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