into my mouth…but hey, if it means that my cheeks are getting a break, I don’t care if it takes me 30 minutes to eat a plate of eggs.   He said that the swelling looks great and my muscles are calming down and allowing my jaw to come into alignment where it’s supposed to be.  I got a homework assignment to stand in front of the mirror and work on my bite.  I have to retrain the muscles for what is correct and normal. 

The Mr.’s new running joke is coming home and asking me what I did that day.  Whomp, whomp!  He’s funny.  I should make him leave me a list of things he wants me to finish that day before he goes to work…  Actually, now that I think about it – he did leave me a list and I did everything except for one (the taxes).  I did those this morning plus a bunch of other things on my “to do” list… I’ve kept the list so I can tell him everything I did today…  which really isn’t A LOT because I’m trying to hold myself back so I can make sure I get better quickly. 

Read more...

Day 4

My face looks a little bit smaller today.  I wasn’t so convinced just looking in the mirror but after comparing my photo from yesterday and the right photo from today, I think it does look better.  I decided to take a photo with a smile, too, so people don’t think that I am just miserable and hating life. 



My right cheek looks puffier than the left – but I think the left cheek is all swollen inside my mouth and between my teeth.  It kind of sucks, really.  The corners of my mouth are cracked so I just keep them coated with chaps stick.  It helps some but I’d like for it to go away.

Most of the day was uneventful.  I worked on my puzzle quite a bit and watched some TV.  I had a smoothie for breakfast (strawberry-blueberry…it was pretty good) and another for lunch – the Skinny Green Monster – from Skinny Taste.  I’m only linking you to it – I’m not even going to post the recipe.  In my opinion, it was “meh” at best.  The first glass was…well, fine.  The second glass, I had to choke half of it down and then I just couldn’t do anymore.  I think it was the slightly bitter after taste from the spinach that was getting me.  Maybe if I had added an apple to it or something – but it just wasn’t cutting it for me.  Especially not when I was hungry and my husband was eating boudain.  Lame. 

We did go out on an adventure today.  We went to the library (I got asked to leave because I had a drink and no food or drink are allowed apparently?) – whatever. I just say in the lobby.  I was tired anyway.  Then we went to the grocery store and found some other food for me to eat that was a little different than what I had been eating.  With all of the Super Bowl Parties and shows and food clips on TV, I had been craving some meat or chili or salsa.  We picked up some avocados and a few more cans of soup. 

It was a nice pick-me-up to make guaco-salsa that I can eat for part of my dinner tonight (1 avocado, some diced tomato, onion powder, salt, pepper and cilantro).  Oh my wow – it was so good!  Then I had some French Onion soup with cheese on top – delicious!  So I am branching out and finding ways to satisfy my cravings. 

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day.  A friend of ours from work and his wife are going to stop by tomorrow after church.  They said they are going to bring bagels for everyone but gobstoppers for me. Ha!  Actually, I think I’m getting a smoothie…  We also need to make our weekly trip to Costco – hopefully I am up for it.  Then later on one of our neighbors is having a Super Bowl get together. I will have to eat up before I go and then maybe take something with me to eat while I’m there.  People will be chowing down on things like wings and such.  Hopefully I’ll be able to make it to all of these things tomorrow without being totally wiped out.  I have Monday to recover, right? 

Read more...

What One Eats When They Can’t Chew.

Part 1 of many, I am sure…

A question on so many people’s minds, right?  Right.  And I make a promise to you that it’s more than just smoothies and ice cream.  I can hardly get a spoon in my mouth – plus ice cream with chunks would also prove to be difficult since I’d want to munch them up!

I found an insert in one of my old Real Simple magazines (dated Feb. 2011).  It was 10 Ideas for Smoothies.  How appropriate!

Banana-Cashew Smoothie
from Real Simple


Recipe:
1/2 cup water and 1/4 cup raw unsalted cashews in a blender.  Cover & refrigerate until cashews have softened, at least 6 hours (we did overnight)
Add 1 cup ice, 1/2 banana, 1 tbsp maple syrup.  Blend until smooth.

Nutrition: 301 calories, 16g fat, 6g protein, 38g carbs, 21g sugar, 3g fiber

This one was good.  Very good, in fact.  It does take some forethought though since you have to soak the cashews for 6 hours (or overnight).  It would be a little high on calories, sugar and fat for someone who were to be dieting.  Since I’m interested in higher calorie and high protein items – this fit the bill for me.  Maybe I’ll get a photo next time it gets blended up – but for now, this is the one off of the Real Simple webpage.  Accurate depiction.

