Week 2

      Today I had my 2 week appointment and I was honestly pretty excited about it. At this point I am healed up enough to be taking things a week at a time. (The first week I was just focused on taking things an hour or two at a time… it’s the only way to get through all of this and keep my sanity). Having these weekly appointments kind of serves as my weekly time frame. I just count down the days until my next appointment. It also helps to look forward to the different things that I get to start doing each week.

      This week I was particularly excited because I got to take my rubber bands off for the first time and brush my teeth! Let me tell you, going two weeks without brushing your teeth is really disgusting. For the rest of my life I am going to have the cleanest teeth… Dr. Gunson also checked my incisions and cleared me for a blended diet! Now I won’t starve… as much. I was also cleared to start sleeping lying flat on my back! Thank the Lord now I might get a good night’s sleep! Having to basically sit up (at a 45 degree angle) to sleep is so uncomfortable. I am not a back sleeper, I prefer my side or stomach, but I am so excited to sleep on my back now!

      Now for the not so great part of the appointment…

I was expecting the appointment to be at least a little painful considering my mouth still has a bunch of stitches in it, and going anywhere near my rubber bands means pulling on the stitches. I was also anticipating having my cheek implant molded a little bit as well. Holy crap it was all so much more painful than I was expecting…

      When Dr. Gunson was trying to take the rubber bands off of my braces, and check my incisions I started bleeding a bunch. They said it was because my gums are sensitive from not being brushed for two weeks, but I think it was also partially because to look at the back of my mouth you have to pull on my stitches. Anyone who has had stitches knows that it hurts when they get yanked on. He got the bands off quickly though which was nice. After that I got to do some jaw exercises where I slowly opened my mouth as wide as I could, and then slowly closed back down. I couldn't open my mouth at all! Maybe half an inch was all. The muscles are just very tight from being held together for two weeks. I did the opening and closing exercise for about 10 minutes and then I got to brush my teeth. Yay! I didn't get to do a very good job, just because it is so new and kind of scary. The tooth brush hits my stitches, and I have to lift my lips up with my hand to make room for the tooth brush. I don’t have the mobility in my lips to move them out of the way yet. I also couldn't open my mouth wide enough to get the tooth brush in to brush the tops or back of my teeth. Eventually I’ll be able to.

      After brushing my teeth Dr. Gunson checked on my incisions to see if they were closed. And they were. I did start bleeding quite a bit though. After that he tried to check on the hooks that poke out of my gums on the top and bottom. The lower hook was no problem, it is in good shape. The upper hook however was a pain (literally) to access. It had kind of disappeared into my gum tissue and my upper lip so it had to be dug out. To do that my upper lip had to be lifted up, which of course pulled on my stitch a lot. It started pulling it out actually. The whole thing started to hurt a lot, so the doctor put some numbing medication on the area. By the time he was done I was sweaty and shaking because of the pain.

      Right after that Dr. Gunson made some adjustments to my cheek implant. I had to stop him part way through though because it hurt too badly so I was getting very light headed and nauseous  To do the adjustments he had me stand up and he held my head with both hands. He used his thumbs to feel the differences in my cheeks and then he literally adjusted the implant by molding it with his thumb. I could hear it crunch a little and I could feel it moving. It not only felt really weird, but it hurt so badly. Apparently the feeling in my face is coming back faster than normal, so that didn't help at all. About five or so pushes in I had to have him stop, so I get to go back Friday to have him finish. I’m really not looking forward to it. I’ll probably take a little pain medication before the appointment. That should help.

Once I got “calmed down” from the pain I practiced changing my rubber bands, (I have to change them 2-3 times a day and do the jaw exercises). This was kind of tricky just because my lip got in the way, but I got the hang of it after a few minutes. Then I had my post op cone beam scan done at the end of the appointment.

      When my assistant saw how much pain I was in after the appointment she called a refill of my pain medication into the pharmacy so I rushed over there after the appointment. Two pills and about 45 minutes later I was feeling much better.

      Hopefully the three week appointment won’t be such an ordeal… I’m still not looking forward to Friday. 

This is as far as I can open my mouth. The muscles are so tight.