day 41 - tuesday - SPLINT OFF!!!

so today was my BIG day, I got my splint out! my OS is a great guy. he started clipping the wires holding my splint in. it did not hurt, though at times the tongue depressor he was using to hold my upper lip out of the way would hit a tender spot of my incision. he finally clipped them all out and I was free! my mouth/jaw kinda freaked out. I didn't bite down, I was kinda afraid to, I liked having my splint in to tell me where to bite! :)

I brushed my teeth quite throughly (I had brought my electric toothbrush!) but they still felt funny afterwards. kinda porous/rough. eww. my OS checked my bite, and when I bit down it was weird, but did kinda fit together. my front teeth touch! (I had an open bite before).

my OS also took out most of my stitches. while they were the resorbable kind, they needed a little help. getting my stitches out hurt a little, but again it was usually the tongue depressor hitting something sensitive.

I of course, had more questions for him. (I always go in with a bunch of questions) Yes, I can floss right away. No more restrictions other than contact sports (two more weeks for that!). Eat softer foods for a while and transition to harder stuff over a few weeks. Yes, state fair food like corn dogs, etc is ok (MN STATE FAIR THIS FRIDAY FOR ME!).

my OS wouldn't stop saying that he thinks that my ortho did an amazing job, great set up, my bite immediatly post op is great. he doesn't think there is much left, some tweaking, etc. of course I'll find out a little more on friday when I go to my ortho.

my OS gave me the casts he used for my surgery. I now have a lower presurgery cast, and upper presurgery cast, and the cast that he did 'surgery' on. these are super cool for me as I had a bite plate before braces to wear at night when sleeping. I have molds from 9th grade and from my sophomore year of college (they were exactly the same) so now I can see pre-anything, after ortho yet pre-surgery, and then what surgery should do. yea! :) I'm a goof, I know.

with all that my hubby and I were off, in search of soft food!

my first food that I ate and that I could CHEW was Noodles & Co. unfortunately, though we go there all the time, our food this time was not good. of course we got it to go and once we got home to eat we found that it was essentially noodles wiht a little tomato and no creamy goodness sauce! (yes, I did call to complain). though the food was not spectacular, eating went well! I just had a snack a little bit ago and it was a hamburger and fries from McDonalds. I was able to bite through the bun and hamburger, mostly (I think it's that I have NEVER been able to and I need to practice!).

I'm kinda finding my new bite. I miss my splint, it was nice to know where my teeth were supposed to go, right now I feel a little kittywhompis with my bite. it seems to fit if I slide where I want to bite slightly to the right. I can't tell if this is where I'm supposed to be biting or not. I figure I'll talk to my ortho about it friday morning.

day 26 - sunday

i sneezed twice today, whoohoo! no issues, either time.

ron and i went up to FL today to visit my mom. didn't do much, just sat outside on the deck in the gorgousness of today. watched some peeps launch a hot air balloon at the park across the street (happens once every summer or two).

went grocery shopping, then came home and went for a walk. i did great, we did our 'normal' route and I wasn't even tired when we got home (the other day we did a modified walk and i was pooped!), yea me!

had a horrible dream last night! In it, I suddenly came to the realization that my teeth didn't fit into my splint anymore, my right side was hitting and my left wasn't even close (right now it is a perfect fit!). I was freaking out, so I called my OS. It was late on a Sunday night but I called his emergency number. When I talked to him though and told him what was going on, he said, "You wrecked it, you chewed. It's your fault." I freaked out of course, tried to explain that I haven't chewed ANYTHING but he would have nothing to do with me, he just said, "Nope, you wrecked it" and wouldn't listen to me, he just
kept yelling at me for chewing.

I was SO happy when I woke up and realized that I was dreaming and that my teethdo still fit together! I was crushed in my dream thinking that I would need surgery AGAIN! My OS is a great guy and has never yelled at me at all.

day 24 - friday

friday already! how did that happen??? not fair!

i'm back to work next week, this is my last weekend before working again. yes, i don't go back to work until wednesday so it's a 3 day week, poor me. oh and thursday is a team building event so we're out of the office from 11-5, he he he! should be an easy week. which is good.

today is going ok, couldn't get to sleep again last night. no headache though so no tylenol PM for me. i did fall asleep slightly faster than i did in the previous nights, which means that i only laid around in bed for around an hour before falling asleep... blah.

