10 lbs later...

So, last night was great! I slept longer then my normal 2 hour increment. I got up at 3:40am, took my meds, filled my ice pack then went back to sleep. My ice pack slipped off sometime very shortly after that - which is why I think I was able to sleep so well - because my face didn't feel FROZEN! So, I slept til 8:30am. MIRACLE! The first thing I noticed was a dull ache in my face - not a problem. Then I noticed my ice pack was off and I got panicky. I looked in the mirror expecting my face to be double the size it was yesterday, but it was relatively the same. Phew! So - feeling pretty good, I made a breakfast smoothie (chocolate peanut butter with Carnation instant breakfast - mmm, started the dishwasher, took a shower (and actually put deodorant on!), put mascara on and decided that I was going to go with my mother to the post office and bank today , before my customers think I have died. The only problem is - after I got ready - I was too exhausted to actually go! After I update my blog and take some more pain killer I hope I'll have the energy for that 30 minute jaunt outside into the real world.

Now onto "official" pictures. I have lost 10 lbs - down to 124.
I've decided that I enjoy fitting back into my designer size 2's and maybe I can keep it off for a while.

Speaking of size 2's- we're all adult's (and girl's) here, right? So no one is going to call me all offended over this picture - right? I love that I can wear my good jeans again - without the bulge over the side! YESSSssss!



Aren't I so colorful and pretty?



All ready to go out. No makeup yet - just mascara. I need to leave some bruising as evidence of why my face is still LOPSIDED! Hate the swelling. Hate it. Can't wait til get my extensions back in either....Trisha - you about ready for me in the next couple weeks?



LOVE my "new" nose and chin - hate my swollen cheeks! I really hope my nose and chin stick around after the swelling goes down. I'm growing quite fond of them.



The more swollen side. I wish my lips would stay big too! Just the overall swelling needs to GO AWAY!


That's all for now!

Day 7 official pics

Here are the official 7 day pics. I can't wait for the swelling to be gone! It's so uneven that it's making my face still look uneven - and the whole point to this was to be more symmetrical - both my bite and my face!

I think I will actually be ok with my profile after all the swelling goes down.



The good thing about the swelling is that is smoothed out all my wrinkles! Bonus!



Today I have an APPETITE! I mean - I'm actually HUNGRY! I've been keeping track of the ounces that I've been consuming today and it goes like this:
9 oz. water
1 oz. juice
3 oz. yogurt drink
7 oz. smoothies
0 oz broth (that's a first!)
10 oz. soup

That's a total of 30 oz. consumed today, and it's 7pm. That is the most I've "eaten" since my surgery. When I think about going to get a 32 oz. drink at Mc.Donald's - and not even thinking twice about downing it all in one sitting - I just can't believe it! It takes a lot of time and energy for me to even "eat" my 30 oz. today! Of course, this isn't counting the many ounces of medicine I have to take every day. Yuck.

So I've been keeping 3 of my 4 rubber bands on almost full time. I take one off when I'm eating or rinsing my mouth, but other then that, I can manage 3. I can NOT do 4 though -maybe it's psychological - but I feel that I cannot breathe or swallow and that just makes me claustrophobic and dizzy and sick. No can do. My teeth still fit perfectly in my splint though - so I'm not worried at all.
For my last picture - a big thank you for all the pretty flowers, cards, kind words, texts, emails and support.

Thank you!
Ok - 2 more. Look at the difference already in my nose (it's now more upturned - not so long/straight and a little cuter) and my chin (much less pointy). I don't know how much more it'll change, or if with the swelling going down, it'll resume more to the first (before) pics - but so far - thist is amazing to me!

Angelia Jolie beat me up

I have decided to change my story. Instead of saying I had double jaw surgery, I'm going to say that Angelia Jolie got mad that I stole her lips, and beat me up! :) Below is the picture of my lips (photoshopped from the original to add some color to them)



Here they are superimposed upon Miss Jolie. See how angry she was?



This is the original photo that I cropped and touched up. I love to photoshop!



And here are the pictures of the beating. You see the ice pack (above) but now you see my black eye, swollen face, strangulation bruises on my neck...(she was really angry!)



...and I even have to eat through a "feeding tube". How rude! She doesn't have the monopoly on large, pouty lips you know!



