Pain
Since I tried a bunch of new, more "chew-intensive" foods this week, my jaw has felt more tired and a bit throbby after eating, but no real pain. Just some muscle fatigue. My left joint has also been hurting when I open my mouth up to a certain width. I've had that before on the right, at the very beginning of my chewing adventures, and it went away, so I'm hoping it'll do the same this time. It doesn't feel like it's anywhere near the cuts; definitely in the joint, so I'm trying not to worry about it. I'll bring it up with my surgeon when I see him. It only hurts when I open my mouth fairly wide anyway.
Swelling
I actually feel like there was a difference this week. It seems like the swelling around my jawline has decreased further, and my face feels more tapered and feminine. It might also be that I'm getting used to it and no longer see a deformed version of what I really look like in reality. Still doing better on the whole "liking my face" thing! It's starting to grow on me, and I'm much happier 😊.
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| It looks like my teeth are misaligned, but I was half-talking when I quickly snapped the pic. Oops! |
Numbness
After weeks and weeks of almost no change, the numbness is improving at a rapid pace! I can now definitely feel it when something touches the numb area. The other day, I felt this weird coldness and pressure on my chin and realized that it was from a small dab of peanut butter. I felt it! I was elated. It seemed to improve over the week, too! Now the whole area feels a lot less stiff, more and more "alive". I asked my husband to move the tip of a pencil across the numb patch and I could always tell where it was, even with a light brush. It's definitely not a normal feeling yet. It feels more like... Hmm. It's hard to describe, but honestly the best way I can explain it is that weird trail that you create when you press your finger on an LCD monitor. It does a ripple of color distortion that radiates outward from the point of pressure, and that's exactly how it feels when I touch the numb area. I feel a tingling sensation that is bigger than the pressure point, and it lingers a bit when I move it, like a trail. I can also feel it when my husband kisses me, which is nice!
Diet
I was a lot more adventurous this week, since I was given the go ahead to eat chicken. I ate chicken (obviously), and everything went super well, so I took it a step further and tried some Cinnabon. When my husband felt better, he had a craving for it, and I thought "why not, it counts as 'soft bread' doesn't it?" It was a bit difficult to chew, not because it was hard, but because it's so doughy. I had to roll it around my mouth a lot more than other foods, so my jaw got tired, but it never hurt.
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| Definitely not a healthy week, food-wise... |
The next day, I was craving donuts, so we went to Krispy Kreme. It was my first donut since the surgery, and boy, was it delicious. I got an original glaze and a lemon-filled glaze. Eating them was much easier than the Cinnabon, and tastier, too.
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| Fresh off the press! |
Finally, I ended the week with a pizza! On week 9, when I was given the go ahead to eat chicken and "soft bread," we had friends over and ordered a cheese pizza. I thought I would be fine, but the crust was a little burnt and too hard for me to eat, so I had to scrape the toppings with a fork and eat that without the crust. But two weeks later, after ramping up the chewiness of my food, I thought I'd be able to try again. And this time, I got my favorite veggie pizza with all the trimmings, thinking I could just remove what I couldn't eat.
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| The other half was my husband's pizza. Pepperoni is too hard to chew! |
I was iffy on the artichokes, thinking they might be too tough, but everything was actually just fine! I ate two slices without any problem at all. My jaw was once again tired, but no pain. I'm pretty happy! I hope I'm not overdoing it, but at the same time, it seems like every jaw surgery blogger I've read was able to eat whatever they wanted after 2 months, and I'm almost at 3 months. I feel like maybe my surgeon is being a little TOO conservative? I'm still following his directions to the best of my understanding. I definitely didn't eat anything hard or sticky or anything. All the stuff I ate is technically "soft"; no raw veggies or fruits, no nuts, no tough meat, etc. I did try a bite of deli ham and it was too tough to chew, so I spat it out. I feel like I can tell what is OK and what isn't, and I don't try to chew through it anyway if it seems above my capabilities. I'll wait until my surgeon is confident that I can do it. I just feel like it's not very clear what the surgeon wants or doesn't want me to eat. The indications are kinda vague. "Soft food", "chicken", "soft bread", "pasta". Is that really it? Just chicken with pasta and bread? What about tomatoes? Is that soft, or is the skin considered tough? What about mushrooms? They're kind of spongy, is it still OK? Is a thin pizza crust considered too hard if I don't eat the top part? I don't really want to text him every time I'm about to eat to ask if it's OK, so I try to follow my gut, but I'm still scared sometimes that I'm doing it wrong. I try to tell myself that at 3 months, my jaw isn't so fragile anymore and I'm already being pretty cautious...
I'm just really eager to get back to normal, I guess, and not have to worry about what to eat.
Fatigue
I'm still tired, but this week is my period, and I'm usually much more fatigued during that time of the month, so I'm not going to count it. My face does seem less pale than a few weeks ago, so maybe the iron problem is getting better. I'm supposed to test it again next week, so we'll see.
I guess once again I found a ton of stuff to talk about, even though it was an "uneventful" week... 😅
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