Day 37: Exciting Week Ahead!

Hi!!!!!

Well 5-weeks post-op has come and gone and here are my photos from Day 37!


This week coming up is exciting in my jaw surgery/braces adventure! On Tuesday I have my 6-week post op appointment with my oral surgeon (#3 post-op appointment) and then on Wednesday I have my 1st orthodontist appointment post-op!!!!! That means I get my surgical wires off - HURAY!!!!!

I feel that the swelling is at about 4% (maybe 1% down from last post - hehe). I can really see the shape of my new face now. My cheekbones are definitely back and better then ever - which is very very exciting to someone who looked like a chipmunk/porcupine for the past month. The swelling is still in the same places as before - it just feels like there's slightly less pressure now.

All the numbness is still there from before (left upper lip, middle bottom lip and chin)... nothing has really changed with that. Although I've had a fair amount of itching and tingling in my left upper life and chin... so that can only mean good things! However, the most annoying thing is when it's SOOO itchy and you can't feel yourself scratching. ARGHH! I've heard A LOT about vitamin B12 supposedly being excellent in nerve regeneration... so I'm thinking of starting to take that this week. I'm going to talk to my oral surgeon on Tuesday and see what his thoughts are on it.

I have to admit that week 5 has been my roughest week yet. I felt a bit down this week and my appetite REALLY disappeared. I think a lot of it had to do with all the hype of the jaw surgery transformation being over and starting to get back into my normal life. For many months before the operation I was doing tons of research, planning, talking, etc. about the surgery and then post-op, the daily transformations were my main focus for about a month. Then all of sudden everything goes back to normal and I guess I missed having something to look forward too/motivating. I'm a BIG goal-oriented person. With that lack of motivation came my loss of appetite. It's hard to get excited about eating when all your doing is putting liquids/mush in your mouth. I lost about 2 lbs this week from not eating properly... so my main focus THIS week is to put that weight back on because it is very important to make sure I'm getting enough nutrition. Has anyone else come across this issue during their post-op recovery?

I did attempt to go to the gym this week! I did 20 minutes of cardio on the elliptical and then walked home from there, which is another 20 minutes. Getting my heart rate up on the elliptical was very interesting feeling - it felt like I was starting to work out for the first time EVER!! haha. As much as I'd love to go to the gym more often right now (helps to feel better), I know that I need to focus on maintaining calories instead of burning them for the next little while. When I feel healthy enough I will be back there 3-4 times a week!

I really want to send a huge THANK YOU to all my friends, my family and my boyfriend, who have been so amazing and supportive of me during the surgery, during the post-op and especially this past week. I would not have been able to recover so well without all of you and know that I appreciate everything that you guys do. <3

I'm thinking of making another video this week - so look out for that and the updates from my oral surgeon/orthodontist in the next few days!!

Alexis