Day 11: One-Fanged Vampire

Day 11 is here!

Photos (I made them smaller to try something new):

Something else new - my profile smiling!

Everyday I am loving my new face more and more! It looks like the swelling has gone down a lot, but I'd say I am still 30% swollen... so every day my face is still changing. I really hope it doesn't take the full 2 months for all the swelling to go down. I really hated my profile before (as most of you have read in my prior posts) and now I'm so happy with it! The one thing I'm concerned about is that my lips are still apart when I'm at rest, but I'm hoping that this is just because of the swelling. I think it is, because my top left lip is still numb and all the stitches are still in... so I assume it my lips will still change (become less swollen) as the time goes.

I don't really know if it can really be seen from the photos, but all of my good friends and my boyfriend say that my whole face has changed (except for my eyes). I guess because I'm seeing myself everyday I can't tell the changes that much. But it's exciting that it's not just in my head and that other people are noticing it. I had an open bite, not a large over bite or under bite, so the transformation doesn't seem as drastic and some other people's post-surgery photos I've seen.

So as I mentioned yesterday, my left elastic seemed like it was going to burst - and it did. So now I look like I only have one fang (as per my title for the day). I called my Dr.'s office this morning and they said I can wait until Friday (my 2nd post-op) to have it replaced.

Earlier today I did another session of the cold-laser therapy on my face/mouth. I seem to be healing really well/fast so I'm unsure if it's because of my natural healing powers or because of this lasering! The lasering session basically consists of me holding these square pads to my face for 7-9 minutes and they shoot lasers into my skin. Sounds fun eh? I don't actually feel anything! I'm doing another session tomorrow as well.

My mouth muscles are slowly coming back. I can talk pretty well now, but it's still an effort with some words (since the numbness is still prevalent). I'm still making the funny faces and stretching out my mouth as much as possible to get it moving!

I went out to dinner for the first time since the operation today! My friend Mariya and I went to a restaurant that literally has 100+ options to choose from (The Pickle Barrel for any of you Torontonians)... so we thought they would for sure have something for me to eat! I had their soup of the day (Sweet Potato soup that tasted somewhat citrusy...it was interesting) and a side of hummus! Yum! haha. It took me twice as long to eat as Mariya took to eat her food... so I'm warning any of my friends who want to dine with me in the near future that it will be a long adventure.

Bruising is almost all gone!

Otherwise, no big changes really for today. Tomorrow I have a hair appointment! I love the feeling of freshly cut hair :) I'll take a photo with new do and post it tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a great Wednesday!

Alexis

Day 9 & 10:

Good evening!


I've missed you all! I was away from my laptop for the past few days, so I wasn't able to update yesterday...but today you get 2 days worth!

Day 10 (DOUBLE DIGITS!!) Photos:

Day 9 Photos:

These past two days have been great with recovery. I've been eating lots of mushy food (instead of just smoothies & liquid!)... I've also been eating lots of ice cream and gelato (I'm sure you could have guessed that already though). My appetite is pretty back to normal, but now it just takes a lot of time to eat anything of substance. 2 cups of soup or "mush" takes me about a half an hour to eat... so for someone who is super impatient, this is treating me how to eat properly I guess. It also takes a lot of energy to eat, so it keeps me from stuffing my face.

My speech has improved tremendously and most people can now understand me when I'm talking. I find that the quieter I talk, the more I can pronounce words properly. Unsure why, I assume it's just how the muscles work in my mouth and the hold the elastics have on how far I can open my mouth. I will try to make a video for you guys in the next few days so you can see how I'm coming along with speech!

Speaking of elastics... the one on my left side seems to be shredding a bit. I really hope that it doesn't break before my 2nd pre-op appointment (on Friday).

My energy level is still pretty good. I do have to take breaks/naps/rests a few times a day because I just get tired easier than normal. I havent gone for a walk in a few days, so I'm hoping to get out tomorrow for about an hour! I think it really helps with the healing and it makes me feel good (since I can't be a gym rat for another few weeks). Weight is still the same, down 8 lbs.

