Picture update

Here is a few more pictures as I haven't uploaded any in a while! Excuse the hair in these ha! I hadn't been able to go to a salon until I was really feeling up to it! 

Here goes.....

Foooooooood!

So thought I would give you some of the types of foods I have been eating!

6 week mark, first green light to chew - egg mayo sandwich (not bit into, ripped up), chippy tea, chicken with potatoes, fish, pasta

7 week mark - sausages, garlic bread (pizza bread) This was very tricky though and did give me a VERY achy jaw after!

8 week mark - some crisps, tried a jaffa cake and it went well!! when making my cereal of bran flakes I have been trying to nibble on one before the milk to see if I can handle that.

Food I need in my life and cannot stop obsessing over:

• King prawns
• FRUIT - my body is craving it. Grapes, crunchy apples, biting into a banana, oranges! Think I may try grapes this week and maybe some soft pears!
• Dominos Pizza still top of the list as it was the last thing I ate pre op and want to have it again to round the op up nicely! 
• Giant snack a jacks - weird but I have them in the cupboard and they are calling out to me
• Toasted bagel
• BBQ spare ribs... NOM

Looking at this list I think i may be the size of a house soon hahaha!!!

Everyone is different

So I have been given the all clear to chew for the past two weeks now and it really is weird being told you can now go off and eat (more) normally! I asked my surgeon what types of things I should be eating and she was very vague indeed. She didn't say what pains I should/shouldn't be feeling, she didn't give me an xray before the all clear, she didn't give me a list of foods and she didn't give me/tell me to do mouth excercises either. So her I am just bobbing along trying to guess what is right! It is made even more difficult because for the past year I have been researching things and have participated in forums where you find out a lot about other people. sooo..... I feel myself measuring me against them. The problem is, we all have different operations, for different reasons, at different points in our lives, in different places, different surgeons who like to do things DIFFERENTLY... (get the picture????) This leads to confusion city!

A big part of me would worry less without the forum as I wouldn't compare myself but a big part of me would worry more without it as I wouldn't know if I were doing it right. For me I am just trying new things, trying not to push myself and trying to build myself up. I have read of people who were told at 6 weeks to start chewing but didn't feel comfortable with it so didn't really start chewing until the 12 week mark. It does feel uncomfortable but in my head that is normal and I need to learn to make it feel comfortable so unless told otherwise thats what I will be doing.

Belated surgeon appointment update

Big apologies for not coming on here in a while! I guess life has just got in the way a bit. Annoying as I wanted a reference point for everything I experienced after the surgery! I haven't even been back on to write about how my appointment went with my surgeon!!

So here goes....

I saw my surgeon 2 weeks ago today which was my 6 week post surgery mark exactly! I wasn't supposed to be seeing her but I requested the appointment. When I asked my ortho about seeing her he just said it wouldn't be until the braces are off which seems pretty pointless to me so I rang her secretary directly and explained! It was a massive relief for her to agree to see me as I felt like I could finally get some questions answered. I was however, really scared about the appointment. I have felt let down and frustrated a LOT throughout this journey and to me if my profile was not fixed the whole op would not have been worth it. ( I originally came into it hoping to fix my constant headaches I have had for the past 2 1/2 years but was told just before the op  they wouldn't be relieved and its a further op to sort it) I was banking on her listening to my concerns and hopefully agreeing with me!

The appointment went really well on the whole and I left with a MASSIVE cheesey grin over my face! Awesome! Here are the main points:

• She is really happy with my bite and how it is progressing! Sounds like after orthodontics I should have a perfect bite even if at the moment to me this seems not plausible! They are the professionals though!
• I asked about when I can start exercising (including the use of weights) and she said from now I can but to build myself up again!
• I asked about chewing and was given the green light to chew YAY! this I was ecstatic about. I honestly don't think I will take chewing for granted ever again!! Annoyingly though, I asked her what types of things I should be eating and she laughed and said no biting into brasil nuts yet but you are pretty much healed so go for it. 
• I am okay to travel by plane next month because it is after the 6 week mark. She did say it could cause very severe sinus pains though. Not sure this will be a  problem for me as I already have all my nasal passages/sinus problem anyway and have for years so I am used to it! 
• My narrow nasal passages could not be sorted through the jaw operation and so she will contact an ENT specialist separately about this in a few months. I had CT scans and cameras up my nose last year and they said then if it isn't sorted through the main op I will have to have a minor op to widen the passages! 
• Most exciting of all..... drum roll please............. she is going to do a genioplasty! I will update further on this in another post as this is getting pretty lengthy! :)
• This is the sad/annoying part! I asked about my wonky lips/face and she said she just thinks thats me and I just naturally have quite an unsymmetrical face :( Again.... I will update more in another post!

Finally seeing my surgeon

So tomorrow I will FINALLY get to see my surgeon post op. I will be 6 weeks exactly tomorrow. Apparently I weren't supposed to see them at all post op but I requested the appointment. I am still not happy with my profile. Also I need to have another operation on my nasal passages. I was told about this by an ENT specialist about 8 months post op after a CT scan but they said to wait until my main jaw op to see if this alleviated anything. It hasn't so I need to know how long I need to wait before persuing that. Think it is pretty bad care that I have had to fight for any appointment with her!! :(

Hopefully it will go well tomorrow. I do feel a bit like I don't get listened to by her and she thinks my case isn't that important. I am hoping she will listen to my concerns, not fob me off and agree more needs to be done!!

Also going to ask if I can start to chew after tomorrow! First thing i think I will try is an egg mayo butty! (doesn't sound swish but oh my god I have been craving one!!!!!!)

freeeeeedom :)

So I went to see my ortho again this week at 4 1/2 weeks post op. He asked me if I have had any problems and I said my bottom teeth have been causing problems. They have gone really wonky and are stopping the bite from finding its own. They have also been hurting lots! He looked and agreed but said he couldn't do anything to them yet. I am not going back for another 2 1/2 weeks so he will look at them again then and hopefully sort it out.

He said I don't have to wear my bands now in the daytime.... YAY!!! Oh my god this has been amazing. :) :) I feel so free and am taking hardly any pain killers now. It does hurt so much though when I have to put them back on at night time but its worth it to not have them on all day!

I am still on a soft food no chew diet for now and won't see my ortho for another couple of weeks which will bring me to the 7 weeks post op mark. This upset me a bit when I realised as I originally thought I would be able to try and chew soft foods after 6 weeks but I would rather be waiting until I have been given the all clear. At the moment there are still areas of my bite that are feeling a little spongy still so maybe its right to wait a bit longer!

food glorious food

So I'm still on a no chew diet but I have been able to eat soft foods for the last few weeks. I am fully banded shut but can take them off to eat. It was pretty much a nightmare at the beginning. My face was still numb and I slopped absolutely everywhere. I just stuck to the safe options of mash and porridge etc. I swear though the first time I tried to eat mash post op I thought I was going to choke. But honestly just stick at it, its worth it!

I have now started being more adventurous. At 3 weeks post op I hadn't had any meat for 3 weeks. I then tried a sloppy lasagne. I had a small portion and cut it up until it did not resemble a lasagne but OMG it was amazing! Last night I had a hankering for chippy chips. There is a chippy right near our house and you can smell it sometimes when you leave the front door. I picked out some really soft ones, cut the ends off as they were a bit too crispy, mashed them up with a fork and spooned them in. YUM! I felt like a real person again having a real meal. Off to my mum and dad's for tea tomorrow for more homemade sloppy lasagne. Heaven!!


Just two weeks until I can try chewing!!!!!!!! :)