Day 147 - Twenty One weeks - 5 months On

Left Jaw Pain 0/10     

Right Jaw Pain: 0/10    

Hip Pain: 0/10

Inconvenience factor: 1/10

Four weeks to go! FOUR WEEKS TO GO!!! 
A mere Twenty Eight until my mouth becomes metal free and these damn braces are removed! I can't wait! But I am not here to write about the future, I'm meant to writing an update on how it's all been going! In a word - GREAT! 

5 months down the track and life is pretty good! The odd tinglings in the numb parts of my face have continued to grow, spread and strengthen giving me supreme hope that there has been no permanent nerve damage! Now I just need all this damn pins and needles tingling (which covers my entire bottom lip and all of my chin) to turn into actual touch sensation and I'll be laughing!  Yes, yes, have patience - I know, I know!!! 
 

The other frustration I had a month ago was the non-contact of my left teeth when I bit. I have managed to significantly improve this and am actually pretty happy with my bite now - it's not perfect but it's far better than ever before! The secret of my success you may ask?!?!?! But should I share or patent the therapy?

Okay okay - The secret = Dried figs! That's it. I now chew a dozen of them every day. They are the perfect size to jam between the teeth on the left side of my mouth and are firm enough to give all the muscles on both sides of my jaw a good workout - strengthen the left and loosen the right!  It's worked a treat! Good thing I LOVE the taste! A huge THANK YOU to The Food Forest for the endless supply of delicious dried figs!
 

Exercise is all back on track and my body now seems perfectly happy at dealing with the new challenges I throw at it. A 4 hour rogaine, a 1.5 hour trail run and 58km 3 day pack hike have all been notched up this month. I am very happy to report that my fitness is slowly getting back to pre-surgery levels! Life is good! But just think....in one month's time, with braces removed, the journey will finally be over.....life will be incredible!!!! I literally won't be able to stop smiling! 

See you in a month....maybe I'll not write a word.....just post a BIG CHEESY GRIN photo!!!  
   

Day 119: Seventeen Weeks - 4 Months On.

Left Jaw Pain 0/10     

Right Jaw Pain: 0/10    

Hip Pain: 0/10

Inconvenience factor: 1/10

It's hard to believe but today marks 4 months since surgery. All I can say is "Good Grief where has that time gone"? I guess this really does hint at life being back to it's normal frantic pre-surgery self. Taking stock points strongly to the fact that there are very few residual limitations remaining! Hooray! Finally!

Chewing has gradually become more effective over the past month and I can attack most things now.....raw carrots and nuts still remain off limits but the rest is fair game. Yes, the lip still occasionally gets involved but I am learning to compensate and can mostly avoid it now. The teeth on the left still don't touch but I >think< they are closer - hopefully more time will improve this!

Getting back into exercise is going fantastically well. Last week I managed an 8km, one hour trail run and felt great afterwards. My aerobic fitness is still really pathetic but there was no pain and I know my fitness will return. The time has come to stop holding back and I am finally comfortable with starting to push myself again. On Saturday I shall tackle a 1.5 hour trail run, then the following weekend smash out a 4 hour rogaine and over Easter, a 3 day, 50+km hike. What a great test! 

My greatest concern has been that I will end up with a large permanent numbness patch on my lip and chin.....I have been particularly concerned about the right side. The numbness continues but with exciting new developments. The left side is still tingly....nothing new there but the right side lip to chin, in only the past week has begun responding sort of. It is nearly impossible to explain. 

I have developed this almost neurotic habit of rapidly tapping my numb chin all over, testing for feeling. This tapping occurs whenever I have downtime, watching TV, during meetings, parked up at stoplights - you get the picture. I must look mental especially at the stoplights. 

I keep tapping but nothing happens, I'm working on the principle that stimulation of the area will remind the nerves that they are needed.  About 4 days ago, a tap was sort of answered. Not where I tapped but about 1cm above. I nearly fell off of my chair! I moved to the spot above and tapped, this was answered by a faint shot of pins and needles about 1cm below where I tapped. A seriously confused message but I'll take it! It's hope!!! Maybe the nerves are waking back up! PLEASE!!!!