I've been doing a lot more mouth muscle/facial massages and "work outs"... I just move my mouth in crazy ways to see how far I can get the muscles to go. This has improved immensly over and now it doesnt hurt when I smile anymore! I think it's also because the stitches are healing up nicely and they arent being stretched when I talk/smile.

Swelling is down more! I still have a fair amount of pressure around my nose, mouth and chin and this is where the swelling is as well. It feels like a sinus infection x 10, except I can sneeze. My nose is pretty clear, so I can breath out of it... but there's still the pressure.

Bruising is very slight now! Almost all gone :)

Do you guys have any questions for me? It's so hard for me to remember the little details of my recovery, so please feel free to ask anything you may have on your mind!

Sweet dreams :)

Alexis

Day 8: a.k.a. Chipmunchkin

Wow! I cannot believe it's my second Saturday post-op! Insano!

This post may not be as long as usual, I posted a good one this morning (for day 7) and not much has changed!

Photos:




Swellings down more!

Bruising is less neon like!

My appetite is back in full swing! This morning I had a Boost for breakfast, some gelato (coconut & hazelnut chocolate) for an afternoon snack, a bowl of that delicious hearty soup I mentioned in my last post and then a Strawberry/Cranberry/Milk/Vega smoothie for dinner.

My friend Amanda came to visit me today! She kind of freaked out when she saw me and told me how different I was already looking (yey!!!). The other day she made up a nickname for me, which is the name of my post today - Chipmunchkin (Chipmunk & Munchkin)... I thought it was cute. We had a great time eating that scrumptious gelato I just mentioned. We also then went for a long walk (probably 1.5 hours). It was so beautiful outside, we couldn't stay in! I was pretty tired when we got back to my place, so I've just been relaxing since.

I've been trying to exercise my mouth muscles a lot to get them moving. Making really strange facing to stretch out everything and try to get full function back... it's taking A LOT of time, especially since I'm still about 50% swollen in my cheeks/mouth area. If you look at my smiling photo though I can smile a bit bigger now!

That's all for today :)

I hope everyone is having a fabulous Saturday night!

Alexis

Day 7: 1 Week Milestone & 1st Post-Op Appointment!

1 Week!!!

My apologies for not posting this blog yesterday, I had a super long day and was totally out of it when I got home.

Here are the 1-week post-op pics:

It looks like my swelling is still going down slightly everyday! Yesterday was the first day that I blow dried my hair and put on some mascara - what a difference it makes to feeling good after a week of schlumpiness. I can really start seeing the way my profile is going to turn out - AND I'm LOVING IT!!!!!!!! Bruising is more prominent everyday. Thats ok though - I'm thinking of getting a nail polish to match it.

As I mentioned in my last post, I also had my Post-Op appointment with Dr. R (my Oral Surgeon) yesterday. He said everything looks PERFECT and that I am healing up super well. When the OS assistants were cleaning my teeth before Dr. R came in to see me, they said that my teeth are very clean and that I'm doing a great job at it (hard to know if you're doing a good job when you can only rinse your mouth with the medicated oral rinse they give you). I am supposed to keep the same elastics on that I have right now (since the surgery) and he'll change them when I come in next week for my 2nd Post-Op (on Friday). Dr. R also said that I can start drinking any liquids I want including soups and such (anything that doesn't require chewing) as long as I make sure I clean my mouth really well after (oral rinse and light brushing on the brackets only - have to make sure I don't hit the stitches still). The stitches are still in there - does anyone know how long they take to fall out?

During the appointment I also had my x-rays done! See here (now vs. before):

I personally think that all the metal screws are cool. Maybe X-Men will come and find me and let me join their troop. I don't know what super powers I'd want right now, but I'll think about that one. As you can see from the x-ray above, I have a total of 6 screws in my face now, 2 in my chin and 4 in my upper jaw. I can't feel them. Maybe I'll be able to when the swell goes away? Comparing the 2 x-rays has been kind of fun. It's amazing to see how perfectly my teeth fit together now. Some of you may be wondering why I have less teeth on my top opposed to my bottom... this is because I had teeth removed from my upper jaw when I was 13(ish). So Dr. R did the best that he could without those. Usually the top teeth will go father back than the bottom teeth, but this really wont affect my chewing. Dr. R wished that they hadn't taken out those teeth because then they would have been able to perform double jaw (ouch) surgery and make my bite perfect... but they did an excellent job at what they had to work with!

