One Week Post Op

Hello!

Today is the one week mark from surgery and what a week it was.  I still keep thinking back to the surgery day around this time when I was still feeling absolutely awful.  I'm proud of my progress to this point.  I haven't had too much pain the past day or two.  I still take the drowsy medication at night to help me fall asleep and I've slowly been working my way down from sleeping in an upright position.

My diet has also improved.  I went shopping again today to pick up some more stuff because I can now open my mouth enough to fit soup in.  I actually have been the last two days or so, but I just have to kinda mush up the chunkier chicken parts and once I get it into my mouth I'm able to just mush it up using my tongue.  For snacks I've still been eating jello, applesauche, drinking my milkshakes or gatorades and last night I just tried eating canned peaches which I was able to get down.  I bought oatmeal for breakfast going forward and that is awesome.

As far as my jaw, everything has been going well.  Today and I think yesterday are the first days where I really felt a lot of the swelling go down.  You can clearly see my left side is way more swollen than my right.  It feels the same way in my mouth too like there was alot more stitching that went on.  This is kind of gross but the past two days I've also noticed that if I turn my head to the right stuff like leaks out from the stiched area.  At first it was like dry blood it looked like but its weird because its like super minty, like the taste of mouthwash.  Not that it tastes good but it doesnt exactly gross me out.  I do this a few times a day and rinse my mouth out and then it feels like the swelling is even bigger.  The best way I can put this into words is it reminds me of a blister.  When you pop a blister all that clear stuff oozes out and then it really stings because theres no more lubricant between the skin and the blister itself.  I dont feel any pain when I do it but its just weird.  I see the surgeon on Wednesday I'm going to ask him why my left side is more swollen than my right.  My right side is hardly numb and doesnt really have any swelling at all, it even feels normal inside my mouth.

I'm still wearing the rubber bands, I take them out each morning to brush my teeth and eat and then I'll put new ones in.  The pain from those has gotten better as well so hopefully that means my jaw is learning to move into the correct position.  I've noticed now when I bite straight down, unlike before, everything seems to fit.  Before when I bit straight down my teeth still werent lining up correctly, I would have to shift my lower jaw to the left for things to fit.  I still have the rest of this week off and then I guess I'll be back to work next week.  I'll post again after my visit to the surgeon's office on Wednesday to see what the next step is!

The red mark is where the stitches are.  You can see the yellowish color from the swelling as well.

Whats up with the double chin? haha

I don't know what the white thing is back there but I just hope its not an infection of any sort?