Day 9: All the Appointments

Some update pictures:

No sign of anymore bruising, just the yellow patch on my left cheek.

My surgeons visit was very fast, he just changed my bands and re-dressed my hip. I now have a triangle formation on each side:

He answered some of my questions as well. I can drive! Yay! My ear problems are normal. This morning it popped open again while I yawned which is good and it has continued to pop a few times today while I yawned. This evening it has gone back to being sensitive -.- hopefully it sorts itself soon.

I then had my first ortho appointment since surgery. Dr. P. seems really happy with my bite too! I asked him for some bands in-case my ones come off (I accidentally lost one last night). He also answered all of my annoying questions! I've been worried about numbness but he assured me it's not abnormal to not have much feeling back by this point. He also said he was impressed at how clean I've been keeping my teeth which I was SO happy about because I've been so worried about this. I'll talk a bit later about what my cleaning process is at the moment.

I couple of days after surgery i noticed two weird wire things poking out of my gums, one in the bottom and one in the top right in the middle. The top one is the one that is irritating me right now, but here is a photo of the bottom one:

Excuse the drool. Dr. P. explained that these are connected directly to my jaw/skull (they have a special name, skeletal keys or something), and that they will be used during orthodontics of need be to pull my top jaw down again if it relapses. I have already noticed my top jaw has relapsed since surgery, my front teeth were touching the brackets on my bottom teeth but now they sit a few mm above the brackets. Anyway, this sounds painful and I hope they don't have to do this haha. Having the things there is painful enough!

Here is a photo of the fantastic Dr. P. and I:

He has been so great! He explains everything he does and answers all of my questions happily, even the annoying ones... I'm so lucky to have had such an awesome orthodontist for my jaw surgery journey!

Cleaning:
In hospital my cleaning method was rinsing with Chlorhexidine mouthwash after eating, also known as Savacol. Once I got home I got a baby toothbrush and now I use that too. I brush with this twice a day, morning and night after breakfast and dinner, and this is after washing with the mouthwash (of which I got more bottles as part of my prescription). I should probably brush more than this but I find it annoying and also it irritates my mouth. I rinse out my mouth with the mouthwash after every time I eat, generally within the hour. Up until today I have been syringing the mouthwash in, but I found this afternoon I could just pour it in. I am getting better at swilling it around too.

To be honest, cleaning my teeth has been the worst part of the process this far! I hate it soooooo much. I actually put off eating sometimes because I don't want to have to clean my mouth haha it's so annoying! But I know I have to do it. And obviously it's paying off. It should be easier now I don't have to use a syringe.

Food:
Much the same as usual.... Trying to get the essential nutrients. I'm still taking loads of vitamins and things. Mum made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and blended up the meatballs and sauce for me to drink (didn't wanna risk the pasta clogging the bottle). WOW it was soooooo good. It did end up clogging the bottle so I put it in a glass and sucked it through a straw! Success!

Med:
Still no pain meds. I asked my surgeon today if this was okay and he said it's fine, if you don't need them then you don't need them. I did find it hard to get to sleep last night because my face had so many weird sensations but hopefully this passes. It's not painful, just damn uncomfortable. I took my last antibiotics last night, yay!

Numbness:
I had some feeling come back in the tip of my tongue last night! I'm so happy! Everything else seems much the same.

Sleeping:
Dr. W. said I could start lying flat again if I wanted to, so I might take a pillow or two out. I just don't want to roll over on to my side I guess. I'm managing to sleep through the night which is good, just last night I couldn't get to sleep for a while.

I am now completely syringe free! Yay!