Day 51 - Something Interesting to Say

That is to say, I actually have something interesting to say. For the last few weeks, it has been much of the same droning on about sensation and swelling and speaking. Well, today, I bring you something entirely different. When I went to see my surgeon and orthodontist last week, the verdict was the same as it had been at my previous appointment - the pain/discomfort is not from infection, but rather from muscle tension. It has escalated to the point where my face is obviously strained and I am really, really uncomfortable. I was advised to do any of the physio exercises I remember and make myself an appointment to see the physiotherapist, stat. I was, as I mentioned, advised by my surgeon to leave my elastics off for about an hour each time I take them off to eat and my orthodontist took that one step further by putting lighter-tension elastics on (from 6oz to 4oz....huge difference). My appointment with the physiotherapist is on Tuesday. I honestly can't wait to get this process started because the discomfort is really detracting from the progress I've been making since the surgery itself. I have been feeling pretty crappy physically and about how I look and about the functionality of my jaw, so really, I haven't had a lot to feel good about over the last couple of weeks with regard to my recovery. Add to this the daily comments on my weight (deserving of its own blog post, trust me) and well, you get the picture :( So I just wanted to make sure I blogged about this because this was not a side effect I was expecting. The docs say that it is as a result of having my jaw held so tightly together with the elastics, combined with the fact that I have been pretty vigilant about keeping my mouth shut (as per their instruction, but apparently, I've followed the rules a little too closely). I also suspect that the fact that it is *my* jaw also has something to do with it. The very first thing we did when I started with my orthodontist was put me in a splint to reprogram my jaw muscles because they were badly programmed due to my messed up bone structure. Well, I haven't had my splint since I got my braces on and I've noticed a gradual return of the pain and difficulty I had before the splint, so I suspect that my jaw muscles have returned to or discovered new bad patterns of use, meaning that when they fixed my bone structure, my muscles were left out in the cold as to what they were supposed to do. I suspect that this will be an ongoing issue and may stick my nose in where it doesn't belong and ask my orthodontist for a splint instead of a top retainer when the time comes.