Daily improvements section: I can now drink out of a regular glass cup!!!! AMAZING!!!! I did this a few times without spilling anything on me. The only weird part is that I cant feel the cup when it presses against my left side (still super numb). I had an entire bowl of blended hearty home made soup (made by my boyfriends aunt who is an incredible cook). It literally took me an hour to eat it with a child's spoon while my boyfriend sat with me patiently. Ativan at night (I got an extra prescription of this because sometimes having only one per night doesn't work as well).

Most annoying part: YAWNING! It does NOT feel good to yawn. I can't open my jaw fully and it gets really sore when I try to. I guess this is my body's way of telling me GO TO SLEEP NOW OR WE WILL MAKE SURE YOUR PUNISHED!

After my Post-Op appointment I went to visit my boyfriend's father who is a chiropractor. Before the surgery he asked if I wanted to try some cold laser therapy to help with the healing and I was up for it. So he did the first laser therapy session on my face. I'm going to do it a few more times next week and hopefully this will help even more with the swelling and healing (especially with the stitches - I want those suckers out!)

Weight - I'm down 8 lbs - eek! I'm hoping I don't lose anymore now that I get to eat somewhat real foods.

I'll post Day 8 later tonight (arent you guys lucky with two posts in one day!!)

Alexis

Day 6 - Ice Cream is the new Codeine

Day 6! OMGosh!

I can't believe it will be a week tomorrow. It's incredible how fast time goes when your hopped up on all sorts of drugs :) I have lots of good news from today, but let's start with the photos:

This smiling photo kind of scares me. I've been watching True Blood all week long and I kind of think I look like a vampire with the elastics showing. MUUUWAHAHAHA.

So today was very relaxing! I think it helped a lot with the swelling because my face is looking a lot less swollen! I took these photos on my Blackberry, so their quality isn't the greatest. I have a LOT of yellowish bruising on my lower cheeks and down my neck which you can't really tell from here.

Today I was also allowed to start drinking things other than clear liquids! AMAZING!!! I started this morning off with a Chocolate Boost with extra Protein. I'm not a huge fan of these meal replacement drinks, I think they have a lot of chemicals, sugar and processed foods in them that I don't think my body really likes right now... so I'm going to try to drink them as a last resort. For lunch I made a delicious smoothie (very watered down) with 1% milk, frozen mangos, cranberry juice and Vega (whole food health optimizer). Vega is a complete meal replacement that is high in fiber, protein, and essential fatty acids. It's also free from animal products, dairy, gluten, soy, sugar, wheat, yeast, artificial sweeteners, GMOs and pesticides. I'm going to try to use Vega everyday and it should be able to give me a lot of the vitamins and minerals I am missing from eating normal foods. I cannot claim that it tastes very good though... For dinner, I had more of the shake I made for lunch and some delicious Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream for dessert! YUM.

This afternoon I decided to stop taking the codeine (I took one portion in the morning when I woke up). So I'm just on Extra Strength Tylenol now! I haven't felt any pain all day, so it must mean that I don't need to codeine any longer.

As I mentioned before, today was relaxing - the only visitor I had was my brother this morning who came and brought me a marvelous squishy neck pillow. I tried it out when I napped this afternoon and it was SUPERB at keeping my head up! Having only one visitor helped for my resting (not for fun though) and I lay around and napped all day. It felt so good to not talk and let my mouth rest! To get some goodness back into my stressed out skin I made a blueberry/yogurt/honey face mask and sat in the sun for a while with it on. Now my skin feels so moisturized and very smooth! Later in the evening I took a 30 minute walk to get some fresh air. My energy level has been awesome and that didn't tire me out at all.

To help with the swelling and get the blood flow moving around (to bring down bruising) I was applying warm compresses all day again and massaging my face in circles. Seems to be working from what I can tell and it felt good.

I also started moving my mouth around in weird ways to try to get the muscles moving again. I think my doctor is going to show me some range of motion exercises that I will be started at my appointment tomorrow. I can now open my mouth a little more than a finger breadth (not much from yesterday.