swelling sucks. it's still here. i want it to go away. it's only slightly worse but to me it seems WAY worse than it was before. ron says it's a little noticeable. stupid naproxen.

i'm still feeling good though other than the swelling. i had a shower and ron and i were out of the house today by 1:15! this is a miracle! at least it is for me lately. :) i'm a big lazy bum.

day 23 - thursday

slept like crap again last night. blah. actually sleeping wasn't an issue, it was the fact that i COULDN'T fall asleep at all! and i had a headache (i think because i was so freaking tired, it wasn't a jaw related headache, not like my headaches before surgery anyway). i finally took 2 tylenol pms and then finally fell asleep. i didn't wake up until ron came home for lunch at noon. oops. so much for getting into a more regular schedule as i'm going back to work in LESS THAN A WEEK! gah!

i started some lace knitting, which is notable because i haven't been able to knit anything remotely requiring thought since my surgery. lace knitting = requires thought. it's going slowly, but going and i have yet to make a MAJOR mistake, so yea me! i must be getting better or something. :)

we're now on day 2 of no naproxen. it's going well. went out today to the evil empire and to target and i got pretty tired. but i was also hungry. how i am going off to work for 8 hours a day starting next wednesday, i have no idea. we'll have to see!

day 23 = yes virginia, you can choppy pizza. once taking off the crust, you cut it into little pieces, and then choppy the hell out of them. my choppied pizza was from target, a CPK garlic chicken pizza. not so bad. i've been kinda meh about eating lately because i'm sick of pastas and the like. blah. and soup, please. i don't want soup. i'm just not in the mood for anything. i want to chew.

day 22 - wednesday

three weeks! i had surgery three weeks ago today!

i decided to celebrate by not being able to fall asleep at all last night, then sleeping like crap, waking up congested despite still sleeping next to my humidifier, and then passing out cold for a good 3 some hours.

my sister woke me up at 11:30. i told her last night after group that she could come over and i'd make pancakes again. so she called and i said, i'm sleeping. i'l call you back. then i went back to sleep. i did call her back and it was not that much longer. she did come over and i made pancakes, scrambled eggs with cheese and sausage and we also had oj. it was quite yummy. i almost impressed myself. i rock.

then i did nothing for the rest of the day. la la la. here's me. i am just sitting on my couch. doing nothing. oh, i'm watching futurama, kinda. and surfing the net. no shower even yet. but i plan on doing that shortly.

i'm off my meds today completely. i woke up yesterday and things were blurry. i put on my glasses and they were still blurry. i rubbed my eyes, i had just woken up and shouldn't that fix everything? it didn't. hmm... so it went away, after a little while. but i didn't like it. so i decided, no more naproxen for me.

i'm doing fine other than being tired. which could very much be related to me sleeping like crap. meh.

i'm off to take a shower.

three weeks ago at this time i was in the hospital. next week at this time i'll be telling ron about my first day back to work (!)

day 20 - monday

today I ate at a restaurant, for the first time since surgery! it was very exciting, yet slightly scary as well.

it is my sister's birthday, and she and my mom were going to red lobster for her birthday dinner. well red lobster, i can eat that! (i have heard from other post-opers that fish and chips are usually easy enough to eat). our waiter was great. i did get the fish and chips but i asked if the french fries were the big wedges (good) or little fries (bad). he said shoe string little guys. hmm... not good... I asked if i could get mashed potatoes instead, he said, "yup, no problem!". he then asked what kind of salad I wanted. um... i said, "um, well I can't chew anything, so... none?" he said, "hm, do you want applesauce?" what a guy! i was impressed anyway. i said, "oh... not really" (sorry, i want real food!) he said, "soup?" so i got the chicken fajita soup.

my meal was awesome. the soup was perfect, i was able to easily eat it, no big chunks of anything but still chunky enough to make me happy, and it was good! my fish and potatoes came and i was easily able to chop up my fish with my fork, add some tartar sauce and eat it with no chewing. the mashed potatoes were easy to eat, and i was even able to eat small pieces of the yummy cheddar biscuits!

good day overall.

i'm getting more feeling in my palate on the inside of my mouth. it's been swollen on the back left area, and i think today is the first day that it's almost entirely not swollen. it feels pretty similar to the right side of my mouth. this left area has been kinda tingly weird. not numb but not normal.

