Week 5

This week was a bit brutal work-wise, but thankfully, that had nothing to do with my surgery. Just normal after-the-holiday-rush when everyone realizes they've been slacking off and have to pick up the pace to finish everything on time.

Although I'm still pretty tired every day, I do feel like it's better than the first 4 weeks. I don't crash completely in late afternoon; instead, I just get more tired and a bit sleepy, but I can work through it.

Quick update for everything else: Still not much pain expect in my joints when chewing/sleeping on my side, but the pain is more like a 3/10 and I never need to take painkillers. The numbness is the same as my last update; same areas but they feel a little less stiff and more like they are about to wake up, so crossing fingers! Swelling seems to be down a bit more.

Here are some pics:

In other news, chewing is going much better than I anticipated. It already hurts a lot less, and I have more lateral movements than before. I'm now officially able to move my tongue between my teeth and my cheeks and even get food unstuck from my braces, which was completely impossible when I first started chewing. It's amazing how fast it's going! If you remember, my first chewing experience was very frustrating and discouraging. I thought it would take MONTHS before I could see a sizable improvement, but it only took a week.

I have to be honest, it's still not pleasant, and I still feel limited in how I can chew, but I've been doing exercises twice a day and it seems to be helping. I now rarely eat liquid stuff anymore. I go for mashed potatoes with cheese instead. I also bought some canned raviolis because I read on other blogs that it's the perfect chewing practice food, and they're right! It's big enough that you can't just swallow it whole; you HAVE to chew it a bit, and it's super soft. Also, it's yummy, which helps. Just don't wear your favorite shirt while eating it because tomato sauce will get everywhere...

A sample of my new friends.

A few other things I chewed this week: Ritz crackers and smoked salmon cream cheese (I let the crackers melt a bit before I chew); chicken cut up in tiny little pieces with orzo, plain Greek yogurt and cooked onions (I completely regretted adding the onions; they were too tough and I had to spit them out); chewy chocolate chip cookies (I even managed to eat them without soaking them in milk later during the week!); and finally...

OREO CHEESECAKE FROM THE CHEESECAKE FACTORY!

Can you hear the angels sing?

I rewarded myself with this beauty yesterday. It. Was. Amazing. I finished it after lunch today and oh my god, I want more. It's one of the last desserts I ate before the surgery, and I'm so happy I'm able to eat more of it now.

I'll be dreaming of it for the rest of the month, I can tell.

Other than that, I'm proud to say that I accomplished a lot this week, on top of working full-time again! I cleaned the apartment, took down the Christmas decorations (sadness), spent an afternoon shopping and returning some stuff, got my finances in order. I guess this is the proof that I have more energy now!

I took this picture to prove that I went to the mall. I don't know
why I felt the need to prove it...

So even though it was a hard week because I went back to work, I feel like there was some great improvements surgery-wise, which makes me quite happy and hopeful that it will keep getting better and better.

I have a few other things I want to talk about, but this post is already pretty long, so I'll do a midweek post with a roundup of random little things I'd like to touch on, including oily skin/hair post-surgery, speech, and getting used to my new face.

Stay tuned!