DAY 100!

Well, ladies and gents, I've done it. I've survived 100 days with my new face. Thinking back to the summer, I can't believe how long it's been. Yay! My little stint at home seemed to last forever, but I've almost been at school for that same amount of time. Crazy.

Anyway, things are going well. I can finally (sort of) smile!!! Here is photographic evidence. It's from a few days ago, but I promise it hasn't changed. I still can't move anything on the top half of my face, but it doesn't look half bad I don't think!

SMILE!

I finally went yesterday to get my card key for the pathobio building (where my lab is), and I was pleasantly surprised to look halfway normal in my photo. Finally!

Tuesday I had an appointment with my surgeon. It was awesome! He was so pleased with how I'm doing. Last time I was there (early September?) I could open 23mm wide- this time I got a massive 45. 45mm falls in the normal range! It's great and all to think the swelling is going down, but nothing is quite as exciting as concrete quantitative evidence. Guess the jaw exercises actually do work. He was so happy with my smile too- he says he's so proud of me, and although I'm not convinced that it actually has anything to do with me, I'll take it! It's very reassuring to be told that your progress is not only awesome, but it exceeds expectations. The big disappointment of the day though is the verdict on skydiving. If you've talked to me even once in the past month or so, I've probably told you about how I'm going skydiving. I've wanted to do it for absolutely ever, and I convinced my roommates to come with me. We signed up and it was going to be this coming Saturday (the 20th). I don't know why, but I absolutely couldn't see a potential problem. I figured that I could make it a gentle landing, and even if it were to be rough, titanium is pretty tough. Probably tougher than your "real bone" joints...psh. I thought at most I would have to wear a mouth guard to cushion the impact. Anyway, I told my surgeon about it and his response was not what I expected/wanted to hear. He burst out laughing and then realized I was serious- he could not wrap his head around the fact that I wanted to hurl myself out of a plane 15 weeks post-op. He said the landing could (and likely would) jar my jaw and then I would have chronic pain forever. Not exactly the road I want to go down after having such magical results so far. He is obviously right, but I am so disappointed I can hardly stand it. I was trying so hard not to cry because then I had to have photos taken- it was not a fun afternoon. I'm sure I would be fine, but if I were to go ahead and do it anyway and something were to happen, I would look like such an idiot and there would be no sympathy in the chronic pain department (not to mention these 100 days of recovery will have been for naught). Long story short, Saturday is going to suck when I am sitting at home alone while my roommates go live out my bucket list dream. Jaw surgery sucks.

On a more positive note, I am loving this fall season. I made these pumpkin chocolate chip bars the other day that are just wonderful, and I'm just obsessed with the weather. My new favourite study spot is in the big glass building where my lab is because it looks onto a field with lots of beautiful coloured trees. The view is probably distracting, but it certainly is a mood improver. Other good news is my gross haircut is almost long enough to tuck/pin behind my ears. While I have pretty much accepted it, I still can't fathom why anyone would voluntarily do this. There's going to be a solid year until I can put it in a ponytail with my normal hair. Actually I read an article thing this morning with the 25 worst fashion trends or something, and this bad boy made the list alright. Don't do it, kids. But back to the silver lining, it is almost tuck-behind-my-ears-able. 

Anyway, skydiving disaster aside, all is well. Feeling more normal and getting into the swing of school. Course selection was this morning, and I couldn't decide so I just signed up for everything and I'll decide what to drop later. Last course selection EVER. I have to go run to my anatomy lab now, but here is a more stoic, less trying to smile picture. Jawline for miles.

Happy Thursday!

A

Peace, surgical hooks! 12 weeks.

Today I had the immense pleasure of getting my surgical hooks removed. It's definitely not the same level of awesomeness as having my splint taken out, but it's still a welcome change. No longer will my lip get awkwardly stuck while I'm talking to someone, and I won't be that weird girl on the bus who keeps licking her teeth anymore. Remember back when I got them put on? My 2nd blog post, if memory serves. Oh, how menacing I thought they were. And how menacing they turned out to be. Ah well, distant memory. I've already forgotten what it's like to get my lip stuck. Maybe it never even happened...