Raspberry and Nut Smoothie

from Real Simple
 

Recipe:
3/4 cup low-fat milk, 3/4 cup frozen raspberries, 1/2 banana, 1 tbsp almond or peanut butter, 1 tbsp agave nectar or honey
Blend until smooth!

Nutrition: 355 calories, 14g fat, 10g protein, 53g carbs, 40g sugar, 7g fiber

This recipe was also great.  It says it serves one person – but we also use a whole banana (instead of a half, in both) so for us it really makes like 1.5 servings.  Neither the raspberry or the peanut butter really jump out and claim the stage – it’s a nice blend of them both. 

This recipe and the previous recipe are so high in calories and fat because of the fresh nuts that are added in. Again, maybe not the best for someone on a strict calorie count – but great for someone who is trying to maintain their weight with a strong workout routine or gain weight even. 

Avocado Smoothie

from All Recipes

 

Recipe: (2 servings)

1 ripe avocado, halved and pitted,

1 cup milk,

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt,

3 tbsp honey,

8 ice cubes.  Blend until smooth.

Nutrition: 370 calories, 18g fat, 9g protein, 7g fiber

I know what you’re thinking…avocado smoothie?  Gross!  But it’s so NOT gross – it was very good!  The texture was very light – reminds me of key lime pie or instant pistachio pudding. Yum!  I’ll definitely make this one again. 

I don’t think my calories were as high as what are posted on All Recipes.  I used fat free milk and Greek yogurt…so it may have been more like 300 calories instead of 370 – but neither here nor there.

More to come…I am having some fun keeping my diet interesting.

Read more...

Day 2: Post Surgery

I didn’t take a picture today.  I could take one now but it may as well apply to “Day 3: Post Surgery” at this point, right?

Nothing new to note today.  My jaw doesn’t ache like it did a yesterday or this morning – so that’s a positive.  The pressure in my face and neck is really what’s getting to me.  My mouth is so swollen that the braces and rubber bands are digging into my lips.  Apparently most people are still numb at this point.  For me, the left side of my face started waking up shortly after surgery.  Today was full of the “pins and needles” on the left side of the face.  My right side of the face looks like a victim of some sort of abuse.  It’s rough. 

I felt pretty crummy this morning – but I think that was in part of still getting all of the hospital drugs out of my system and my body trying to overcome that hump.  The day passed by just fine.  The Mr. and I hung out some this morning at watched some TV.  He ran to Wal-Mart pretty early looking for a few things to make me more comfortable (like something better for me to take my antibiotic and some more ice packs).  I sat downstairs some while he watched a movie.  I tried to watch the movie but my body wanted a nap – so I napped instead. 

The weather outside was beautiful – so I sat outside for about an hour and a half or so.  Who’s ever heard of the temperature at the beginning of February having a high of 73?  The groundhog apparently decided we’re going to have 6 more weeks of winter.  Do you think that means we are going to now have 6 weeks of winter?  Or will it be more of the same?  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!  Six weeks from now I’ll be able to chew again – so that’s just a hop, skip and a jump away! 

Food today went okay.  Breakfast was Muscle Milk and Orange Almond Smoothie.  Lunch was some apple juice and a bowl of Chicken Tortilla Soup (blended up quite nicely).  I had some juice and coffee in the afternoon.  Then for dinner I had a Raspberry-Nut Smoothie.  All were very good.  I’ll have to blog the recipes for these when I feel a little more up to that kind of a task.

Frankie D came for a visit after work today.  It was good to see him.  He brought me some things to occupy my time – like a couple of puzzles and the old classic book “Men are from Mars, Woman are from Venus”.  It wasn’t until that book was sitting on my coffee table that I realized that it was written by a man… what’s a man know about a woman anyway?  :-) 

Cleaning out my mouth is tiring in and of itself – but I always feel so much better after I have cleaned it!  My lips are chapped like crazy but thankfully I can’t feel it.  If I could, I can’t imagine how bad it would hurt with all this skin just schleffing off of them. 

