Day 10: Surgeon Visit and Eating Eggs . . .

Surgery Facial Timeline - Days 1-9

Ten days post-op today! When you're in the moment, time goes at such a snail's pace but at the same time, I cannot believe it is has been 10 days since my surgery.

The longest first week is over and I survived - it was a looooong week, there is no doubt about it and something that was, quite honestly, not that much fun but I am over the hump, as it were, and it sure feels great.

I am officially off my strongest pain medicine today and only using the Ibuprofen and that feels a relief quite honestly. The swelling seems to have plateaued and doesn't seem to be going down anymore but from what I understand, it takes three or so months for the bones to fuse so I will have swelling anywhere up to one year believe it or not. People will just think I have chipmunk cheeks :)

I had a follow up visit with my surgeon today and I was looking forward to being told I can start taking off my bands for three times a day to eat soft foods. For the first time in 10 days, I was free; he cut my rubber bands off to take a look at my mouth and there I was, free of rubber bands for a whole five minutes!

After he took the bands out of my mouth, I had the opportunity to brush my teeth and I don't know what I was expecting in terms of opening my mouth but let us just say I could not open it very much whatsoever and when I did try and open it, my left jaw joint was definitely not the happiest little camper! Still, I could see my teeth actually aligned in a way I have never seen before in my life, very cool let me tell you!

He taught me how to take my bands off and put them on again and was told that I can take the bands off three times a day for 15 minutes each time to eat soft (scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, etc.) foods . Now clearly the ability to actually get food through that rather small opening will be a challenge but just remember, baby steps. He also said that my jaw joints will experience some swelling as I start moving them but that is to be expected.

All good things must come to an end and he did band me shut after my five minutes of freedom ended in an effort to stop me talking! He told me I was talking too much and I needed to stop! :) I am now officially banded shut tighter than I was post-op but I have mastered my breathing and my nasal issues seem to be almost non-existent as long as I take the nasal medicine. The main  issue is that the surgeon achieved his goal - I can longer talk in any coherent way :) Good news for everyone else I guess!

So, dinnertime arrives and I rather adroitly take the bands off my teeth. Piece of cake. Rather impressed with myself. I had decided that I would like scrambled eggs as my first soft-food. Fifteen minutes remember. The clock starts and I take a very small piece of egg and put it in my mouth. Cancel that - I do not put it my mouth as I missed my mouth completely as I actually have no feeling in my chin and little in my lips so I couldn't feel where my teeth / mouth was! You have to laugh really.

I get a mirror and place it in front of me and start again. I open my mouth the whole 2 mm that it would open and then with a baby spoon start pushing the scrambled eggs into my mouth! Some fall out (my wife proceeds to get me a apron) and I continue to push  the eggs into little ol' gap in my mouth. Then I realise that I am not really chewing the food, I am simply pushing the scrambled eggs to the top of my mouth and mushing them and then swallowing it! Ah well, I still had food in my mouth. I swear that I had only put in three or four spoonfuls in my mouth when the fifteen minutes were up. I think I had dropped more food on the table and my apron than actually went in my mouth but still, I had eaten soft foods with my new mouth!

I then proceeded to clean up by brushing my teeth and trying to extract the egg remnants from my mouth (remember, swilling is not easy when you cannot open your mouth, nor is it attractive to see!) which actually took a long time. The next challenge was to add the bands back in my mouth. Now, I had taken pictures of where the bands needed to go as well as drawing a picture so I wouldn't mess up the location so I was feeling rather confident to be honest with you.

It looked easier when the surgeon did it. I mean, he did in about one minute. It took me longer than one minute. A lot longer. How hard can it be to wrap a band around two surgical hooks? Let me tell you, approximately 10 minutes in my case. Perhaps it is me, perhaps I am just not coordinated. Whatever the reason, it took me a combined 20 minutes to tidy up and put the bands on which was five minutes longer than the actual eating experience. Would have been easier to liquify the eggs and syringe it down my throat. :)

So there you have it, that was my day! I compiled a list of my last ten faces and attached the photo at the top of this post. Kinda' interesting. Sorry for the long post . . .

As for what foods were eaten today, I really didn't each much. Definitely did not reach my caloric goal today.

1. Scrambled Eggs (not really eaten but you get the idea)


2. Chilli - liquified and eaten through a syringe


3. Jamba Juice leftovers

You can see additional photographs under the ‘Photo Journal’ section above