Today I had my 2nd appointment with my OS, and lots happened today. First, when my OS was checking out my mouth, he said that my mid-line has shifted to the left on my upper jaw, and it was right where it should have been when he saw me last week. So, we are going to have to use rubber bands to get it back to where it should be. When I looked in the mirror, wow, it is way off ... I didn't measure but I would venture much more than before my surgery (I was 2 mm to the left) ... I think I am about 5 mm to the left right now. Yikes.
Then he saw the exposed plate. He said that wasn't exposed last week either! So, he has me doing Peridex twice a day now for the next couple weeks, apparantly it will help skin heal over the plate hopefully. I cringed when I heard him say Peridex because I know it stains the teeth, but he said only when used long term, so hopefully my teeth won't get too dingy from a couple of weeks of use.
He showed me how to change my bands, and tonight I changed them for the first time. I did it in about 15 minutes! I thought I would take much longer, but I have to say, the one on my lower left back molar is so hard bacause the hook is so close to the gum. Since I can't feel my gums, makes it a lot harder to try to hook the band on, and you don't know if you are beating your gums up. But, I did it, so I was happy. I also can brush my front upper and lower teeth, along with my upper molars. He won't let me brush my lower molars yet because of the sutures.
I am also cleared now for a blended diet and I can eat dairy now! So, after leaving my OS's office, I got a Vanilla shake from McDonald's and sucked it down. We stopped at the grocery store to get a few more things now that I am on blended, and I cooked up 3 strips of bacon and mixed them in the magic bullet with home-made black beans and beef broth. Wow, that was good, but it was so weird to eat something with particulates. Since I can't really open much, they didn't get into my mouth. Oh well ... the appetite is definately back and it was DELICIOUS!! I can't even describe how weird the eating process was, though. I envisioned moving to particulates much easier.
That's all I'll post for now. I should also mentioned that I lost all of the 8 lbs that I gained inicially and I am now down 9 lbs. from where I started. That seems more normal!
As of Tuesday morning, I was off all pain meds, including children's motring (ibuprophen). I took some tonight beacause my teeth are a bit tender from the new band configuration.
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6 comments:
My teeth were really stained after the peridex, but it can be removed via a routine dental cleaning, so it's not something to really worry about (especially if it's helping the healing!)
yay for more food! the bacon bean soup sounds very interesting. hope the exposed plates thing gets better soon :)
Hooray for a blended diet!
Do they know what would have caused the plate to expose? Was it just your skin being to tight, and sutures let go?
Stephanie, I am not sure what caused the plate to expose. I am guessing because my skin is tight, but am not really sure. It is beneath my sutures, so it's not even like my stitches opened up, it's like the skin opened up on it's own. Strange. I haven't seen this as a complication of anyone else up to this point, so I just don't know what to think of it. Hopefully it will heal up on its own.
Looking at things closer, I think it is my suture that opened up. The front half of it, and then the back half is still stitched up. I'm not sure what caused the sutures to come loose, I was only doing salt water rinses and peroxide rinses up to that point, and nothing too vigorous.
My midline has shifted as well (I'm 6 weeks post-op) and I have rubber bands as well...such a pain, but worth it.
I found that those KFC bowls with a can of chicken broth mix up very well and it has a ton of flavor...oh, but get an extra gravy!
Good luck! Jeremy
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