Day 19: Tightly Bound and a Failed Experiment
Six bands, tightly wrapped around my teeth mean only one thing; constant aching. As in constant. All I can say is that they are achieving their aim of making me talk through my teeth because there is little opportunity to open my jaws for any prolonged period of time!
My teeth have been aching since the new bands went on, pretty much immediately after he put them on as it happened. I thought it was simply because I now have six bands in my mouth compared with the previous four bands plus the fact they are wrapped around one another in triangle configurations - three such configurations out of the six total bands. You can see it in my basic drawing below!
I also think the aching is because a lot of the bands are wrapped around my actual braces and not just the surgical wires. The pressure is therefore placed on the braces themselves which consequently pull and push the teeth. Presumably this is the intent of their placement . . .
New Band Configuration
My bottom lip is tingling like nothing else and it is a weird sensation to say the least! I remember reading some blogs where they talk about the period where nerve regeneration is concerned and a lot of people talk about it not being a fun part of the recovery period. Can't say I am at that stage yet but it is a definitely a strange sensation!
Final thought for the day as I have left it late in the day to write this blog post! Strange observation but wearing the Jaw-Bra ("JB" as it will now be called), full of ice and heat, on my head for the last three weeks has seriously altered the way my hair looks! Look, I know this a strange subject to bring up but the fact is that my hair has taken the form of the JB straps! It is like my hair completely sticks up on half my head and super, super flat where the straps were. Fantastic. It seriously looks ugly. I don't remember reading about this issue on any blogs prior to surgery! :)
Where food is concerned, I was excited tonight as I experimented with my favourite take-out place - Cafe Rio. I ordered a simple bean and rice enchilada, knowing that I would simply be eating the beans and rice but I figured I could manage to get the food in my mouth. Wrong. Very wrong. After just two bites I admitted defeat. The rice and beans went in but completely the wrong consistency for my mouth, tongue, braces, and splint. Seriously disappointed. Truthfully, we kind of expected it and to be fair, we had a coupon and so it was free so nothing lost but I guess I am not just ready for that kind of food yet.
I realise many of you are saying, "Duh", it wasn't soft food but you cannot blame a man for trying now can you! Not all was lost however as I ate those delicious mashed potatoes that I mentioned yesterday plus my staple instant pudding (chocolate this time) so was still full at the end of dinner!
As for what foods were eaten today therefore:
You can see additional photographs under the ‘Photo Journal’ section above