I took a long look in my mouth today and I can see all of the stitches - its kind of cool! I had to put wax on my upper front teeth because the surgical wire prong thing has been jabbing into the inside of my upper lip. When I did that I also noticed that my upper jaw/gum area is totally numb - SO WEIRD and crazy that I didn't realise this before.

My nose has been drippy - I'm not sure that I've mentioned that yet. Sometimes it still has a slight blood residue when I wipe it, but otherwise its clear. I've been using the saline nasal spray, so it could be from that - extra moisturized!

Weight - I'm down 5 lbs now. I think that since I'm on the smoothie train as of today, I will probably not lose any more weight.

As you already may know, tomorrow is my ONE WEEK POST-OP ANNIVERSARY! Such a great milestone! I have my Dr appointment at 1:30 and I'm hoping he says everything is healing superbly. I'm also hoping that he can send me the x-rays from before and after and I'll for sure post them if he does.

Have a great night everyone!

Alexis

P.s. Yesterday I had approx. 100 people view my blog in one day! Thank you so much for everyone who has been following me and supporting my adventure. It feels great to have so much support.

Day 5: Cruisin' for a Bruisin

Day 5!

Apparently day 5 is the end of the first phase! Wahoo!! Tomorrow starts a brand new milestone (phase 2 of course).

Today was not that different from Day 4, I'll start off with photos:

The swelling has gone down a little bit, but not much. Still progress! The major difference is the bruising that is starting to appear. I've missed out on the dark bruising and just cruised into the greenish/yellowish bruising. If you look closely you can see that it's on both sides of my lower cheeks and down my neck.

Today was pretty fun! I had lots of visitors again. It's so nice to feel all the love and kindness from my friends/family. My living room is like a flower shop! I saw one of my old roomies, Ashley. Claire, Ashley and I went out for gelato (soon to be a daily occurrence) and I got the most delicious coconut and espresso (ohhhh how I miss the smell & taste of coffee). Then we picked up some milk and yogurt for when I can start drinking SMOOTHIES tomorrow! Also had my step-mother visit me and my friend Holly! Having visitors really help to make the days go by fast and to feel positive energy to keep my spirits high. Holly practiced a little Reiki healing on my face. She said it takes a few days to work properly, so if all my bruising goes away in two days it's all because of her!!!

My private doctor/best friend (Claire) had to go home today. She lives all the way in Rochester, so it was a long drive home. I'm so happy that she was able to stay with me. She claimed I was the best recovery patient ever and that the only requirement I really had was for her to chop up Tylenol during the first two days. Then it was just like being old roomies again! Claire, if you're reading this, THANK YOU SOSOOSOSOSOSO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING!!!!!!

I've gotten a little bit more feeling back today. I can now feel 80% of my bottom lip (all except a small part in the middle). My top lip is still 1/2 numb (numb on the left side). I have more feeling in my nose and the area around it. I can feel my jaw bone up until the chin area (which will probably take the most time to get feeling back in).

I haven't iced at all today, I'm done with that for now. I've been applying warm compresses to the swollen areas to get the blood moving around. I've also been massaging the skin in circles whenever I remember to. This hopefully helps with making the bruising go away faster.

I can open my mouth about one fingers breadth. I'm unsure if this is because of the elastics that are on my teeth or just because of the healing itself. When I the doctor changes the elastics on Friday (my 1st post-op appointment) we'll see if I can move it any more.

Weight - I weighed myself this morning and I've lost about 4 lbs thus far. I think once I start drinking the smoothies I'll gain some of it back... or at least not lose any more weight.

Until tomorrow!

Sweet dreams everyone :)

Alexis

Day 4: Strolling & Smiling

Day 4 has come and gone!

I'm really happy with my progress thus far. In all of the reading and info my docs gave me, they said the swelling and bruising would be the most prominent thing...but I've hardly seen much!
The only bruising I have is slight bruising on my left side (you can see a small dark spot on my left cheek and some yellowing down the side of my mouth as well). Claire says the bruising may come a bit later once the swelling goes down, so we shall see!

Here are the photos!




