Day 84: 12 Weeks!!!!!!!!!!

WOAH time has gone fast! Less than a week and I will be three months/90 days post-op! This seems to be the point at which you can consider yourself 100% medically healed, though some factors like nerve regeneration and getting full range of motion back may take a bit longer.

Here are some photos of a sandwich I managed to bite ALL THE WAY THROUGH:

Oh man, life is good.

I am absolutely 100% happy with my decision to go through with double jaw surgery, it has definitely been worth it. Being able to eat properly is amazing.

Here are some update photos:

Loving the big goofy smile!

I am enjoying having most of my range of motion back, as you can probably tell from the following ridiculous photo grid:

This is what I am doing instead of studying. Sigh.

I measured my mouth opening today and I can get to 4.5cm! Before surgery I could open about 5.5cm so I'm pretty happy with this!

I haven't talked about my hip for a while:

The scar is definitely less raised now, it's almost flat. I still have some muscle soreness occasionally but it's not bad enough to stop me from doing things. I have been running again and it's fine.

I have my next surgeons appointment in 4 days, and then its 9 days until my braces get adjusted!!!! Never thought i'd be looking forward to that haha.

Until next time,

Kelsie

Day 80: (Not so) Ironwoman

Earlier in the week I had a blood test done that was requested by my normal doctor.

Some background info:
I have always had low iron (ferritin) levels and I take iron supplements sporadically to boost my levels. My levels have always been at the very lower end of the normal spectrum, not quite low enough to be classified as anaemia. The healthy range is 18-160ng/mL blood and the last time I had a blood test (about October last year) my levels were at 23ng/mL. I ended up having an iron IV where they inject an iron solution straight into your blood stream, and this increased my level to 60ng/mL. I have taken iron tablets pretty much consistently since then.

I couldn't take the tablets after surgery for about 6 weeks due to numbness in my mouth, I couldn't tell whether I had actually swallowed the tablet or not. Anyway I have been taking them religiously since about this point and I figured I would get back to normal soon (hoping my levels didn't drop too much over the 6 weeks).

ANYWAY..... cue call from my doctors receptionist today when she informs me my levels have dropped to 6ng/mL!!! WHAT!

My doctor wants me to get an iron IV again but I simply can't afford it at the moment (it's quite pricey!) so I am getting them to write me a prescription for some heavy duty iron tablets. Hopefully these manage to boost my levels!

I think the reason they are so low is because I wasn't able to eat any food that had iron in it for a good few weeks after surgery, and I obviously haven't been eating enough since then! I am going to work on getting more red meat and other iron-rich food into my diet. Hopefully this combined with the tablets boosts my iron levels.

Beware of dietary deficiencies when recovering from surgery!