Unfortunately, this slight glimmer of hope has increased my mad tapping habit 3 fold and my index finger is rarely found away from my chin. This could soon because socially inhibiting but for now.....it's time to stop typing, it's tying up my tapping finger!  

Day 91: Thirteen Weeks - 3 Months On.

Left Jaw Pain 0/10     

Right Jaw Pain: 0/10    

Hip Pain: 0/10

Inconvenience factor: 1/10

It's been a fabulous week! Sure I still chew like a mongoose lemur devouring a treat, have a large numb spot, about 6 ulcers and spend half my day flinching and then  fishing broken elastics out of my mouth.......but the rest is well, pretty damn good!

My easing back into a non-sedentary life is going well and I'm already planning great things for our first post-surgery 4 hour Rogaine in March! I am finally getting some tooth to tooth contact on the left side and the sensation vs tingly balance on the left side of my face has finally tipped into the realms of a sensation dominant feeling! Hooray!!!

But honestly, maybe the shine off of me this week comes from my trip to the Orthodontist on Wednesday morning!

After instructing me to grin, open, close, followeed by some general poking, prodding and a bit of humming.....he delivered news I was NOT expecting!

"Well, my dear, it seems that my work here is nearly done! One last adjustment and then these things can come off!"

"Urggdegug Hwt Lagohg" - it is rather hard to talk with cheek separaters and a dental nurse hands in your mouth!

Clearly, he is used to deciphering such garble "12 weeks. 1st of May you can get them off"

Holy Crows! I nearly choked! YAY!! HOORAY! All I could do was give the thumbs up!!! He laughed and walked out!

12 weeks.

That's only 84 days! I was expecting another 6 months based on what they'd told me before surgery! Don't care - I'll take it!!!! So excited for a metal-free mouth and SOON!!!!

On that note - I think it is time to drop these updates back to monthly now! I can't see much more happening to my face that is going to be noteworthy  (unless I fall over and get a black eye or something, in which case I PROMISE to post photos so you can all laugh).  But, assuming all improvements from now on are going to be snail paced - I'll see you back here in a month's time!

Day 84: Twelve Weeks On...

Left Jaw Pain 0/10     

Right Jaw Pain: 0/10    

Hip Pain: 0/10

Inconvenience factor: 2/10

This week I have gotten a grip again! Thank goodness for that! You can all breathe out! 

 

How did I get to my place of zen? Lots of words of encouragement from friends and family! Then I spent a bit of time reading back over my blog to remind me of just how far I had come and in reflection, how far I had come in a really quite short period of time! I also focussed on the long term objective being 60 and chewing! 

It also greatly helped that the constant tingling in my chin and lip have stopped their ceaseless 'white noise' and now only tingle when I touch them! 

And the most exciting development is that my body has actually decided that it is okay for me to run again! This past week, I struck out on 2 tentative 20min jogs and felt just fine afterwards (albeit hot and buggared). Then yesterday, I headed to the Uni track and smashed out 4.5km! Definitely not easy but so seriously satisfying. It took hours to wipe the grin off of my face!

So largely, I am in a happy space again!

The only major embuggerance to my contentedness this week, has been the confounded elastics that still hold my teeth together in order to close my bite a bit! Seeing as I can open my mouth more and more every week and I am stuffing far more chewable food in there than ever before, the elastics keep breaking on me. At very unpredictable times and with great comedic effect!

When one pops, it sling shots inside my mouth, randomly snapping whichever lip, gum or inner cheek happens to be in the way. If it's a numb spot then it's all good....dodged a bullet, Tidy! If it hits an area with feeling - HOLEY MOLEY - it hurts like heck! 

At the moment, I am busting about 2-3 a day! It must be truly hilarious for the watcher when this happens in public -  I jump half a foot in the air, contort my face in shock and try to suppress a squeal. I then spend about 3 mins trying to fish the broken elastic out of my mouth! Fun times!

