Day 59: Bring on the Carbs

I have been seriously carb-loading this week. I don't know why I am craving them so much, but damn I have eaten a lot and they have been delicious. Bread, potatoes, oats, pretty much anything I can get my hands on. I don't tolerate these kinds of foods very well, I get very tired and moody, but they are good for exercising your jaw muscles so that's my excuse. I have gained back about 2kg from my total weightloss from surgery of about 5kg (Damn you double-chin!).

You really can't afford to be a fussy eater when recovering from jaw surgery.

Anyway, here are some photos:

And a candid one:

My lips are crooked at the moment. I wonder if this is from him rotating my jaw or something (I'm still not entirely sure what he did with my jaws during surgery), I hope it goes away but no big deal of it doesn't. My face is naturally quite asymmetric anyway. My smile is crooked too, I wonder if this is because of the crooked lips or if they're both related to muscle movement... who knows. Whatever. I'm so happy with my profile!!!

The last photo I look a bit weird, I guess I'm still getting used to my new face.

Numbness and Swelling: Swelling is pretty much non-existent. I don't feel so bruised around my jawline anymore too, it's probably about 90%-95% gone. I'm almost comfortable resting on it, and sleeping is completely back to normal. Numbness hasn't changed much from last week, I am still completely numb on my chin and upper gums. I have partial feeling in my bottom lip, the outsides of my chin, and my bottom gums I think. My tongue is still partially numb too, but I'm getting used to it. My speech and eating is a whole load better.

I was researching the other day and I think it may take up to a year for my upper gums to regain feeling, if at all. This area underwent probably the most trauma, so it's not surprising really. It makes eating difficult though as I don't feel pressure biting into things, and you really don't realise how much you rely on this sensation until it's gone.

Motion: I am able to move my muscles more and more each day, to be honest to other people it probably doesn't look like I have limited movement even though I can feel it myself. It's only very minor, mainly in my bottom lip and chin, and it's getting better every day. I can open almost 3 finger widths now! I'm trying to stretch when I take off my bands.

Eating: This improves surprisingly fast. The motion almost feels natural now, though sometimes I do have to think about it. I can eat most things as long as it's not too hard or crunchy. I'm trying to start biting into soft things with my front teeth now, but like I mentioned before it's quite hard when you have no 'sensation' in your top teeth. No burgers for me yet!

Pain: I have had pretty much no pain for weeks now. Every so often I'll get a sharp pain in an area, or some kind of ache, generally in the chin or bottom jaw area, but it really doesn't bother me and it goes away in a few seconds. I don't get sore muscles so maybe I'm not talking enough!

I'm starting to get more definition in my face, you can kind of see my cheekbones now! And the hollow I used to have in my cheeks has appeared again:

I guess it depends on the light haha :-)

As things are slowing down I might not post again until the three month mark. Hopefully I have some significant changes by that point!