Here is my attempt at a smile (I seriously cannot move my mouth any farther)! ha! It's way better than its been. It means that I am gaining muscle strength back in that area. Soon enough I'll be showing off my shiny tin-grin again!


I woke up today around 7:30 am... so pretty much slept through the night since midnight! I've been pretty lucky in the sleeping scenario...those Adivan are really doing their jobs. Took my codeine/Tylenol and antibiotics at that point and then went back to sleep with an ice pack on my face until 9:30ish.

My friend Brooks (a braces friend) came by to visit me before his orthodontist adjustment around 10:30ish! It was great to see him. He's VERY glad he does not have to get jaw surgery but said I was less scary in person than he thought I'd be.

I was feeling like I had my energy back around noon, so Claire and I decided to take a stroll. We were strolling around for about 45 min! It was so great! We ended up walking over to a mani/pedi salon and Claire treated me to get my toe nails did! I got "Jade is the New Black" for any of your nail polish obsessors like myself. By the time my feet were all done I was SOOOOO tired. We went straight home after that and I took a much needed nap. Apparently I really need to not expend my energy when I'm only in taking approx 500 calories a day.

Had some more visitors in the eve including my Dad and Mariya. I love visitors, but by the time they leave I am so tired that I don't feel like talking for another day (even though I do 1% of the talking when they are here).

I've been getting more feeling back in my jaw area - a lot of tingling and some slight shooting pains (but not actually painful if you know what I mean). I'm still pretty numb under my eyes, but I'm getting more feeling on the right side. Chin is completely numb for the first 2 inches and then it just feels sore and bruised.

I've stopped icing and now have moved on to applying warm compresses to the skin. The doctor said this helps get the blood moving again and is better than icing after about the 4th day.

I really feel like tomorrow the swelling will come down a lot more because today was supposed to be the worst, so hooray! We'll see what happens then.

Toodles!

Alexis

Day 3: Gelato, Swishing & more Swelling

Hello Perfect Grillers,

Please meet my twin, Eddie the Monkey. Mariya gave him to me while I was in the hospital and it just so happens that we turned out to be twins (with our chubby cheeks and all). I named Eddie after my Oral Surgeon (I'm on the fence whether that is creepy or not, lol). Anyways, he's been quite the buddy and I'm very happy to have him. THANKS MARIYA!!!

I'll warn you now before you continue reading, my train of thought and concentration has been all over the place, so that is the way my blog will probably be written over the next week. ENJOY :)

So here are the long-awaiting for Day 3 photos: (Front, right side, then left side)

It's still hard to notice much difference because of all the swelling... I can't wait till I see my face transform! I'm still very happy about the nose change :) Claire says she can tell my chin has changed a lot...but I'm still on the fence.

Comparably to yesterday, it looks like the swelling is about the same, however it FEELS so much different. I woke up feeling like there were a ton of bricks on my face. The feeling is so strange I cannot even describe it. The inside of my mouth feels so tiny. The roof of my mouth is totally numb and I cant feel it when my teeth touch each other. The swelling feels worse on the left side of my face (as you can see in the pics it also looks more swollen on the left). There is also a slight bruise forming on the left side. I've been told that the bruising is usually worse by now, so I'm hoping that I wont bruise all that much!

There is a bit more feeling in my face, especially on the right side. Not much...but enough to mention. Can feel the right sides of my lips and around my cheek bones and the ride side of my nose.

My upper neck is pretty sore (from under my chin and a few inches down), it feels bruised, but there is no vision of bruising yet.

It's hard to show any sort of emotion through my face - besides moving my eyebrows up and down like a weirdo - ha! I'm sure I'd scare a few kiddies if I went outside.

Speaking of outside, I went for a short walk today! Claire helped me take a 5 minute walk around my building just to get outside. The weather is kind of crummy and drizzling, so I didn't want to stay out for long. The weather is supposed to be a little better over the next few days, so I'm hoping the sun shining will make me want to go out and get more fresh air. I'm not complaining about my apartment though - it's been nice just chilling with air conditioning and my tv. Lots of friends have brought over magazines and DVDs and have made it pretty easy to stay inside!