The End. :)

Day 6

Day 6. I thought I would feel a lot better by now. Really, it's been almost a week! I threw up again last night - it was horrible. The worst so far. I've heard over and over that the first week is really terrible. So, I'm expecting that on day 8 I will really start to turn things around!
(captions above pics)
Down to 126. Lost 8 lbs so far. Not too bad, actually.

Jared grabbed the camera as soon as we woke up! He said "Good morning sunshine" and started snapping. Is it my imagination, or does my face finally NOT look fatter this morning? I'm starting to have bruising on my neck and my nose is starting to straighten out a little bit.

I know I'm still horribly swollen (and have AWESOME hair!) but look - no pointy chin!

This is my bad side. I wonder why one side is so much more swollen and painful the the other? Doc says it's "normal" but - why?

Video blog for the day. :( I don't know why this Day 6 video didn't post, but I basically said that I miss my kids and cried so I'm kinda glad no one saw that. :)

The Fifth Day

Yesterday was brutal. I felt well enough to post last night, but my friend Ashley came over and I enjoyed talking (well, she talked, I typed) to her instead. After she left I was exhausted and got ready for bed. I had my first post-op appt. yesterday. My doc showed me how to take off and put on my rubber bands. He said he usually doesn't do that til the 8th day but since I was struggling with breathing, he wanted me to at least know how to put them back on after taking them off. My teeth were still perfectly in the splint though - with only 1 band on (I had thrown up that morning so violently that one band snapped right off) so he basically just said to "try" to keep them on. I've been pretty good keeping 3 of the 4 on, but when I get really congested or am eating, I stick with 2. Next Tuesday is my next post-op - and the beginning of eating soft foods. I can't believe what little appetite I've had. I consume only about 12 ounces of fluid (not including medicine) per day. I have no desire to eat. At all. I can't believe I'm only down to 128-ish. I thought I would have lost more then that by now.
(captions ABOVE pics)

Aren't I so pretty? Now I know what my face would look like if I weighed 300 lbs (and had a large nose and bad skin!)

Trying to get relief with the "rigged" humidifyer and listening to the scriptures on my ipod.

I can now alter between hot and cold compresses on my face. This is a rice sock that was warmed up. It's quite a bit of pressure - but oh, the bliss!

This morning at 4:45am I woke up to my right contact feeling funny. My face had swollen in a strange way as to pull on my eye, distorting my view. I had to take out my contacts and put these glasses on that are about 10 years old! Horrible!

I am also starting to bruise. I'm getting a black eye as well as some discoloration on my cheeks.

More swelling and discoloration. I can't believe how uncomfortable the swelling is...that it's actually causing pain from the tightness of my skin. Is it possible to get stretch marks on my face? My doc said that I will end up with "cute cheeks" because of this, and my face won't look as long as it normally does. I'm excited for that!

This is the first video taken out of surgery. I can't believe how good I looked then compared to now! Doc says I'll swell for a couple more days and then bruise like crazy. So much to look forward to! Bleck.

Here is a video I just took right now. I look terrible, but am feeling better then I have since Monday. Here is also a reminder of how I looked a few weeks ago! I know I look like death warmed over now...but that's just to prepare you all for my AFTER pics in a couple of months! :)

2nd night 3rd day.

The worst is over...right? RIGHT?
(captions below pics)


Down to 130-ish.

Without the "Jaw Bra" so you can see the swelling. Nose is still crooked from the breathing tube.

Throughout the evening it got harder to swallow (couldn't take pain meds) and harder to breathe. At one point, I had a mini panic attack and Jared called my doc and asked what to do. He said to take a decongestant, and to go sit in front of an AC vent and get cold air on my face. That's me sitting in our bathroom with the vent off so I could get as much air as possible. Didn't work. So - as a last resort, he said we could take off a couple bands.




Ahh, instant relief! There were 4 bands wiring my teeth shut. I took off 2, but 2 are still on. I can open my teeth about 1 mm. Enough to be able to breathe around my splint and swallow my pain meds.



The tiny, evil rubber bands.



The gray tube is hooked to a humidifyer so I can have that cool mist directly in my face (thanks Jared) and the syringe is what I use for all pain meds, water, food (Strawberry Ensure is in there right now). Not pleasant.

