Good Evening and Welcome Back to My New Face!

It has been a looooooong time since my last post, but that is mostly because I haven't had a whole lot to say. Changes and recovery of sensation have been subtle and slow. My ortho visits are 6 weeks apart, meaning that changes to my bite/teeth are few and far between. All that said, I really wanted to do a six months out from surgery post, so here it is and, thankfully, I do have some things to report. Let's start with the positive. The sensation is 95% returned to normal in my chin. There are a few oddities, like the fact that the pins holding my new chin in place channel cold faster than the rest of my face, so I feel two little pillars of cold from the bottom of my jaw line to just below my bottom lip every time I drink something cold, eat ice cream or even breathe cold air outside. Overall though, it feels mostly normal. Also on the good side of the coin is the fact that all of the muscle tension I was experiencing is entirely gone - from my face, neck, shoulders, everywhere. I am so incredibly thankful for this because it was torturous. I plastered on a smile most of the time, but I was in agony :( I love how straight and tidy my teeth are; I love the fact that I can chew better than I could (though I don't have the strength to chew well yet, but I will address that in the next section). The not-so-good side of things is made up mostly of pain. I experience a lot of pain in the left side of my jaw. I can't yawn, chew anything tougher than el dante noodles or take a bit larger than a medium size piece of broccoli without a fair bit of pain. My jaw is pretty much constantly achy now. I am not entirely convinced that this is an improvement functionally over what I had going on prior to surgery. When I brought this up with my orthodontist, his only solution was sending me to see the surgeon again to "see if there is anything he could do." Given that I am not interested in more surgery, that didn't really make sense to me, so I didn't bother. I have also begun having migraines. They may or may not be related to the realignment of my bite, but if they are, I am not really seeing how this is an improvement over the headaches I was having. Finally, my appearance. The jury is still out. If you look only at my face from the nose down, the change is fantastic. However, the trickle-down (or up, in this case) effect of my surgery on the rest of my face has left me a little cold. Because my skin was taut over my pre-surgery face and my post-surgery face is shorter, I have a lot more wrinkles and deep lines. This has aged me significantly, which is disappointing. I think that sums it up for the most part. Here's a photo for those not on my Facebook:

Day 63 - I don't want to get too excited...

but this morning, I felt better than I have in weeks. The physiotherapist went over exercises and did Longwave Therapy (accompanied by some moist heat) yesterday and it seemed to make a significant difference. Things tensed up again by the time I was dressed and ready for work, but it still felt so good to feel "normal" again, albeit briefly. My face felt relaxed and loose and I didn't feel like I needed to constantly change my jaw position. I am hoping that with a few more treatments and regular exercises, this will become the norm. On the especially good side, the man in the toll booth at the hospital said, out of the blue and with the utmost sincerity (without knowing I'd had surgery, of course), "I just love your smile." Felt good.

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.

Day 46 - Ugh #2

I've been rather quiet partially because September start-up is always chaotic and partially because nothing I have to say is good.

Initially, I was doing alright with work, despite my jaw. The slight increase in irritation that I did experience, I chalked up to increased use. When I spoke to the orthodontist about it at my last appointment, nearly two seeks ago, he said that everything looked alright.

Since then though, things have continued to get worse. The swelling is pretty significant again, inside and out. It has swollen even just tonight. The tingling and feeling is no longer just in my chin. Now, it is all over my jaw bone. I am pretty concerned that I have an infection of some sort.

Add to that the fact that I have a virus and I have been feeling pretty miserable.

The other thing that I've noticed and that may be of interest to people considering this surgery is the decreased range of motion in my neck and shoulders. Both had been sore for a while a few weeks ago, but in the last week or so, I've noticed that I can't turn my neck the amount I usually could. It is similar to what I experienced after the car accident back in 2000. I am going to ask about physiotherapy.

I am going to see my surgeon tomorrow; I'll have a more thorough report then.

Day 39 - Weird Science

This weekend was a busy one; we made a last ditch effort at summer fun and are now ready (or as ready as we are going to be) to bid the summer of 2011 adieu. I expect next summer will be chock-o-block with fun since there are no surgeries or pregnancies or sick babies or other such crazy shenanigans planned. While we were soaking up the last rays of the season, some fun things happened in my face. The feeling has been coming back gradually, but my entire bottom lip and the center portion of my chin have staunchly refused to budge from their state of numbness up to this point. Well, all of a sudden, on Sunday, while we packed up to take the kids to brunch and then to Centennial Park for some playground fun, I could feel my lips touching one another...ever so faintly. This was closely followed by what I can only describe as my chin being struck by thousands of little bolts of lighting. I can actually pinpoint the exact moment when nerve regeneration began in those areas. For the better part of Sunday, my chin and lip were alight....even edging into being uncomfortable. The next morning, *every* *single* muscle, joint and tooth from my nose/ear line down was in a state of agony that I haven't experienced since the very early days after my surgery. I suspect, given the type and position of the pain, I clenched all night long, possibly as a result of the sensations from the nerve-regeneration. Whatever the reason, I was in enough pain that I took a bunch of Advil and was lining up Tylenol 3 or Robaxacet for the next dosing, if necessary. By evening, it had become bearable. The craziest part of this weekend's developments is the cross-wiring that seems to have occurred. Here's a pictorial essay:

"This all feels really weird. So much tingling and...."

"Ummm...wtf?!?!?! I am touching my chin and my lip thinks I am touching it...."

Yes, there appears to be a small spot (about the size of my index finger tip, conveniently) on the bottom ridge of the left side of my chin that, when touched, sets off nerves in my lip (just to the right of center). It is very strange.

Here are the actual glamour shots for the day:

Day 33 - Muscle Relaxants and Maritime Chowder

I took all my complaints to the orthodontist this morning. He was sympathetic and took a good look around in there, making sure there was no infection. The consensus was that the discomfort was likely a combination of the nerve regeneration in my chin and my return to work, which has resulted in a lot more talking and activity than I'd been doing in the weeks since my surgery. The suggestion on the part of the ortho was what surprised me a little - he recommended a moist, warm compress and muscle relaxants. The idea of me taking something so strong is laughable, in my opinion, but it is tempting. The great news from the appointment is that I came out free of one of my elastics - the ortho said I could get rid of the front one and suggested that, at the next appointment, we may be able to change the rest of the elastics out for lower-tension ones!! This is such good news - I am cool with baby steps because progress is progress. After my appointment, I went downtown to join the rest of my colleagues at the district professional development day. There were lots of interesting little tidbits in the speakers' presentations. I met up with a friend for lunch. Neither of us could eat the bag lunches that were available, so we decided to head over to the restaurant across the street in the hope of finding something palatable (though I wasn't entire convinced it would work). Much to my pleasant surprise, I found a delectable Maritime Seafood Chowder on their lunch menu. I loved every spoonful and my only regret was that I couldn't devour the warm, multigrain roll that accompanied it. Overall, on a scale of 1 to 10, 3 being the highest, today was an 11. ;)

Day 32 - This is a little disappointing

I seem to have regressed again :( My swelling has about doubled. I am in enough pain to take Advil a couple of times each day. The feeling is still coming back in my chin, but the swelling and pain are keeping me from being comfortable and using my lips properly.
I am getting cranky about the whole thing, honestly. I am seeing my orthodontist tomorrow and I am hoping he will be able to shed some light on the situation. I really hope that it is short-lived because it is making my job, sleeping, eating and just generally existing rather less pleasant.

The glamour shot for the day.