my cheeks and my nose area seem slightly more swollen today. i think it's because i'm weaning myself off my naproxen. i don't need it at all for pain, but do for the swelling still. blah. overall i'm still doing great swelling wise, not much at all.

i have been able to feel my screws a little more easily today as well. it's weird! luckily it doesn't really freak me out, which is good as they are staying here for good unless they decide to get infected or try to come out.

day 19 - sunday

today was my sister kristi's birthday party in FL! ron and i went up there and we had DQ ice cream cake (just for me! although my sister does like it too so it all worked out). i was able to eat most of it, i just gave the inner layer of crunchiness to ron.

day is going well. slightly more swelling than before, i think both because i'm not taking as much of my naproxen and not as often, and because we slept in and i slept longer than i have been sleeping.

still fighting the girl issue. but it's getting better thank god!

day 18 - saturday

feeling good today. tired jaw, face is tired too. not sure if i'm talking too much or smiling too much or if it's just being off the drugs. swelling is ok, better than yesterday.

today for breakfast i ate (choppied) sausage and cream of wheat for breakfast.

ron and i spent the afternoon test driving a car. he's looking for a new main car for us. i'm not into it but if he can pull it all off and we aren't spending much more per month on our payment, then i'll think about it.

had noodles for early dinner (penne rosa & tofu). had to bring it home of course, to choppy it all up.

after dinner we were hammocking on our deck, we LOVE our hammock and we took a nap.

after my nap i had yogurt snack. (still trying to kick that girl issue, anything i can do!)

it was villagefest at a local town so ron and my sister and i went to the fireworks they were putting on. they were ok, no rhythm and booms (madison WI amazing fireworks show) but good. i had a snow cone, i'm into ice and ice cream, they make the inside of my mouth feel better.

after the fireworks ron and i went grocery shopping. needed breakfast food for me, food for ron.

ate very late dinner of baked potato with potato topping. i did choppy the potato before i ate it but mostly just because i like eating the skin of potatoes, if i had just eaten the potatoe inside it wouldn't have had to be choppied.

day 17 - friday

so i called dr. hobday's office asap in the morning with my stupid broken bracket issue. the receptionish said that they could get me in at 9:40 am. I took it, as i was not into having the wire stuck in my cheek all weekend or longer. dr. hobday was not in, but the other ortho, the assistant and I decided to just clip the wire and rebond that bracket next time. done! that's what i wanted anyway.

so this is my first day with no pain/swelling drugs. i'm more swollen. and the right side of lip is slightly fuzzy/numb and i don't think it was before. plus i'm tired and pooped.

but i went to shopping with kristi today, we went to crafty planet and i got some yarn to make my grandma legwarmers (she has bone cancer and the AC on her legs causes her pain), then we went to barnes & noble, michaels and home goods (TJ maxx's home store) where i got another choppy!

this evening ron and i were tryingo to save money, so instead of coldstone, we had mcdonalds sundaes, and it was $2.14 instead of the $8.71 for coldstone. not bad. we also rented a movie from the red box, which we think is a great deal. and that is why tonight we watched hitch, not as bad as we thought it would be, so that's good!

i'm also pretty sure about the yeast infection, so we stopped at target. yeah, this is one of those situations where you break out the cash and pay twice as much for a one day treatment as opposed to a 7 day treatment. TOTALLY worth every penny. like you want to drag this out for 7 days, kill me now. i'll take the one day, thank you!

day 16 - thursday

work up at my normal time of around 10:30ish.

today is my week #2 check up with dr. keane (surgeon), yea!

took a shower, got ready, did my hair and put in my contacts (yes again!) and went off to needlework unlimited, my favorite yarn store in the area. spent a little more time there than i should have, i had to run off to dr. keane's. luckily his office is very close to my favorite yarn store.

dr. keane's visit went mostly well. it was weird because as i mentioned, i was running late. so i ran inside and then ran up the stairs to the 2nd floor (where his office is). last time i was there (monday of last week, 10 days earlier) i was holding onto ron's arm on the way in, and then we took the elevator both on the way up and down from my appt. so there is one example of how i am doing better.

anyway, dr. keane says that things are looking good and i am healing well. my stitches are loosening up (apparently that is good?)

i asked and he said that yes, i can use my electric toothbrush as long as i'm only on the teeth on my upper teeth and i don't go higher. as i am not into brushing way above my teeth, i was fine with this.

