Friday, September 7, 2012

0 Day 14. Two weeks down, halfway till partial freedom


That's right. Two weeks. Time flies. 4 weeks is the target time where I can start being more carefree about my activities and start light jogging, stationary biking, etc. 

I did try going out for a walk last night after all the shops and restaurants in my neighborhood closed. Of course, being San Francisco, there was still a good amount of people out roaming and hanging out. I walked about 3 miles, stressing out at every corner about being bumped into. Thank goodness that didn't happen, but the stress caused me to swell up all over again. Puffer fish reflexes.

I think I will wait until the 4 week mark before attempting this again. That or walk at 5am when the streets are bound to be empty.

day 14 post double jaw (orthognathic) surgery two week pose 2

Overall, my cheeks look mostly deflated, and the improvement is more evident, though the swelling still fluctuates and worsens by the evening. Again, it is an amazing feeling to be able to relax my jaws, AND have my upper and lower teeth fit together at the same time, as opposed to closing my teeth, and having my right jaw be in tension.

The asymmetry however is not completely fixed. While my chin is now much closer to my facial center line, there are other asymmetries in my lower jaw that now stand out as my cheeks deflate -- I have a fuller left mandible, which is unsurprising since my right mandible was under developed in both fullness and length which was the root reason of my jaw rotation.. After this surgery, the length has been fixed, but not the fullness, so my right face looks "flatter". This is fixable by an implant if needed, but may not be that big a deal. Another side effect of this is my chin is still slanted slightly to my right. This is fixable by genioplasty, where they cut off my chin and slide it into the proper position. Both are much simpler procedures with short recovery times.

These issues were all brought up to me pre-surgery, and if I do want to proceed with fixing these trivial issues, I can opt to do so 6 - 9 months from now after recovering. These are more for cosmetic purposes than medical necessity. I will probably opt to have these issues fixed, because now that I know these problems are there, how can I ignore it?

day 14 post double jaw (orthognathic) surgery trying to smile



My upper lips have deflated significantly, but both lips are still slightly swollen. My lower lip has taken a reverse role to my upper and is now more swollen on the right. I find that when I try to talk, I talk primarily out of my right side where my lips can move a little more easily.

The marjority of my upper lip now has feeling, except for the outer left corner. Lower lips and chin are still completely numb. The left side of my nose has regained most feeling but my right side is still mostly numb. The insides of my mouth are starting to suffer the surgical hooks, and I am applying dental wax to my braces. It is a little more difficult to keep the wax in place with rubber bands criss-crossing in multiple directions.

My chin is still experiencing immense tingling, but the tingling now feels... different. I am not entirely sure how to describe it, but it feels closer to the surface? Last week, the tingling felt like muscle tingles, but now, the feeling is similar to when you rub your hand or a towel over some stubble, in addition to the muscle tingles. 

Speaking of stubble, I was able to shave in less than 10 minutes today. That's about 1/3 of the time it took me the first time.

day 14 post double jaw (orthognathic) surgery front
I had quite a few visitors this evening, which made this Friday evening in recovery much more exciting. And, I even managed a smile for a photo shoot. All that practice paid off.

day 14 post double jaw (orthognathic) surgery with catherine



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