Still alive :)

Hiya,

So it's been quite a long time since I last blogged, and to be honest not too much has changed since. Day by day, the swelling's gone down a little but the changes are so minute they are quite hard to pinpoint! Thankfully I'm looking more "normal" but we still have a long way to go until the swelling has completely gone :)

As for the eating, it's still soft food like fish and pasta (though liquidised first!). There's only one problem - a horrible wire sticking out at the back of my gum. At my last appointment, my mouth was too stiff to be able to cut the wire so there was literally nothing to do but hang in there and wait. And have a sharp piece of metal in my mouth. And...uh, it hurts. Luckily as I'm writing this, it's not actually too painful but I have noticed the back gums form an almost wall (yes it is as weird as it sounds!). Whether or not it gets worse or has done permanent damage, I'll let you know.

I have one last jaw-surgery related thing to mention. Funnily enough, my brother's just had a similar operation (though no way near as serious as mine) so I'll be swapping roles - no more lying in bed as a sick person for me! It's weird seeing someone else in the same position as I was in, and having to feed someone else smoothie with a syrringe! And thinking about it, my own operation seems a lifetime away. Thank goodness I have the old blog posts to refresh my memory!

Anyway.... until next time :) (let's hope my memory hasn't deteriorated even further. Um)
xoxo

One month today!!

There really is nothing witty/clever/vaguely interesting about the title. But there probably is nothing better I could write for it. As Jedi Jim Apprentice would say, it's all in the title (or ahem, "tin"). If you haven't gathered it yet, or are new to the blog (welcome!), it's exactly one month today since my operation.

I think it would be safe to say that this past month has been the toughest month I've ever had to live through. The not being able to eat properly, the weird stares I get at my face, the having to adjust to a completely different look, the not being able to talk, the not being able to talk properly, the new way of talking with a huge lisp, the having to stay at home, the not being able to smile without looking like a major loser... Thankfully towards the end of the month, a lot of these gradually got better - a lot but not all.

Like I mentioned in the last post, I've been out and about a lot more recently. Nope, not non-stop partying and shopping if that's what you're thinking. I've been taking a couple of courses (fashion and now radio journalism) which means the people I have met have been for the first time. Which means the newly-jaw-operated face is the only face of mine they see (wow that feels weird to say). It occasionally sinks in that I have to adjust and adapt to this which is...odd. And the lisp is just plain annoying!

I'm still surviving off a very boring diet of soup, scrambled eggs and smoothies but I am able to eat small portions of softer foods which don't require chewing... like cake :) As for the swollen-ness, it is still swollen but like I've said before, I could pass as a chubby girl with braces. My orthadontist says it could take up to 3-6 months for the swelling to go away. Cue sad face :( In other sad news, I've noticed that my mouth is now a little little little bit lopsided; I'm not sure whether to be worried yet, but I still have 5 months for my face to keep changing.

And there's not a lot more to say. Life gets more and more normal by the day, and though the start of the recovery month was extremely painful, I'm getting by with a (slightly unusual) smile on my face. This is a diary of a smile, after all...

xoxo