I have an appointment with the orthodontist next Wednesday, I am super keen to find out what he thinks about my uneven bite and whether or not it can be fixed with enough time or if my teeth will never ever meet again on the left hand side of my jaw! Stay tuned for the next enthralling installment!

Ps - 12 weeks - is that 3 months? Or is 3 months 90 days??? I don't know so just in case here is a recap of my side profile. 

1) Pre-surgery 

2) 5 weeks post surgery and  

3) Today (12 weeks)

 

Day 77: Eleven Weeks On....

Left Jaw Pain 0/10     

Right Jaw Pain: 0/10    

Hip Pain: 0/10

Inconvenience factor: 5/10

Week 11 already?!?!?! "But what happened to Week 10 Young Lady" I hear you ask!?
If I am honest, last week I was thoroughly fed up! Supremely frustrated, annoyed, down in the dumps, grumpy bearing and absolutely not in the right frame of mind for blogging anything worth reading......unless you like self indulged, whiny emo-ness! 

My wallowing centred on my uneven bottom jaw and the resultant ineffectual chewing I am still plagued by, my continued inability to bite, the numbness, the aching teeth, the ulcers, the constant pins and needles in my face, the stupid bits of bone in my cheeks that refuse to flatten - all of which I had assumed would be back to normal by now. On top of that my inability to run and the dissolution of my previously great fitness base continues to plague me - how am I going to train for and run an Ultramarathon in 2013, if I can't even jog for 20mins at Grandpa pace? (All this leads to the inconvenience factor of 5! I'm definitely ready for life to be approaching normal again!)

So esssentially, you know, all the same old crap I've been banging on about for weeks now and you're probably sick to death of hearing!....Oh...AND on top of all that my goldfish got sick and died! Poor Miss Maggie! :(

And then there is the small matter of my newly acquired wonky smile that I noticed for the first time last week! I freaked out a little bit and since then I have become completely paranoid about smiling. What am I on about? Check this photo out:

>THIS< is what happens when I don't concentrate on smiling and just smile!!!!!!!!

I used to have a fantastic smile....
Now I have that twisted mess up there.....HONESTLY WHAT IS THAT?
It looks like a cross between a grimace and a really bad Groucho Marx impression.

So now, to smile with some sort of symmetry, I have to concentrate really hard and consciously 'pull' down the right side of my lip!
Hard work and annoying! 

This may go part way to explaining my grumpy moods. You don't have to smile when you are grumpy! Life is easier for me this way! :)

A few people have asked me in the past 2 weeks whether it has all been worth it? After some serious pondering of this question, I would have to say, at this point of my recovery....my answer is no, it has not been worth it!!!

Not yet anyway. Hopefully, in time, it will be (please let that be true). But at the moment, I am no better off, in fact I am worse off in terms of my ability to eat, which was, after all, the whole point! Plus, there is the plethora of other things that have and do compromise my quality of life and all the little things yet to resolve themselves that bug me everyday. So, ask me again in a month and hopefully I can answer differently! 
 
One step in the right direction at least this week, was that I managed to complete a slow 20 min jog without stopping or needing medical attention at the end of it! Hooray! There is hope!!!!

Day 63: Nine Weeks On....

Left Jaw Pain 0/10     

Right Jaw Pain: 0/10    

Hip Pain: 1/10

Inconvenience factor: 4/10

Nine weeks in AND a New Year! I figured today was the day to try running again! 

63 days without donning my old faithfuls to hit the trails seems unbelievable.... the withdrawal symptoms have definitely kicked in......I am ready, I have been thinking about this all week - I am finally consuming enough calories, I have my energy and bounce back, and I hardly notice my hip when walking any more. Surely I am ready for a wee jog?!?!? Just 20 to 30 minutes along the beach to the jetty and back! Should be a piece of cake!

The alarm goes off at 6:45am, I pull on my running gear, lace up my shoes and step out in the crisp morning. I return to the house to grab another layer of clothes, mentally check myself and try again! My first few paces are tentative and slow, not sure how the hip is going to go - all is good and I ease into my stride - across the park, over the road, up the hill, down to the beach all smiles and buzzing in the joy of an old friend. I set my sights on the jetty in the distance, locking in a 4.5km circuit. I can do this!!! 

