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)