[T+9wks] Steady progress

Today I grabbed a tablespoonful of trail mix and was able to chew it down. Last week, I ate a pizza for the first time since surgery. I probably could have eaten it earlier by a week but I did not have the courage to rush it. And oh yes, french bread at last, dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, heaven! My bite has settled down, earlier during the recovery I felt like my teeth were not quite totally aligning. Now with chewing and my musculature developing, I feel like it is no different than pre-surgery.

The other thing I have noticed is that I can stick my lower teeth a good 5mm beyond my upper teeth. Before surgery, I could stick it out a good cm beyond my upper teeth. Earlier during the recovery, I could barely get to the point of upper teeth. Basically my musculature in my mouth has improved to the point where both horizontal and forward-backward motion have improved considerably and chewing seems normal again. Why is sticking the lower jaw out important, you ask? If I have to wear the dental appliance (God forbid), this is the only hope of advancing the lower jaw without surgery again.

Most of the swelling and pain leading from the bridge of my nose to the upper mouth is now gone. My right side of the face is also softening and is becoming like the normal left side. My lower right lip and chin has gotten better. People ask me how I feel. I don't know quite how to describe it, except that it is a combination of burning, tingling, numbness and pain. Its rapidly improving, so I am really hoping for complete recovery there. My teeth are still numb, now I can feel that it is really where the gums come in contact with the teeth which are numb. Even at the 8 wk mark, if I bit into something hard, I was afraid that my teeth would fall, this was real scary. The doc assured me that I could no damage and that it was just the crazy re-entry period of getting some feeling back. Hopefully the Pinocchio "wooden teeth" feeling will go away.

I have re-entered my social life for the last couple of weeks after a lot of trepidation. A majority of the people who look at me have commented that I look different. Some have said that I look younger. Some of them have said that I look like a completely different man. Some say that my nose looks different, some think its my jaw while most others can't place what about me has changed. I have learnt to accept all these without wincing or taking it as a compliment. My wife calls me "Version 2.0"!

My fitness is coming along. I have been hiking and I feel like I am about 80% pre-surgery. To be honest, I have not really focused on fitness, I am glad to be recovering from surgery and have been enjoying life too much.

So how's my sleep?  Before surgery, my criterion for success was that if I could sleep for 8 hours and wake up refreshed I would call it a resounding success. What I see now, is that on most days I sleep for about 8.5 hours and wake up reasonably refreshed. I would give it an B+ at this point. There have been some scary days though. The other day I had a heavy lunch with some wine and promptly feel asleep all the way from restaurant to home in the car. Bad memories! With work being re-introduced into my life, we'll see how I cope with the additional stress.

I have regained back about 5lbs of the 10lbs I lost after surgery. With Thanksgiving looming in a couple of days, I am sure that I will regain the rest by this weekend!