 About 8 mins into the run my hip sends me a quick memo.....I momentarily wonder if I should stop and walk for a bit......Nah! That hardly hurts at all. I know what pain is and that ain't even a 1 on the chart yet! Jetty here I come! You are all probably shaking your heads at me right now but let me tell you it was not my hip that was my undoing....

It seems that every part of my body that missed out on the pity party of the past 9 weeks has decided to have has something to say to me!  2 minutes after the hip twinge, my knees started playing up, then a toe and then my guts cramped like nobody's business to the point it took my breathe away. That pulled me up short! What now? I'm only 10mins in this run, I can't stop now - I refuse to walk!!! But I'm not insane, I aborted the jetty dream, mapped out a shortcut and took 8 mins to run home in the most awkward half crunched over gait you've ever seen. 

Recovery from the guts attack was not swift. It was not pretty. It involved a 'bathroom break', followed by lying on cold tiles and then sitting under a cold shower. Eventually, I came good and managed to limp my way to work. By the end of the day my leg muscles were already stiff and sore - I find this hard to comprehend! I only ran for 18 mins. PATHETHIC!! Have I really lost every scrap of my fitness? It would appear that 9 weeks of being sedentary has sent me right back to the beginning like that dreaded serpent at Number 99 on the snakes and ladders board. Arrgh!!!

My week of chewing has been interesting. My teeth don't line up at all well at the moment, I think this is because the muscles on the left side of my face have loosened, where as the right side muscles are still spme what stiff and tight and create distinct resistance to my jaw opening. This all results in a very uneven biting mechanism and the teeth on my left side never actually meeting. To make matters worse, I keep biting on my numb lip. So, whilst I persist in it, chewing is rather slow and awkward and is definitely not a pretty sight for the beholder! 

The left side of my numb lip and chin has been tingling pins and needles permanently for a number of days now. Whilst, I'm taking this as a great sign for nerve recovery (hopefully), it is also HIGHLY IRRITATING and can be quite distracting. It's like some crazy white noise for your touch sense! 

However, if it means I will get sensation back there again, I will take it for as long as I have to!!!!! Unfortunately, the right side of my bottom lip and chin still has no sensation whatsoever! I may just have to come to terms with it never coming back?!?!?! Argh!

Day 56: Eight Weeks on...

Left Jaw Pain 0/10     

Right Jaw Pain: 0/10    

Hip Pain: 1/10

Inconvenience factor: 2/10

Hipbone bits in my cheek 0/10 

It's been a GREAT week! I finally have progress in my ability to chew! I have been testing it out every day - usually with painful feedback which stops further attempts. But yesterday, my mouth opened noticeably wider than ever before (well at least since surgery - Check out the gapping gob below).

I also realised that yawning did not hurt anymore - I could feel the muscles working but they didn't hurt! So, it was with great excitement that I undertook my daily chewing experiment: A small spoonful of soggy weetbix....yes okay, not the most formidable of opponents but you have to start somewhere. For the first time in 8 weeks, I was victorious! You have no idea how amazing that feeling was!!!

So I figured it was time to explore my chewability with some more challenging foods!!!

Round 2 -  Morning tea scones with jam and cream - Cut up into tiny pieces - somewhat awkward and not very effective chewing of 3 pieces of scone but no pain and no inner cheek chomping either - thank goodness!

Round 3 - Spinach and fetta pasty roll - again something super soft and cut into tiny pieces but was chomped on 6 pieces with great success and in a slightly more coordinated manner!

Round 4 - A pile of Smarties - Suck them a little bit and gently crush between the teeth - left side was sweet, the right side of my jaw did not want to play ball and hurt so I quit but it's good to find my new limits.

I am so excited to be well and truly back on the road to chewing. It's slow and awkward but it's CHEWING!!!!!! Woo Hoo!!! 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!