Month 5

Welcome to month 5!

This month, I saw my surgeon for what turned out to be the second to last time! He said everything was healing perfectly, and that he'd like to see me once the braces are off. I think he partly wants to see the finished product he's worked so hard to make 😉. I totally understand; I can't WAIT to see the finished product...

Here are current pictures. I've also updated the Photos section with comparisons.

Last month, I mentioned that I thought my jaw was slanted. I asked the surgeon, but he assured me that it was the teeth themselves, and not the jaw, that weren't yet settled in the correct position. He said the orthodontist would take care of that. He also said that it was totally normal for the jaw to open kinda janky and veer to one side. Apparently, even normal people who haven't gone through a jaw surgery have this, which made me feel relieved! So no need to panic, my jaw is not uneven. Yay!

I also asked him about the deepening laugh lines on either side of my mouth. He said he's surprised by this because if anything, they should lessen based on the jaw movement he did. He said there's a possibility that it's just remaining swelling, but I'm trying not to hope too much. I'm assuming that it will remain like this. However, he said the rest of the swelling would take 6 to 9 months to disappear, so I'll give myself another few months before I see a dermatologist and consider my options. I do feel like it's worse than before the surgery now, and I think it makes me look older. I don't like it at all. I'm still not open to fillers or some kind of face lift, but if we can treat it with laser or microdermabrasion, I'll try it out. Or maybe my skin just needs to tighten up after being so swollen? Who knows.

Also, the wrinkles around my eyes were much worse after the surgery, but it did improve over the months. It's still not back to what it was before though. Sometimes I wonder if surgery in general ages us. It is very taxing on the body after all.

I also had a really weird occurrence this month, which may or may not be linked to the surgery... I had a salivary stone?! I didn't even know it existed. I woke up one morning and the salivary gland under my jaw on the right was swollen and crampy. I also had what I thought was a pimple under my tongue. It felt hard and had a small white head. I figured maybe the small pimple was making my gland go nuts, so I washed my hands and squeezed it out. Immediately, the pain eased and after about an hour, my gland was back to normal size. I later searched online out of curiosity, and discovered that what I thought was a white head was actually a little stone poking out of my salivary duct and blocking it completely. I hope it was a one-time thing. I hear they can block much deeper in the duct and those are harder to deal with. I wonder if the surgery had something to do with it. Maybe something blocked my duct during surgery, allowing sediments to form? But the surgeon said it wasn't related. What a weird situation...

I also saw my orthodontist, who removed 8 brackets and repositioned them to straighten some roots. My bite was getting better, although I was still touching a lot more on the right than the left, but obviously after moving the brackets, everything is messed up again. I had pain when biting for about 3-4 days, so I reverted to a soft diet. It wasn't too bad though. I had some delicious Panera Bread mac & cheese.

I asked my orthodontist when he thinks I'll be done with braces, and he said 5 to 6 months. I don't know if you remember, but last month, he told me 4 to 5 months, and that was a month ago! I laughed and I told him what he'd said, and he kind of chuckled and admitted that it was hard to tell. It all depends on how fast my teeth move. If they move fast, he thinks we can halve that time. I've been told that my teeth move pretty fast (during this treatment and the first one when I was younger), so I'm hoping I still have only about 4 months left. Crossing fingers. I'm itching to see my teeth again, and I'm tired of taking 30 minutes every night to do my teeth cleaning routine. I can't wait to be free!

Oh, and I finally got to eat some of those Combos snacks I was craving on day 28!

They were actually not as amazing as I remembered somehow 😅.

Alright, let's get into the categories that still matter (I'm removing Swelling and Pain because they no longer apply):

Numbness
Still the same as last month. Actually, for the past few days, it almost feels like it's a bit stiffer than it used to? I don't know if it's because it's getting better and I'm just noticing a difference that I interpret as "stiffness". I have to say though, it's not really bothering me anymore. I can definitely feel everything, it's just not a "full" feeling, and it's accompanied by some tingling. It's mostly on the lip that it's noticeable. I don't care much about the chin.

Diet
I'm officially back to normal! I can eat whatever I want, except the normal stuff you can't have with braces such as almonds, hard candies, etc. It's getting easier and easier to chew. I still struggle a bit with thick chips but I can manage. I even ate a piece of bacon yesterday! It was hard, but I chewed through it. My joints sometimes "crunch" and stuff, but they don't hurt anymore at all.

I had some delicious Easter brunch with friends a few weeks ago, and it felt great not to have so many restrictions on what I could eat.

However, I didn't touch the bacon because I hadn't been given the go ahead yet.

Oh that reminds me, I've regained all of my mobility now! I can fit 3 fingers in my mouth passed the second knuckles! It seems to be the norm, at least that's how far my husband can fit 3 fingers, so I'm pretty happy with it. There's also no trouble with movements side to side or forward and backward.

Fatigue
Getting better! I had to stop the iron supplement for about 1.5 weeks though. I was getting some digestive troubles. I'm not testing the iron levels for another few weeks so I don't have much news on that front. I can feel a difference in my level of fatigue though, so I'm still very hopeful! I also feel like I have less brain fog, which was my biggest complaint. Still chugging along!

Since I won't be seeing the surgeon for a few months and nothing new is going on these past few posts, I've decided to update only when my braces come off, and then at the 1-year mark. I feel like I'm pretty much back to normal and change is extremely slow at this point.

I do want to go through all of my posts and make a list of problems/worries that I never addressed again in later posts, such as gum recession, oiliness, etc. I'll work on that and publish it in the next few weeks.

Other than that, I'll see you guys when I get my teeth out of prison! 😊