Wednesday, February 29, 2012

leap day

am mid-air enroute to baltimore.  oh the technology.  reminds me of the fantastic louis ck bit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r1CZTLk-Gk&feature=related

so my report time is 8:30am tomorrow for my little procedure.  i don't have much info about it like how long it takes, details about recovery, diet, etc.  i guess being the seasoned veteran that i am now i just wing it.

hey, i just realized because today is feb 29 and my original surgery date was october 28 - FOUR MONTHS now.  woooo. this means nothing really, except that time keeps on tickin into the future...faster and faster.

my moomoo is coming to baltimore again!  she is driving by herself again from detroit as i type this.  i heard it's raining a lot so that sucks.  she is such a good mommy!!  dear readers, please trust i am an adult and am capable to handle my business by myself. but she insisted to come keep me company and i can't say i don't appreciate it.  the plan is that as long as i'm recovering well we will be tourists in baltimore.  this will be nice.

Friday, February 24, 2012

i'm a hot mess

could it be related to my infection that i've had mega stomach flu-ish symptoms for almost 48 hours?  also i have some sort of sty or clogged duct in my eye.  AND, i got rear ended at a pretty decent speed this evening and now i have whiplash aching in my neck and back. dude.

my infection thing is stagnating. i think it was a good thing to expedite the surgery!

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

clockwork

preparing for my trip from el paso to dc and getting back and forth from dc to baltimore is a piece of cake now, i feel like i've done this soooo many times! :D

i forgot to mention that my surgeon told me that the recovery from this procedure is not nearly as bad as some of the stuff i read on the internet.  you evil internet!  i will go home the same day of the operation and i should be well recovered in a couple days.  of course you never know blah blah but this makes me feel so much better about going under the knife again.

my present infection is still there, i can see it a little myself but other people don't see it cause they don't know what normal looks like.  you can feel it if you touch my jawline.  (i forced my coworker to do it haha, because i wasn't sure if i was feeling it from the outside or inside myself, if that makes sense.)  but i am assuming in the next couple days the antibiotics should bring it back down to "normal."

what my surgeon said was that really the infection doesn't go away, it remains on the metal plate, when i think it's gone.  and that's why it keeps coming back and i need to get the plate removed.  the removal date got moved up because the infection came back quickly.  it is logical that it's not good to be on antibiotics  and having a continual infection for an extended period of time.

having gone through such an intense experience for the previous surgery, and after hearing about the much easier recovery for this one, i'm super "meh" about it.  a walk in the park!  am a little stressed at having to schedule all the logistics last minute but everything will fall into place as everything eventually does.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

march 1

surgery date set (moved up in fact) to remove plates.

Friday, February 10, 2012

it ain't over!

the saga continues...

i got a second infection in the same plate area.

the infected area didn't get super big and visibly swollen, but i could feel it growing and feeling the same way as last time.  based on the previous infection i was able to recognize it much earlier than the first one when i was like, durrrrrr what's this swelling, i'll just wait and see, it will get better, i'm sure...  :) 

since i'm long-distance from my surgeons, i was able to communicate via phone and email and get some antibiotics which helped the infection go away.  my surgeons are so helpful!!!  it's really lucky for me because it could potentially be very difficult being so far away, but they are very responsive and willing to help me a lot.

so at this point, we're looking at the plates coming out.  yes - a second surgery!  in the process of scheduling it now and making plans.

i did some online research that indicated the plate removal can be as intense as the original surgery in terms of swelling and numbness, and even worse bruising.  that seems kind of bizarre to me, because they're not  doing nearly as much mucking around up in my face, just small incisions, grab the plates, in and out.  so i'm hoping that is not true.

at the least, my jaw function won't be destroyed by this procedure; that was the longest and most difficult part of recovery by far.

otherwise i'm doing well.  i can open my mouth pretty wide, seems normal now, just kind of feels like a good stretch.  eating really crunchy stuff like hard chips and nuts feels sort of weird, slightly unpleasant, but otherwise i can eat everything including chewy stuff.  things are still sensitive in my mouth, i jabbed my gum with my toothbrush by accident and that was OW!  also i can't use my electric toothbrush, it feels like a jackhammer.

still numb in my gums and one part of my chin, but i will take it.  even if it's permanent, it doesn't really bother me and the aligned jaws is worth it!

i do have lip incompetence still, which is the fancy way of saying my lips aren't closing and meeting together properly.  i think my top lip is the problem.  to close my lips i have to strain the bottom lip up, which causes "pruney chin."

so that's my report for now!  i'm glad that me showing my case to the online world is helping other people looking for info about their same problem!