Just truckin' along. Day 28.

Not a whole lot of excitement to report since my last post. Two posts this week- look at me go!

I met with my surgeon today. He was very, very pleased with everything! He said my incisions had healed beautifully, and all the ones inside my mouth looked great too. He said the fact that I'm still as swollen as I am is completely normal. Every time I ask if it's normal that something hurts, he just reminds me that I had major surgery. Nothing I don't know, but still reassuring that nothing has gone horribly wrong. Ooh! The one new exciting thing is that the inside of my upper lip has started tingling- the sign that I am regaining feeling there! I found out today that part of the surgery entailed peeling my facial muscles off of the bone (yes, you read that correctly), and they take about 6 weeks to reattach...so I should regain full feeling of my upper lips and cheeks in the near future! Wahoo! All I can say is I'm glad I didn't know that before the big day. Yikes!

I don't think I've ever actually summed up my feeling (or lack thereof). Basically, I have full feeling and mobility of my lower lip and chin, some movement but no feeling from my upper lip up to and including my lower eyelids (except I can feel my nose), full feeling and some movement of my upper eyelids, and full feeling but zero movement of my eyebrows and forehead. Everything cheeks and down should come back pretty soon. I've been offered the option to go see an eye surgeon about having temporary gold weights put into my eyelids but they don't bother me enough at this moment to have anything else done to my face (can you blame me??), and there's no guarantee that my forehead movement will come back, but I won't know for sure for at least a year, unless of course it comes back before then. But I mean, I can't do the one-eyebrow-raise anyway, and it's like free botox! Don't some women pay a lot of money to have their foreheads stop moving? No wrinkles for me! Thanks, OHIP!

Anyway, the appointment was good and reassuring. On surgery day, I had asked to be able to see my joints after they were taken out, but at this point it looks like I'll just be able to see the photos he took of them. Apparently they don't get joints that mangled very often, so they have been taken to be studied. Hopefully he'll let me see the photos next time- I have an appointment in 2 weeks to have my splint removed. I shudder at how much that's going to hurt (they told me to load up on pain meds on my way over), but I know that's just one step closer to being back to normal.

Here is a photo of me today- note that I am showered and in real clothes! Yay! For now I have embraced my edgy hipster haircut. I see it everywhere- no one has to know that I had it done against my will, it could just be my cool style!

Day 28.

Also a more up-close photo of my incisions. Look at those beautiful scars! They are fading away more and more every day. I'm pretty darn pleased with them. Also I have no idea why I haven't bruised at all during this whole thing. How does THAT make sense? My surgeon must be even more pro than I thought!

As a last little treat, I forgot to post my cool xrays in the last post so here they are! You can't see the top part of the joint because it's made of plastic, but you can see the bottom part, and the bolts in the chin and behind the nose. In the other one you can see the joints head on and how they are bolted into my head. I know it's a little bit gruesome, but you can't tell me this isn't wicked. I'm still just blown away that this can even be done. I really am so lucky.

Time to go watch a movie with my friends that are visiting. All in all, a good day. (I mean, I had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner! Cut up really small!) Thanks, still, for all the continued love and support :) Means more than you'll ever know!

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