I think that’s a pretty good recap of my super-duper exciting day.  Tomorrow I have an appointment with Dr. D.  We’ll see what he has to say about how I’m coming along.  He’ll probably call me sweety a few times and tell me it all looks good.  Then I’ll ask him why he did such a number on the right side of my face…  we discussed my bite not being aligned exactly right yet – so maybe we’ll work on that tomorrow or Monday as well.

Onward and upward!

…for the record, I can’t imagine being in some kind of accident and then waking up like this with my jaw wired shut.  It’s mentally taxing enough to do it all with a year’s notice – but to get slammed in the face and bam – you’re on a liquid diet and miserable?  That would blow. 

Read more...

Day 1: Post Surgery

As I left off of the last post – my night in the hospital was less than ideal.  Being woken up several times, sore throat from the tube, no ice water, blah blah blah.  I was updating Facebook, reading emails and such in the middle of the night.   I think I ended up playing Words with Friends against my dad at 5am because I had given up on sleeping.  I stopped asking for help to go to the restroom – I would just unplug my monitor and move on.  I ended up just buying my time until The Mr. or Dr. D showed up. 

The Mr. got to the hospital around 6:30am and Dr. D got there around 7am.  I got a good check up from the Doc.

Sean, Jim, and Richard showed up around 8am. It was good to see them and very nice for them to stop by.  Everyone said I looked pretty good.  I guess I did – The Mr. helped me brush my hair, brush my teeth and wash my face before people showed up.  Frankie D showed up shortly after Sean, Jim and Richard left.  I enjoyed my breakfast of Muscle Milk and then some hospital food – chicken broth, bad coffee, and some more cherry jello.  We waited around for a few hours and watched the Today show.  I finally got my discharge paperwork around noon, while enjoying some more Muscle Milk.  The lady said it would take 10-15 minutes or more for someone to come get me.  No sooner did I have my clothes on and using the restroom was there someone there to pick me up in a wheel chair.  That was the speediest service all day!


This was early in the morning – obviously still at the hospital.


Later in the afternoon/evening.  Still puffy.  Oh so hot, right?

I look a bit better without the ice on since it’s not adding 5 lb to my face. 

I rested for most of the afternoon in the bed.  Had a smoothie for the rest of my lunch and some banana pudding a little later one.  You can see my coconut water in the background of the pictures too.  Sometimes I just want water but I know I have to have something with some calories in it so I don’t wither away.  I had a nice bath and felt like a million dollars afterwards. 

I watched some TV and dozed off.  People called and texted and such to check on me.  It was all very nice and appreciated.  I am doing well and still feeling good overall.  It’s pretty difficult to eat – I get food all over my lips and such because I can’t feel them all the way (just partially).  Eating is a lot of work and makes me tired.  Dinner was some portabello mushroom bisque from Campbell’s – all blended up in the blender.  It was pretty delicious and something that I will have to have again once I can chew up those delicious little mushrooms.  Yum!

Read more...

Surgery Day

I didn’t take any photos of myself when I got to the hospital yesterday. I am pretty sure I looked a lot like I did on January 29 – except I don’t think my hair looked quite as styled. 

 

I went back into the holding cell right around 8:30am and got changed into my awesome hospital gown that could be hooked up to like a vacuum cleaner attachment and you can control the temperature of the inside of your gown.  It was bizarre.  I opted for warm blankets, thank you very much. 

I asked Dr. D if I was going to get double D’s – he said that they wouldn’t got below the clavicle.  Fine.  I got hooked up to the IVs, talked to the anesthesiologist, you know – the normal stuff.  I don’t remember getting wheeled back into the OR or getting out of the OR.  Apparently I was in Recovery for ~1 hour before I started to even wake up…and even then my eyesight was really, really blurry. 

The Mr. got hourly updates from the OR but apparently the surgery didn’t take nearly as long as the surgeon's expected.  They also felt like it went very well and was exactly what they expected. 

I had to stay in Recovery for another half hour to get my pain managed – I think I told them I was a 5 our of 10 when I woke up.  Most of my pain felt like it was in the jaw socket.  Everything else felt like some pressure but it was mostly really tight in the socket.  It was easily managed with the Percocet that the hospital provided.  While I laid there, I got pretty hot – like sweaty hot.  I was feeling nauseous and light headed so they took one set of blankets off of me.  I couldn’t get to my room and into a lighter weight gown fast enough.  I felt so much better after I got changed as you can see below. 



