1 Month Post-Op

I met with my surgeon today.  First I should say that I finally decided to weigh myself.  Before my car accident in November I was 152 lbs.  I had to go through 3 months of therapy and never really got back into a gym routine before it was time for my surgery in March.  On my surgery day I weighed in at 145lbs so I lost about 7 lbs of muscle.  I weighed myself yesterday and I was 137.5 lbs. YIKES! So I pretty much lost a total of 14.5 lbs since November and you can chalk up 7.5 of those to my liquid diet.  When I walked in to the office the first thing the secretary said was "Wow you look like you lost some weight."  Some of my friends have noticed too.  Oh and for most people this would actually be a good thing I should add but I'm skinny as it is and when I work out its much more of a challenge to gain muscle mass than it is to lose it.

To keep on topic with my diet, I have been cheating I guess.  I've been eating lots of pasta (spaghetti, mac n cheese, rice and ground beef mix  etc.).  I'll be honest though I did eat a pork chop and ham at two different meals already.  I just had to cut them into super thin pieces and once they were in my mouth I was able to chew just a little and mash the rest up with my tongue.  I kinda of feel guilty now talking about it because when I went in to see the surgeon I told him about the pasta and he was like well you dont want to be chewing at all still.  I guess I haven't really thought about it before but I had mac n cheese tonight and I focused on how I ate it.  I barely moved my jaw to chew it, I didnt really have to so I dont really feel bad about all the pasta.

Otherwise he said my bite looked terrific and my mouth looked nice and clean.  I tend to think quite the opposite since I haven't been to the dentist in forever it seems.  I had to reschedule yet another appointment that was set for next week because I cant open my mouth all the way and he said make it for at least a month from today.  He had me rearrange the rubber band on my left side into an identical triangle as on the right.  He said I needed to continue to wear them all the time except when eating and brushing.  He said after 2 weeks I can take them off and just wear them at night.  He also said at that time I can start doing this jaw exercise where you take your fingers and stretch your mouth open for 10 seconds at a time, 5 times, a few times a day.  He said I can start to attempt to chew at the 6 week point but to take it easy.  I'm not scheduled to see him again for a whole month.  I imagine at that time the healing process will be completely done and I'll be sent back to the orthodontist to finish up the last leg of the journey.

I can't remember what I posted before about the financial part and I completely forgot to ask if I owe anything today just as I'm saying this, buuut online my amount that I owe has been changing quite a bit.  Currently, the total cost of everything was about 20k. The fact it was in the network knocked it down to like 15k and then there was another discount applied I forget for what.  Anyway the amount I'm showing I currently owe is about 1.9k.  I don't think that's too bad all things considered.

Too tired to take any pics right now. I'll post some when I get the chance.  The infection is all clear by now and I think about 90-95% of all the swelling is gone.  Slowly but surely the feeling in my lip and chin is coming back so I'm really excited about that the most I think.  The past week and half I started really getting nervous thinking what if it never comes back.  I work with a girl who had the surgery done years ago by the same exact surgeon and she said she never regained feeling in her chin.  I hope my result is better!