Okay, so I'd almost forgotten about this, even though I've had it in the back of my mind for a couple of weeks now. One year ago yesterday, I had major surgery in order to correct my jaw so I could have a more natural bite. At the time, the only teeth in my mouth that touched were the very back ones on each side and I couldn't eat a sandwich without pulling out everything in the middle. All in all it was really annoying and my smile was all crooked, but mainly it affected the way I ate.
Anyways, it was a four hour surgery I believe and the 3 weeks that followed were absolute hell. My face swelled up to 3-4 times it's normal size and I looked like a walrus. I was on a soft food diet for about a month as I couldn't open my mouth, let alone chew and I lost anywhere from 10-15 pounds in that month. My mom came and helped and took care of things and Ana was also a huge help.
Things were going fine until I started getting nosebleeds. During the surgery I'd had some tubes up my nose and down my throat and about 2 weeks or so after the surgery I started getting these nosebleeds that would literally bleed for a few hours because something they did in the surgery wasn't allowing me to clot properly. The last one happened while I was at the Seattle Children's Theater with my 5th grade class and it was not a fun experience. So I had to go back into the Doc's and he basically put in a nose tampon for a week. It was awful...really, really awful and disgusting, but it allowed my nose to heal and effectively stopped the nosebleeds.
It's been a year and things have progressed smoothly for the most part, though my jaw now constantly pops and is occasionally painful when it does, but all seems well. Here are some before, post-surgery and after pics. There's a pretty huge difference. And any snide comments, Dear Readers, about the post-surgery swollen face pics will be swiftly deleted and dealt with accordingly (I may hunt you down).
 |
Here's me a few 3 or 4 years ago looking exceptionally drunk, but I actually wasn't at all.
Notice the bad teeth. |
 |
| The day after surgery I was realllly swollen...LIKE A BOSS! |
 |
I said I looked like a walrus and thanks to my friend Kert, that thought became reality.
|
 |
| A little bit later, less swelling |
 |
| Maybe a month later? Much less swollen, but still pretty bruised. |
 |
| Almost a year later. Better smile, better hair and better glasses |
No comments:
Post a Comment