GELATO! Claire brought me a surprise this afternoon. There is this AMAZING gelato place up the street from and she picked us up a montage of delicious dairy free gelatos including lemon, lime, watermelon and mango. I could only eat tiny tiny spoonfuls at once, but it was a yummy treat! Other thant the gelato, I've been drinking the same as yesterday (broth, gatorade, juice, water, gingerale). I only have a few more days with the clear liquid diet, so it's not that bad. I tried weighing myself but couldnt really tell if I've lost weight yet (possibly 2 lbs).

I've been getting WAY WAY WAY better at taking my oral rinse. It was hard the first 2 days because I couldnt close my mouth and swish it around due to my nose being stuffed up. My nose has 90% cleared up and makes it possible to swish around for almost 3 minutes. WAHOO! The oral rinse is important because this is the only way I can clean my mouth right now (besides the salt water rinse) until I'm allowed to brush my teeth with a child's toothbrush. I think at about a week post-op I will be allowed to brush my teeth. I'll give you that update when I see Dr. R.

Get ready for the next pic.... ITS MY TEETH FINALLY CLOSING IN A PROPER BITE! OMG OMG OMG!!! HAhahaa.. This is as far as I can open my lips right now, so this will have to do. The bite looks awesome, but I don't know what it feels like yet because everything is...you guessed it...NUMB.

I'm hoping tomorrow (day 4) brings more progress! Thank you everyone again for sending all your love and high spirits my way - it gets me through the day!

Questions? Comments? Funny jokes?

Alexis

Day 2: Way more swollen

Good evening!

Well today had it's ups and downs. I got a really good nights' sleep. I took an Ativan at around 11 pm and was passed out by 12. Woke up a few times during the night but went right back to sleep. Finally woke up at 10 am and felt pretty energetic! I took all my meds in the morning by myself and didn't have to wake up Claire - go me!

I had a few friends visit, which was very nice! Zohara and Lauren and my mom - helped distract me from the swolleness that has taken over my face.

When my visitors all left, it was finally time to take off the chin bandage that had been holding my chin in place. Ouch! It felt like ripping really sticky tape off! But Claire made sure not to pull, so it went pretty smoothly.

From then I finally got to shower! It felt so good to get all fresh and clean.

So far my medicine routine is antibiotics 3 times a day (10 am, 4 pm and 10 pm), codeine with Tylenol 4 times a day (10 am, 2 pm, 6 pm and 10 pm), medical mouth wash 3 times a day, salt water rinse 2-3 times a day, saline nasal spray 3 times a day (helps freshen up my nostrils so they aren't as congested) and then Ativan before I go to bed. As mentioned before the Ativan really helps because it relaxes my muscles in my jaw and helps me rest.

I've been icing on and off as much as possible, but the swelling has definitely shot up. This is said to be normal from everything that I've read so far. Swelling is supposed to be the worse on Day 3 (tmrw) and day 4 and then it subsides from there. I still cant feel much below my eyes. My friends say I look like a chipmunk/bobble head/fish face! ha! I can deal with those nicknames for a while. Apparently I'm not that scary looking (yet).

Day 2 photos are here!:

(Profile - right side)

(Profile - left side)

As you can see from the front shot, there is a bit of bruising on the left side of my face. My left side does seem to be more swollen than the right. Unsure why, it could be because the jaw was shifted to the left to make my mid line meet up. My nose feels HUGE. Along with straightening in the side profile view, it's also been widened a tiny bit. This is due to moving the jaw upwards and it will make my breathing better in the long run.

Eating - My appetite has been OK. I've been drinking as much water as possible. I've also had chicken broth, Gatorade, prune juice and Gingerale. I'm liking the chicken broth the best because of the saltiness. My stomach has been growling a bit, but it take too much energy in my jaw to drink more often then I have been. My child's sippy cup has come in VERY VERY helpful! I'm drinking everything out of it and not spilling - wahoo!

Ok, enough for now... I'll post more updates tomorrow.

Questions?!

Alexis

Day 1 Post-Op: Swollen

Hi everyone!! I'm alive! WAHOO!

The surgery went REALLY REALLY well. It only took less than 1.5 hours (CRAZY I KNOW!). The appointment ended up being an hour behind schedule because I guess the person before me took a little more time in the OR. It was all worth the wait though (as far as I can tell!).

