4 month update

So its been 4 months and i feel like I'm completely back to normal. I can eat everything except crunchy granola bars and big bite sandwiches. The residual swelling is the same, just a little in my lower left and cheeks. Another year and it will be gone, I only notice it in pictures where I'm smiling really big. It kind of looks like I had Botox in my cheeks to which my mom replied "hey, people spend a lot of money to have cheeks like yours right now so enjoy it". Again, there is always a silver lining. My free cosmetic surgery side effects from this jaw surgery so far have included a free chemical peel and now all natural Botox!

Pain is basically non-existent. Sometimes my right jaw joint gets a little sore but I think the muscles are still rebuilding their strength as I regain my ability to chew again. Biting into a chick-fil-a sandwich today was pushing my limits and my jaw is aching a little bit because of it.

I go back to the orthodontist tomorrow where he is supposed to put on my finishing wire and officially let me off the hook with the retainer! I cannot wait to get this hunk of plastic out of my mouth. The top of my mouth is all healed and no longer swollen so the retainer is actually a little loose. It occasionally pops out when I'm eating...let me tell you, thats really fun when you are at a business lunch and your retainer comes out and gets stuck with food under it. On more than one occasion I have had to use a napkin, cover my mouth, and take it out. I won't miss this. Not even a little bit.

The ortho also mentioned that my braces should come off in the next 3-5 months! This is going to be the most exciting day! I was originally told it would be 21 months of braces but it actually will only be about 14 months. As a 27 year old single girl, this was music to my ears lol.

Enjoy the 4 month pics! I took one of my retainer so you can see what I have been wearing 24/7 the past 4 and a half months ;-) I even cleaned it off for you, you're welcome.

3 Month Post Op

I had my official 3 month post op appointment today and everything is good! My doc even looked at me and said "it's so perfect I can't stand it". Here is the Cliff's Notes version:

~ I met my target and can now open my mouth 41mm ( I was nervous about that one)
~ Over the next month and a half, I will be back to eating everything
~ My bones are healed but will be much stronger after a couple more months
~ I can wakeboard again!!! (As long as I don't do any tricks that would risk a face-plant)
~ the residual swelling in my left jaw and both cheeks can last up to another year ( but its not that noticeable so I don't mind)

Here are some pics including a few new profile shots. After today, I will just post about once a month until I get my braces off, then I will do 1 last post at my 1 yr. post op.

Day 90

So I know today is technically the 3 month mark but I will do my temporary send off after my post op this week.

Not much has changed the past few weeks. I am gradually able to eat more and more normal food. Today I even had bread and cheese, a little tough and chewy but good practice. I'm hoping that in the next month or so I'll be ale to eat those Girl Scout cookies calling my name from the fridge.

Well Happy Easter everyone! I'm spending my Easter Sunday having a Walking Dead marathon and laying on the couch!

Day 84

Yowza it has been a crazy trip! I am finally at the airport in Frankfurt in between flights. I am currently sitting in the Lufthansa lounge working on my 2nd cappuccino and wondering if my fellow travelers will think it weird if I do my jaw exercises. I have been slacking these past 10 days. It's hard to find 3 hours in your day to sit there and contort your mouth. I find that doing this in public causes people to think you have turrets and/or scare small children. I better buckle down this next week so I can reach my goal of opening my mouth 41mm by my 3 month post op.

My broken face really wasn't as much of an issue on this trip. I could always eat almost anything, no additional swelling or pain. I did notice my jaw clicking and popping a lot but I think that is because I have been skipping my jaw exercises so it is tight.

Nothing much to report on the jaw recovery front but I did have an amazing weekend in Abuja with one of my best friends, Heather. After my week in Lagos, I flew through Abuja on my way home to see her since she is a teacher at an international school there. It was a nice change of pace from Lagos where i had 5 armed guards accompany me to the airport and was not allowed out of the office or the hotel without security. However in Abuja (which apparently is more dangerous) Heather and I hopped around the city on our own sans scary Nigerian men with big guns.

Our first night we had pizza and beer at an outdoor beer garden overlooking the national mosque. The following day we spent at the pool at the Hilton, sipping diet cokes and people watching. That night I helped her chaperone the middle and high school dance haha. You know what's awkward? Watching 11-18 yr olds trying to grind on each other to Nigerian rap music. She rewarded me for my chaperoning duties by taking me to a "bush bar". This literally is just an open air bar in the bushes with cheap beer. I'm pretty sure my company would NOT be happy about that so we are going to keep this a secret ok? Julian/Steve - don't tell the big boss or he may never let me travel again.

My last day we had a true Sunday Funday and drank ciders by the pool all day. I even have a nice little sunburn to take home with me :-) this is definitely the first time I've come home from a business trip with a tan!