Two thumbs up – I was feeling pretty okay at this point.  Check out the hot hair!   I was mostly happy to see familiar faces and get awake, have something to drink, and maybe take a nap.  I got back into the room at 2pm. 

Since I didn’t get back to my room until after lunch was brought around, I had to ask for something to eat around 4pm.  I don’t think I even could feel how starving I really was.  I had to stop eating at midnight the night before and I had my last meal at 8:30pm or so.  The chicken broth that was brought to me was seriously the best tasting broth I’ve ever had.  Dinner was brought around a little later.  They were so kind to provide me with a popsicle that I couldn’t even fit into my mouth.  I think I consumed something ridiculous like ~300-500 calories that day.  That was not good.  I think that’s in part where some of my nausea came from.

Dr. D stopped by my room around 8 or 9pm.  I was fading in and out when he came by because I was tired.  He said I looked good and went over some basics with me.  All was good and The Mr. headed home for the night. 

That one night in the hospital was seriously the longest night ever.  I was so aggravated that night at midnight I was posting statuses to facebook.  I was actually sound asleep when I got woken up at midnight.  Seriously, all I wanted was a glass of water.  Then I was awake and needed pain meds at 1:30.  Awake again at 2:30. Awake again at 3:30. Awake again at 4:30, then 5, then 6… I hope that tonight is better but I’m not holding out a lot of hope or anything. The only difference is that I don’t have someone on the other end of a button to come to my beck and call. 

Read more...

Pre-Op Photos

Part of me can’t believe that I am about to post these pictures on the world wide web – but I had told myself I would have full disclosure here for anyone this would help (even if that’s some of my relatives or children or friends of friends or total strangers).

 

First photo is a normal photo of me.  I took these photos on January 29 – two days prior to surgery.  This is where my jaw was “trained” to sit – so the bite and my face look pretty normal. 
 

 

 

This is a photo of my actual bite – with my lower jaw set into the socket of my upper jaw.  It’s difficult to smile in a position like this only because it’s not what I’m used to.  You can tell a definite difference in my chin in this picture.  It’s set back in my face. 


This photo is the real story teller.  You can see the lack of chin and how my front teeth sat on my bottom lip to push it out. 

Read more...

Robbed the jewelry store...

 

 

…and told them to make me a grill!  If you thought my last grill was sweet – this grill is sah-weet! 

Actually, it’s essentially the same grill – just with some new hardware. 

I got the surgical hooks put on my wires today.  Look how excited I am…  The hooks really aren’t too bad.  They feel cumbersome in my mouth and the bottom row is rubbing the inside of my lip – but that is to be expected.  It took a little while to get them in because they had to place them individually, then put the wire in and look at it…take it out, and then wash, rinse, repeat.

I know the hooks aren’t so obvious to most people – but I feel like they are screaming “look at me!!” 

I was told that these come off as soon as the oral surgeon releases me back to the orthodontist to finish his work.  That’s about the 6 week mark when the surgeon (hopefully) gives me a clean bill of health.  That’s also the day that I get told that I can eat things like hamburgers and steaks and pork chops and anything that requires chewing again.  Yay!

 

Read more...

The Grill

I started this post about 4 months ago.  Now that I've typed this, I can't believe it's been 4 months.  Time flies when you're having fun - right?!  ....right.

I got a new grill.  Check it out.

Hotness, right?  Total hotness.

I've been told on several occasions that I look younger.

I'm not sure if that means I look like a baby or if I looked "old" without them.  Whatevs.

You might be wondering why I have braces (again) because I had them for seven years when I was younger.  I could break out in hives thinking about it.  This whole road began when I asked for some Invisiline to fix my bottom teeth that were shifting...and then it went from that to meeting with an oral surgeon.  Crap.

So long story short, I have braces to realign my teeth and then I will have jaw surgery to fix my overbite.  It will be total hotness once I get my teeth & overbite fixed.  The timeline I was given was surgery 12-15 months after beginning braces.  I've been in braces for 4 months - so that puts us at 8-11 months.  My schedule is 8 months at the latest. I have my third appointment next Monday... I will be making sure that my orthodontist and I are on the same schedule.  I think my schedule is more aggressive than his... 

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous... 

And if I can get my act together, maybe I'll blog about it along the way. 

Read more...