orthognathic surgery,janell smith,jaw surgery,lower jaw surgery,over bit,overjet,the quest for less character, character blog, braces, adult braces,mandibular advancement, jaw The quest for less character: 2 weeks - Back to work tomorrow

Oct 23, 2011

2 weeks - Back to work tomorrow

Ok, I'll just put it out there, I stink at keeping up with this blog.  As I mentioned before, my plan was to do this daily but it definitely has not been the case.

There really hasn't been anything Earth shattering to report other than just steady progress.

This week, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I felt really energetic and was productive around the house.  Thursday and Friday, not so much.  I crashed, hit a wall, melted, fell down, whatever you want to call it, I did it.  I had absolutely no energy and was completely lethargic.  I was depressed and didn't feel like doing anything at all either day. I literally slept all day, pretty much both days. Friday night, we left the house to go to Sonic and get a Java Chiller, and you would have thought I ran a marathon.  Not sure what happened, but those were my worst days.

Saturday morning however, I woke up feeling great and full of energy.  Canyon's school carnival was Saturday so that was my big outing.  We walked about 4 blocks there, hung out for about 2 hours and I did okay.  I had to sit in the shade a couple of times because I got light headed, but for the most part, I felt fine. I did come home and take a big ole fat nap, but got up feeling fine.

Today, got up again feeling great and full of energy.  Went to church and felt great through the whole service.  It was a little awkward during the time when you turn and greet those around you, you know the drill, when I couldn't really be understood. Sharon pretty much handled the talking for me. I just smiled and looked oh so cute with my big hunka plastic in my mouth.

Came home from church and took another fat nap, then got up and made dinner. I love to cook so its actually therapeutic for me to be in the kitchen.  It doesn't even really bother me that I can't eat what I'm making.  Tonight though, I grilled steak and as I was cutting it up for my son, and I couldn't stand it.  I put a big chunk of beef right in my mouth and just sucked on it for a minute, like a piece of candy. HA!  Not proud of it, but it just had to do it.  It tasted yummy. 

As far as other progress.  My swelling is pretty much non-existent at this point, except for maybe just a teeny bit right in the lower part of my cheeks and the Shrek neck is gone as well.  There is a tiny bit of bruising left on the lower part of my chest, but you have to look really hard to see it.

I'm off the pain meds except for one at bedtime.  For some reason, the only pain I'm having now is at night.  I suspect I'm clenching my jaw in my sleep, but I'm not sure how to stop doing that. Anyway, during the day I haven't been having any pain at all. I'm a bit sore if you touch my jaw, yawn, laugh or talk to much, but as far as the throbbing pain that I was having last week, that is all gone.  I am managing the pain now with ibupofen and a heat pack.

I'm down 10 pounds and eating is still a challenge for me.

Its probably the hardest part of all of this.  Not because its hard to eat, but because I don't want to. Because of having a gastric bypass in my past, things like dairy and sugar terribly upset my stomach.  So high caloric things like Ensure, milkshakes and cheese don't set well with me.  Its been really hard for me to get enough calories in in a day and its just getting me down.  I found Boost glucose control which is a nutrition shake with low sugar, but it only has 190 calories, as opposed to the 350 that Ensure has.  I like them though and they sit okay with my tummy, so that is my new focus.  Boost, Boost Boost. I still have no appetite and would just rather drink when possible, so I'm packing a 6 pack of Boost to take to work tomorrow.

That's about all that's happening in my world right now.. Just steady progress daily.  We'll see how tomorrow goes with my first day back at work. I am planning on working a full 8 hours so keep your fingers crossed that I don't crash.

God has been so good to me throughout this entire process.  From my doctors, to the insurance coverage, to Sharon taking such good care of me, to how well I'm recovering.

Based on all the blogs that I have read, and research I have done, my recovery has been WAY better than I ever expected.  God definitely had his hands on me throughout the whole ordeal and I thank him daily for getting me through this.

Will update soon with progress at work.

4 comments:

  1. I hope work went well for the first day(s) back! Glad to hear you are doing well, and eating ok for the most part, another thing i found delicious, is I could mush allot of breads and things with my tongue. So I wasn't chewing in anyway, just basically dissolving and tasting. Good Luck in the days to come!

    Niki :)

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  2. I am SO sorry for not checking in earlier! I've been thinking about you though and I'm so excited to see that your swelling and pain was almost gone by the time you wrote this post :) I SUCK at keeping up my blog-it's been weeks :( I'm going to update it now though and I hope you do as well so I can see your awesome progress. Can't wait to see pics! TC, Lara

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  3. I can't believe you went back to work. I'm off for summer. If you get a chance for one more post, we'd love to see your final outcome and her your answer to, "Was it really worth it?"

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  4. How are things now? I haven't seen an update recently.

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