Ok, just one more 10 hr flight to go and I get to shower, snuggle with my dog and spend Twin's last night catching up and hanging out.

2 photos for you today: one profile pic and one that I took with my iPad upside down on accident

Day 80

Soooo exhausted. I have not stopped moving since I left American soil. After Finally arriving in Lagos we had the luxury of spending another 2 hours going through customs and waiting for our luggage. T.I.A., this is Africa... It was 1:00 am by the time we got to the hotel and we all smelled like a Nigerian airport.

It is so humid here that you have to shower by the time you get home from work because you are all sticky and sweaty. I'm currently sitting in the lounge drinking my long awaited diet coke. Excuse me, coke light ( which is better in my opinion). I don't have any fun pictures to share today unless you want to see pictures of traffic and walls with warning signs that say "do not urinate here". I didn't understand why I kept seeking that written everywhere. Then I saw a random guy just turn around and start peeing on a wall right next to a street full of people and cars. I thought to myself, oh, well that explains the smell.

Food is a little bit of an issue here because choices are limited unless you are at the hotel. We visited a vocational training center and after walking around and seeing the entire campus, they insisted we stay and join them for lunch. Since my digestive system is skeptical of Nigerian food, my only option was chicken and French fries. Well, there is no such thing as a chicken breast filet here. They literally just chop off pieces of chicken with bone, fat, organs and all. So I basically had a plate of fries for lunch. There was no way i could bite into this chicken without breaking a bracket off or stressing my jaw bones.

Don't get me wrong, Nigeria is not bad. The hotel is 4 star and the people are so hospitable they make Southerners look like a**holes. And in all fairness, I haven't seen any dead bodies in the road since my first trip...so there's that...

Greetings from Lagos, wet hair and all:

Day 77

I'm currently on a 10 day work trip overseas and I am exhausted! I popped over to London for 2 days then was supposed to be on an overnight flight to Lagos, Nigeria. Well, 1 1/2 hours into the flight they announce technical difficulties and take us all the way back to London! We have to stay in hotels and they rescheduled the flight for the following afternoon. By the time we went back through customs and checked in at the hotel, it was 5am... To make it even more enjoyable, the airport hotel kind of reminds me of The Shining. I keep expecting to see creepy twin girls standing at the end of my hallway.

On a positive note, the lounge for Virgin Atlantic is phenomenal. There is even a crystal chandelier! It's all decorated like a rock star lounge and they serve you all the food and drinks you want. I could get used to this :-)

I was a little nervous before my first flight because it was the first time I had flown since surgery. I wasn't allowed to fly the first month because the pressure is not good for healing sinuses (refer to Day 71 for a full understanding of how broken my face is). Well, no issues thus far! And eating in London was easy because you know what is a nice soft food? Fish & chips. You know what else is perfect? Guinness :-) Nigeria will be another story, we'll see how that goes haha.

Well, I'm off to Lagos for 4 days then Abuja for 3.

Day 74

It's been a good week. I managed to get in 4 hot yoga classes, 1 vinyasa class, and 3 Crossfit workouts, a couple wine nights with Lauren, and a delicious dinner at Jasper's steakhouse last night. My week was only marred by a minor poo incident...

To make a long story short: I live in an old houses so naturally the pipes are old too. Well as I sit on the couch watching my new favorite show, The Walking Dead, I hear a bubbling sound down the hall. At first I think Lauren is listening to bongo music in her room so I think nothing of it. Well when I go check out the bathrooms I realize that toilet bowl water is all over the floor and sewage is backed up into all the tubs! Oh great, my friend finally comes to live with me and my bathrooms are full of poo! After panicked calls to my landlord, the plumber is set to come out the next morning. However, I cannot even sleep in my room because it is connected to the bathroom and well....that's not the greatest smell :-( on the bright side, I made it to the 6am yoga class! Partially motivated by my need to burn off the cupcakes Tina ate for dinner but mostly so I could shower at the studio... So the lesson is: even when your house is overrun with shit, there is always a silver lining.

I really enjoyed getting to spend some valuable time with my best friend/twin. She has been staying with me for the month and it has been amazing. She's so easy to live with that I never want her to leave! We are very alike in a lot of ways: our love of the Olsen Twins, good food, yoga, and staying in drinking wine and watching tv instead of going out partying. But we're also opposite in a lot of ways. She is vegan/ vegetarian most of the time while I am a natural carnivore. She is mellow and laid back whereas I am high strung and moving at a million miles an hour. This is why it's been so great having her here- she balances me out. Hopefully I can retain some of her good influence when she leaves (almond milk, keeping up my yoga practice, putting good karma out there).

Here's a nice toothy smile just for you Twin :-)