Trying to get relief from swelling with an "ice man" instead of the jaw bra. The only problem is that I have to hold it on my face, which makes my arms tired and my hands cold. I switch off between the two.

I've heard that the 2nd night/3rd day is typically the worst, and I'm just praying that's true. I have a little bit of nausea right now, due to overlapping Hydrocodone and IBuprofin (can be done every 2 hours) but I hope I don't throw up. Did that 3 times in the hospital, and that was plenty. I am supposed to be eating 4 Ensure drinks, 2 glasses of juice and 2 glasses of water every day. Yeah right. I have no appetite and don't want to throw up, but I can feel myself getting weaker and will have to force more nutrition.

Sorry this isn't more upbeat. Looking forward to a much better day tomorrow!

Surgery

Had surgery yesterday and came home a couple hours ago. Here are some pictuere through my ordeal. I've been told that tomorrow, Wed. will be my hardest day as far as pain, swelling and congestion, so I may not post tomorrow. I will probably be concentrating on how to breathe!

Picture captions are below each pic.

Starting weight: 134. Expected weight loss 15 lbs.

All ready to go back!

First pic in the recovery room. I could breath through both notstrils, so I wasn't panicked. That deserved a big thumbs up!

My splint. It's wired to both my top and bottom teeth. He widened my top jaw 10mm - not the 5 we previously had discussed! Notice how crooked my nose is from the breathing tube!

Just chillin in the recovery room.

left profile.

right profile

In the car coming home. Having a swollen face makes me look younger! nice!

Showing my "Mid-lines" which line up for the first time in my life!
I asked for a mirror the first time I saw Jared in recovery. When I saw my midlines matching up, and my front teeth coming OVER my bottom teeth I started to cry.

Thank you, Dr. Egbert!

Today's the day

I'm headed in 30 minutes.

I have a nervous stomach. And a headache. I've been getting headaches much more frequently in the past few years as my jaw/bite got worse and worse.

I'm looking forward to getting rid of those! I'm also looking forward (at the very, very end) to being able to chew my food with more then the 3 teeth that are currently touching!

I'm looking forward to the cosmetic effect this will have on my face/teeth although the medical reasons are much more important.

I'm looking forward to holding my boys again - hopefully in a week or so - and hope that the swelling/bruising isn't bad enough to scare them.

I'm looking forward to being truly beautiful for my husband. Thanks for helping me through this Jare - I love you!

1 day to go. Random Thoughts.

I didn't sleep well last night. I dreamt in sign language, which hasn't happened for many years. I was signing things that I needed to Jared (because I couldn't speak) and he coudn't understand me. I awoke panicked. I'm pretty sure tonight will be worse.

I'm crunching anything I can today. Chips, crackers, cereal - farewell!

Created an amazing Mango smoothie this afternoon. I call it:

Mango Madness:
1 cup frozen cubed mango's
2 sm. scoops mango sherbet
1/2 c. pineapple juice
1/2 c. coconut milk
1/2 tsp. coconut extract
1/4 c. heavy cream
1 package Vanilla Carnation Instant Breakfast
Top w/whipped cream

Makes about 12 oz. and is 25% of my protein daily value. It's probably 300% of my fat intake - but who's counting.

My surgeon told me to plan to lose 10-15 lbs. the first WEEK! I'm sure I'll gain it all back when I can eat solid food again.

We're taking the kids to my inlaws in a few hours - to stay for the week. I'm tearing up just thinking about it. I hope Jared is able to go see them several times. I don't want them to see me all black and blue and swollen. The worst of the swelling/bruising/congestion is supposed to peak Wed., so hopfully after that I'll be better able to cope with my recovery. It's nice to know what to plan for.

I'm going to miss kissing Jared for a while.

The End.

7 months of braces...

First pic is the day I got my braces on. I thought I had relatively straight teeth. I was wrong. They sloped inward, my bottom teeth were NOT straight, and look at my arch wire on the top! It is all bent weird - to get my top teeth straight. The bottom pic was taken 1 month ago. Top teeth are perfectly aligned - and you'll have to take my word for it that the bottom ones are too. As soon as my jaw is properly aligned - there will just be "touch up's" on my braces before coming off in a few months. Then I'll get my tooth implant on the upper right side. Can't wait!