Month 4

Hey everyone, it's been a while! However, this monthly-only update is a good idea because not much has happened since my last post.

Let's see...

Pain

I haven't had any throbbing after eating in the last month, which is awesome. The only remaining slight pain is in my left joint when I open very wide, but it's not THAT painful. Otherwise, pain is gone! I might actually remove this section in my next update, as it's no longer necessary 😊.

Swelling

I think that at this point, the swelling is pretty much 95% gone. When I touch my face, I can feel bones right underneath, while before, I could feel a little cushion of swelling. I'm pretty happy with my face now! I'm finally used to it, to the point where old pictures now make me go, "hey, that's not me!" My profile is the thing I'm most happy about. To me, it's a huge difference (you can see an updated before and after here). I no longer feel self-conscious and ugly when people look at me from the side. I used to try to turn my head away from people when I could tell they were looking towards my profile. I still do it sometimes and then realize "hey, my profile is normal now, no need for that!" It feels great!

My smile is also MUCH improved, even if I still show a small amount of gum when laughing. My normal smile doesn't show much at all, which is better than what the surgeon had expected. The only issue I have with my appearance is the two lines on either side of my lips (I think it still counts as nasolabial folds/laugh lines, but it's only very visible at the corners of my mouth). I always had those, but I do feel like they are more apparent, maybe a little deeper. I'm wondering if the skin just needs to tighten back up after so much swelling, or if the movement of my jaw is what caused the deepening of those lines. I'm going to ask my surgeon, and probably go see a dermatologist at the 6-month mark or earlier. I wonder if I can just do some microdermabrasion or maybe a laser treatment. The lines seem kind of superficial to me, so if either of those treatments can take care of it, I'm all for it. I don't want to do any kind of injections or Botox or whatever though. I'll live with it if that's the only thing that can fix it.

A zoomed-in view of the lines at the corner of my mouth.

Also, my acne has FINALLY resolved. I still have some faint scars from the last outbreak, but they are starting to fade, and I had no new eruption since. I do still get a few pimples here and there, but they are no longer very deep and painful. I'm back to normal! It did help a lot with feeling pretty again. Acne was definitely a factor in my struggle to love my face, so I'd say that if you have acne after the surgery (which is very common), remember that this also plays a role in accepting your new appearance in general. Just give it some time.

I haven't decided on frames for a new pair of glasses. I've been pretty busy and kept putting it off. I really need to get on that soon!

Numbness

Nerve regeneration has definitely improved over the last month! I now get the "normal" feeling when I touch any of the numb area. The only difference is that I also still get the tingling on top of it. I get some weird pinching feelings every once in a while too, probably signs of the nerves waking up even more. Very happy and relieved about this! I knew it would take long, but I didn't think it would be THAT slow. I'm 4 months in, and I'm guessing it'll still take a few more months before everything is back to 100% normal.

Diet

I continue to eat almost everything I want, and it's amazing. There are some things that are still out of the question like bacon, bagels, chewy candies, etc. 

One of the delicious meals I can now eat. I wish I had more to show,
but I was too busy scarfing down food to take pictures.

Some of the stuff I don't even know will be a problem until it's in my mouth, and then I have to spit it out, but it's pretty rare. For example, I tried some seaweed salad, and I just could not for the life of me chew through it.

This, I could not chew through, no matter how hard I tried.

I'm also having some difficulty with very thin or stringy foods, like celery, asparagus, oranges, etc. I think part of the issue is that my bite is still uneven. Most of the teeth on the right are touching, but almost none of the teeth on the left touch. Even the ones that are touching are quite uneven in how much they touch, so anything very thin and stringy just doesn't get grounded, and it's a real pain. Plus, they get stuck in the braces and uugh. I still eat oranges and clementines because I love them, but I've given up on the rest until my bite is fixed.

Speaking of bite, I'm starting to feel like my jaw is uneven. It's like the right side of the bottom jaw is higher than the left, which might explain why the teeth touch on the right but not the left. When I look in the mirror, I feel like I can tell that it's a bit slanted, and when I open my mouth, my jaw also veers to the left for some reason. I don't know if the two problems are related, or if my jaw even IS slanted. It's possible that the teeth themselves are just not at the same height for other reasons. I know the orthodontist said the teeth will settle, so maybe it's all a normal part of recovery, but I'll definitely ask next time I see him, and I'll ask the surgeon. As far as my jaw veering to the left when I open, I wonder if it's because my left joint is tight or something like that. I'll have to ask.

Sorry about the tea-stained teeth, but this is what I mean
by "slanted lower jaw". This is mirrored, so the left side seems higher.

Also, I've been doing exercises to increase my jaw opening, but I'm stuck at three finger tips. I know three fingers is supposed to be normal, but I can tell I used to have a bigger opening. I'm having a hard time fitting sandwiches in my mouth and dealing with larger bites that need to be pushed around with the tongue (not enough space in my mouth sometimes). I'll ask my surgeon about that too. I've heard about using popsicle sticks to help; I'm wondering what he thinks of that method.

Fatigue

It's getting better I think! My iron levels are finally back in the normal range, but still low, so we're going to keep supplementing iron until my ferritin reaches at least 50 ng/ml. I don't remember if I've talked about it in a previous blog post, but I found a couple of research where they showed that non-anemic women (i.e. with normal hemoglobin levels) that have levels of ferritin below 50 ng/ml who were given iron supplements for 6 weeks saw an improvement in their fatigue. To give you an idea, the "normal" range for ferritin is 24 to 336 ng/ml. This is a HUGE range. I've read tons of posts where women said that increasing their ferritin to above 50 ng/ml helped them considerably. It's such a simple fix that I don't see why I wouldn't at least try to get to that number and see how I feel. I've already noticed an improvement: I no longer need to take 1-2 naps a day, and I feel a little less foggy. I don't know if this is just because of normal progression in my healing and better sleep, or the iron, but I'll continue taking the iron anyway.

An important note: Don't jump into iron supplementing without consulting a doctor, because there is such a thing as iron overload and it's very bad for you. Make sure that you do this under the care of your doctor and that you check your levels regularly while you're taking the supplements.

EDIT: Forgot to add... The gaps in the middle of my bottom jaw are almost all filled in! It's so weird how quickly it happened. I kind of thought this would take a year at least. I still have dents on the underside like I showed off here, but the actual gaps on the sides are almost gone.

These gaps.

So that's it for this month! Well, I guess I had lots of tell after all... 😉

I'll see you guys at the 5-month mark!