So, today I took a trip to Birmingham to see Dr. L (my surgeon) for the first time since surgery. I was interesting to put myself together and get back out in the world a little bit. I'm still really not comfortable going out with my face being so huge still. Everything went well though. The first thing they did was take x-rays of my new jaw and bite. That was great, because before surgery my x-ray looked like one of those neanderthal skulls. My top jaw jutted forward so far and it was narrow..it just looked awful. I'm going to try to get copies of the x-rays so I can post them on here. Anyway, my new x-ray looks amazing. My bite looks so perfect, and it was so awesome to hear the resident guy say the word perfect so many times while he was talked about my x-ray. I'm so used to people being shocked by how bad my x-ray looks..so it was really a new experience for me. It also made me more optimistic about what my results will be like once all of this swelling finally goes down. It was kind of crazy to see all the hardware in my face though. The resident started to point out all of it, but then gave up and was just like "basically, it's everywhere", haha. It looks like I have bicycle chains in my jaw. Very cool..and weird.
I got a chance during my appt. with Dr. L to ask about my diet. I was worried I was on the verge of going overboard with the adventuring. Fortunately, all the foods I've eaten so far have been completely fine. The only thing that was questionable was the pizza, and after I explained to him how I had eaten it (in tiny bites and only really really soft/cheesy bits) he said it was fine. Of course, that does mean that I don't need to adventure any further than I already have, but I feel like there are enough foods that I'm allowed to have right now that I can survive a few more weeks on it. I just really didn't want to go back to basically a pure liquid diet like I was at first. I like smoothies, but I don't think I could survive the next 3 weeks on only smoothies :P
I also asked Dr. L about my skin issues, and I was right..it's not just regular acne. He thinks that it looks like rosacea. Luckily, its not anything permanent its just a reaction to my skin being so irritated and swollen for so long. He wrote me a prescription for some special cream that he said should clear it up. I'm really hoping it works quickly, because currently my face just looks really gross, and I can't cover it up because I definitely don't want to irritate my skin even more than it already is. I'm trying to not worry about it too much. It's just one of those things I'm going to have to deal with for a little while. It's all part of the recovery process.
Dr. L gave me permission to go back to sleeping normally instead of elevated, but I think I'm going to stick with it a little while longer, because I know that it is supposed to help decrease swelling and I definitely don't want my swelling to go back up at all. The best news that he gave me is that I'm definitely getting the splint out in 3 weeks. My mom had me worried that it might be 4, because she thought Dr. L had said it might be 6 weeks, but he promised me today that it was only 3 so yay! I am so ready for this thing to be out of my mouth. I'm really trying to be patient..it's just crazy annoying. Plus, I can't really see my bite with the splint on, and I'm anxious to see my new smile :)
In other news, we're actually expecting snow tomorrow! :) This rarely happens in Alabama, so I'm pretty excited about it. I'm hoping I can get out and play in it a little even if it's only slush :)
No comments:
Post a Comment