i also asked about sneezing and blowing my nose and he gave me the ok to do both. YEA!

then he tried to kill me and said that MY SPLINT MAY BE IN FOR 5-6 MORE WEEKS. i said/stammered... but, wha? but, before? 5-6 MORE weeks? i thought... you said 6 weeks, maye earlier? but?

he said that we will discuss it more the next time i come in, which is in two weeks. luckily dr. keane likes to change his mind about things and i'm almost thinking that next time i go in he'll say, "ok, let's take out your splint!" and i'll say, um, what? but you said? whatever. so i'm not letting myself get freaked out about NOT BEING ABLE TO EAT AT THE STATE FAIR IF MY SPLINT IS IN LONGER. no, i am not thinking about it.

we had chipotle for dinner, mine choppied of course. then i went to poker with ron, both of them. he does texas hold'em tournaments (free due to MN law) at a few bars in the area. i haven't been to them so i was intrigued. i knit the whole time, it was pretty boring for me as i was just off to the side and not by any of the action.

at the first location (grand rios in MN, MN's largest water park) i walking around and went to check out the waterpark (not so impressive, it's obviously the largest in MN because it's the only one in MN). so i was walking back to the bar and i realized that i had a poking wire on my right side on the bottom, what is going on? ran to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, bottom right farthest back bracket is broken off. huh??? what??? how??? i am definetly not eating anything that would snap it off and i checked all my brackets after surgery, none had been broken during surgery so wtf? i don't get it. so i'll be waking up early to call my ortho, i don't want this poking me all weekend long.

today was ok. i knitted alot. i also think that i'm getting a yeast infection? i'm sure 3 days of IV antibiotics and then 2 weeks of heavy duty antibiotics would do that to a girl. all i know if that IT SUCKS.

day 15 - wednesday

today was a big day! today i played with a few friends of mine that i haven't played with since before surgery! mr. hairdryer and my contacts. why the big day? well i'm going out into the real world today. acutally did my hair, and wore my contacts! i could have worn my contacts a long time ago, but i haven't really had a reason to wear them around the house so i haven't put them in.

so off i went to dr. hobday (my ortho) today. he looked at my teeth, had my bite, told me things look good. so i guess that's good. then his assistant lori (who always takes care of me, i'm not sure if she likes me or if no one else likes me... i'm not that demanding...). anyway, she took off my surgical hooks!!! i don't think you people understand how freaking happy this makes me, these things have been driving me INSANE since the day they were put in, the 21st of june... i have had wax on them this entire time. gah! but now they are gone, and i am so happy.

after my ortho appt i visited my friend nicole at work. her work is very close to the ortho office i went to (not my normal office, this was the one REALLY far from me, but they could get me in at 3 pm, so i took it as opposed to 8 am at my normal office). nicole was impressed with how i looked and i liked that she introduced me to people as, "this is my friend cori". and didn't mention my surgery. that made me feel like i look somewhat normal as she didn't mention my surgery.

on my way home i stopped at the yarn cafe in maple grove, and then crafty planet near my house. yarn yarn and more yarn, yea!

i picked up jersey mike's for dinner to surprise ron, he LOVES jersey mike's. i had my own sandwich, i just scraped the yumminess out of my sandwich and choppied it. i even added some of the bread/sub and it worked out really well. YUM.

today was my last day of antibiotics, yea!!!

day 14 - tuesday

ron was at poker today, so i ran out and got a chicken bol from chipotle. yum! i love chipotle and it's easy to choppy and it tastes so good!

sent out cori update #2 to my peeps to keep them updated. i'm also working on my website so you peeps can start seeing some pics of me! this is taking up a bunch of time, i didn't really think about it before, but now that i'm putting it all together, it's a whole site that i'm putting together. oops, i could have done this before surgery so now all i had to do was upload pics to it! oh well.

day 13 - monday

my sister moved close to me over the weekend, so today i woke up and asked if she wanted some pancakes. she said yes, so she came over and i made pancakes! we had pancakes, sausage and oj. good meal! i did choppy my pancakes and sausage, but it was good overall. yea for choppys!

for dinner ron and i had burger king! he's a sucker for rodeo cheeseburgers and i was dying for something greasy. i had a whopper and fries! we obviously brought them home and i choppied them (separately of course). it was SO GOOD!