Day 13: Cheek Ripping

Pain: 1

Nausea: None.

Swelling: Almost completely gone. I still have a mild “double chin” look, but my face no longer resembles the jowly face of Alfred Hitchcock. 

Numbness: My lips and chin are in a constant state of burning turmoil these days, which is, of course, a great sign of nerve health and healing. Sometimes, though, the burning/itching/tingling makes me want to pull my hair out. Going insane is a small price to pay for getting out of chronic pain though, right???

Today I had my second follow-up with Dr. D’Addario. The minute I walked into the office, everyone on the staff started telling me how great I look. I felt like I was on the red carpet, sans paparazzi and screaming teenage girls. Dr. D was very pleased with my progress, and said I look great and he won’t need to see me again for a whole MONTH! Woohoo!

It’s all really amazing, actually. Here I am, not quite two weeks post-surgery, and I’m eating fairly normally (remember my pre-surgery diet was all soft foods anyway); my face is no longer gargantuan; my pain is almost non-existent, and when I do feel pain, I can manage it easily; and I am rapidly getting feeling back in my gums, lip, chin and cheeks. Aside from still needing a mid-day nap and feeling a bit weak, I’m doing incredibly well.

Speaking of getting feeling back in my cheeks… This morning I woke up and realized that my right cheek had hooked itself onto my surgical brackets on my back molars. I couldn’t reach the area with my fingers to dislodge the tissue, so I had to resort to puffing out my cheeks like Dizzy Gillespie….which rips my cheek free of the brackets more than unhooking it.

The good news? I could feel it!

The bad news? I could feel it.

But, I’ve been in braces for over a year now, so I’m fairly used to this kind of pain. All in all, I was pleased that I could feel the cheek ripping. Who knows how long my cheek had been attached to my braces, though. *shudder*

Having our friends in town has really been good for me, too. I am much more motivated to get out of bed and play with Noah, so my body has really been adjusting to life at a higher energy level. Don’t get me wrong–naps are still my favorite past-time, but I’m doing much better.

My one complaint about this whole recovery process is actually not related to my jaw at all. The anti-nausea patches I’ve had to wear (which work wonders) have caused a strange side effect. They’ve made my vision very blurry, especially my up-close vision. I’m near sighted normally, (that’s the one where you can see close things clearly, right?), so to have my close vision blurred has caused me a lot of dizziness. It’s also prevented me from reading anything! I’m so sad! I had a whole pile of books I was eager to read during recovery, but I simply can’t do it. (Wearing my glasses makes everything worse, even.) I can work on the computer a bit because I can adjust font size and keep it a bit farther away, but it’s still hard. So… yeah. Frustrating and totally unexpected. But I’ll deal. 🙂

Well, I think it’s time to enjoy some sunshine today before it gets cold again. Off to the park with Noah-bean!