Day 14: Two Weeks On.

Left Jaw Pain: 0/10
Right Jaw Pain: 3/10

Hip Pain: 3/10

Inconvenience factor: 4/10

So here I am two weeks after surgery! Incredible!!!

Honestly, this little black duck is pretty happy with how it's all going! Of course, there is still much room for improvement...eating, talking, walking, sneezing, yawning, sleeping - you know - the little things! And today I definitely found that I still need to take it easy. Sitting on the couch feeling good is one thing. Exploring the wider world is not as easy as I remember. A few outings away from the house today and by nightfall I was utterly stuffed and in enough pain to have to submit to taking panadol again! Argh! Two steps forward, one step back! 

To mark 2 weeks post surgery, I have attached some photos. The first set is the changes in my side profile. The first shot of the 3 is me side profile at the start of this process back in January 2012. The middle mug shot is my face at maximum swelling post surgery (Day 4) and the last picture is me today....2 weeks after surgery. There is definitely less chin and MORE cheekbone and still a fair bit of puffiness to disappear if you ask me!

The fabulous photos below are of my bite back in January before they stuck braces on (not great photos but you get the idea). I don't recall my teeth looking this bad but you know what they say about the value of hindsight. I do remember them eating badly though! 

This morning was a trip to the Orthodontist for a post-surgery check up! He was very pleased with how my bite was looking and promised that it was now his job to get me a bite that will work! He also shook his head at my mouth full of fluoro pink and green elastics and gave me some neutral coloured ones instead. I could have kissed him!!!!!

I now have to wait 4 weeks to see him again, at which point the elastics and surgical hooks will come off and we get down to the serious business of getting me a perfect bite and hopefully, sooner rather than later, getting these confounded braces off!

I met another super nice double jaw surgery patient this morning at the Orthodontist. Her surgery was 2 weeks and 2 days ago. She was a lot less puffy and had some blue bruising still (I never had blue, just mucky yellow - JEALOUS). We swapped stories- the good, the bad and the ugly and I hope no one else in the waiting room was due for surgery as we laid it all out on the line. No one ran out the room screaming so we're probably in the clear.

The most shocking thing for me in meeting her was that unlike me, she was an ostrich and decidedly put her head in the sand over the whole matter. Her first question to me was "Did you realise how major this surgery was going to be? How bad the first week was going to be?" Are you serious? Can I scream YES, YES I DID! right now with offending you!?!? Apparently, she had friends trying to prepare her of what was coming but she didn't want to know, was actually glad that she didn't know. Luckily for her, she stayed with her mum for the first 10 days and was tended to.

I was gobsmacked, especially if I think how many hours this past year I have spent thinking about this, researching it, trying to understand it and ultimately deciding whether to do it or not and then trying not to worry about it. I still can not understand how you can go to your dentist and they inform you, "Oh by the way, you're going to need braces and double jaw surgery" and you reply "Okay then" and just turn up on the day! I wonder if life is so much easier that way?

One thing is for sure - I'm never going to know if it is, the Control Streak is far too strong!!!!