Anyway, this joy was made possible by a trip home today to visit my orthodontist. She also replaced all the brackets at the top because a few of them had broken in surgery (I don't want to know how) and they had unsightly blobs of white plaster holding them on. You realize how actually non-white teeth are when they have pure white glue on them. Now they are back to the beautiful invisible braces I've had for the past 15 months. My roommate didn't seem to notice a difference when I oh-so-excitedly showed him my new and improved hardware, but I notice and that's all that matters! (To be fair, I don't really smile very much). Regardless, now that they are a little more viewer-friendly I've snapped a good ol' photobooth shot to show the change in my teeth. In both photos, my teeth are clamped shut. Look at that space in the before shot! No wonder I was a disaster at biting things. Now they happily close like normal-people teeth! Never using a knife again- I will pick things up on a fork and bite pieces off. Just because I can.

Bite improvement!

Someone give me a plastic bag I can tear open please.

Oh! I found the little notebook that I was using to write on in the hospital when I couldn't speak. It is equally the funniest and saddest thing ever. Here are a few choice excerpts: 

"More pain meds. I can't swallow. I'm drowning." How depressing is this! Even required an underline, it was so hectic. First night drama no doubt.

"Do my teeth touch?" Why yes, Allie, yes they do! "Need to swallow :(" Problem was solved by a nifty little suction device.

"Pain pup. Mump. P" Third time's the charm. I think they understood that I wanted a pain pump, and not an aching doggie or a weird measles-like disease.

"More aip please. More aire please." My god- medicated, suffocating Allie sure is polite.

What song do you want, Allie? "Call me madbe lol. Also d my yelids close". No, no they don't, but that's okay because I had Carly Rae to cheer me up.

"Aliusfblzjflzkjfnvlkmcxvnlzudfbliuzdfn." What do you mean you don't understand? I do notice a "...yyyyyy" at the end of a word though, so I was clearly trying to emphasize something. What do you mean I have to move my hand as I write- can't I just write every letter on the same spot? Don't do drugs, kids.

Voila. Now it's as if you were all in the hospital with me! Can't believe that was 12 whole weeks ago. Insanity! It's gone by so quickly, yet at the same time it feels so long ago. I guess that's like everything though (I mean, take university for example- how am I in 4th year?). I read some of my pre-surgery blog posts the other day and it just brought back a flood of memories of the night before/morning of. I really have no idea how I actually did this. I get so flustered and nervous thinking about it, and then I remember that it's already happened! I never really thought about how it would feel to be done, though. I only thought as far ahead as immediate recovery, and to some distant future where I'm an real adult with the most unreal bone structure. Didn't really think about that moment when it wouldn't be the only thing occupying my mind at any given time. I might slowly be getting there. My smile is even slowly improving! My roomies are all such good sports when I run in to show them the latest flash of my pearly whites. Good god I must be annoying. But annoying or not, they always say it looks better.  And I'm finally starting to actually see it! The goal is still for big smiley grad photos in the spring. Those babies will be framed and/or put in the wallets of everyone I know. All you 7459 people who have read my blog can have one. Well, approximately 7456 views were my dad, but the other 3 of you are more than welcome to have a copy too. I'll be taking orders closer to the date.

More immediate goal, however, is skydiving! Me and 2 of my roommates are going on the 20th. I figured 15 weeks post-op is more than enough. Much to my mother's dismay, my orthodontist today said she didn't see a problem with it. The only thing that could stop me would be if my surgeon says my jaw will fall off. I would hazard a guess to say, though, that titanium is probably tougher than my real bones would've been. Maybe I'll wear a balaclava to keep everything together. Either way, I am UNBELIEVABLY EXCITED. 

Time to go study for the psych middy I have on Thursday. Gotta brush up on my facial recognition! Heehee. I'll end this post with the requisite 12-week-selfie.

Day 82

Night!

A