I stayed in the hospital last night. It was pretty relaxing. I had my own private room and a fabulous nurse that was very attentive! My father and best friend Claire were with me before and for a while after the surgery. Then my mom and other best friend Mariya stopped by until around 8 pm. Then my brother came close to the end of visiting hours! Felt so loved :) At that point I was actually able to speak a little because my face was not super swollen (like you will see shortly). As I mentioned before, I do NOT have a splint. I hear splints are awful and make it so hard to drink. I was actually able to drink a lot of water last night. I made a mixture of apple juice and water to try and get sugar in me. My throat has not been that bad either - feels way better when I drink colder drinks.

They had me on morphine and antibiotics and some sort of de-swelling medicine hooked into my IV. I didn't feel nauseous at all either! So thus far... it's been a pretty easy ride. I'm not sure what it will be like over the next few days, but Claire is with me for a week (and she's in 4th year medical school), so I know I'll be well taken care of!

I was able to have a pretty ok sleep from 12 am - 5 am. The nurse came to check on me every hour or so and give me medicine as I needed. They took my blood pressure and temperature every few hours as well. Once I was up at 5 am, I've been up for pretty much the rest of the day! Every so often I've dozed off a little, but not for more than 20 minutes.

So here are some photos for you guys!!!

Day 0 - Surgery Day!

(4 hours post surgery with ice packs)

(trying to smize - smile with my eyes!)

Day 1 - Post Op (today!)

As you can see, they have a my chin tapped up (and smushed back) pretty well - this is to hold my chin in place for 2 days. I get to take the tape off tomorrow afternoon! I don't know what it looks like underneath yet.

My face is starting to swell up A LOT. I can't really feel anything below my eyes. The only thing i can partially feel like my upper and lower right half of my lips - odd I know!

An amazing thing I noticed is that my nose is straighter (especially in the profile shot!). I will post comparison (from before surgery and when the swelling goes down) to see how much it's changed. The nose structure changed because the moved my upper jaw up and slightly forward.

That's all for now - getting drowsy!

Post any questions or comments you want! I'll try to answer them all :)

Alexis

HOME!

I just wanted to write a quick post that I am home and healthy!

Eveything went fantastic and I'll post a longer message later with some pics.

Alexis

9.5 hours till Surgery!

Good evening!

So it is the eve before my long awaited for surgery and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has shown me support along the way and for all of your kind words!

I had an amazing "last supper" of solid foods consisting of filet mignon, garlic mashed potatoes and a delicious cheese cake..mmm!



Anyways, I'm going to try to head to bed now... I intend to get up at 6 am to be on the road for 7 and at the hospital by 8 to check in... and then the surgery is at 10 am! It's a 2 hour surgery and then recovery room for an hour.

I'll try my best to post tomorrow evening during my stay at the hospital.

Until then goodnight my dearies - I'll see you all next with my new face!

Alexis

Pre-Surgical Photos of Midline and Bite

3 days till surgery!

Here are some photo updates:

The photo below is of my relaxed bite - without me forcing my lips closed (which I always have to do). As you can see by my lovely artistry, I have a very un-aligned bite. I'm not sure I've shared this with you guys before - I didn't even realise it as much until I had my consult with Dr. R (my oral surgeon.) My upper jaw is shifted off centre by about 1-2 mm (I forget the exact amount) and my bottom by about .5 mm. They can't do much about the bottom, but it may fall into place once my upper jaw is centred. On a perfect bite, the centre of your front teeth match up to your lip midline (see the long line that says "Midline").


The second photo was taken tonight, so about 1 year and 4 months with braces. The photo is showing off my brand new surgical wires! See those prong looking dealies? Those are also called torture devices. I have to admit - they are very uncomfortable and they are digging into my inner lips ALOT. Thank goodness I won't feel them past Friday...when I won't feel ANYTHING.

For those of you who don't know what surgical wires are, I will tell you! They are used during surgery to wire your mouth shut and lock it in place. Once the surgery is done, they replace the metal wiring with elastics. Then I wear elastics around the prongs for up to 6 weeks post-op to keep my bite in place.

Toodles!