Halloween is my favorite holiday. Hands down. I couldn’t miss it, even if I just had jaw surgery two weeks ago. My sister wanted to be Lydia Deetz, so she asked me to be Beetlejuice. I’m still a little swollen, and my surgical rubber bands make my smile look creepy, so I figured why not go with a scary costume this year? I bought a black and white striped suit off of eBay and made an appointment at MAC cosmetics, because they are pros at doing over-the-top Halloween makeup.
I was a little worried about having enough energy to make it through the day. Besides my makeup appointment, I also had a 11:00 AM meeting with one of our wedding vendors in downtown Phoenix, and we were planning on going out at 9:00 PM to Mill Avenue for a Halloween block party, which would involve a lot of walking.
My fiancé explained to the wedding vendor lady that I just had jaw surgery, but I ended up talking almost as much as he did. We put a deposit down on our chairs, dance floor, and tent (we are having an outdoor ceremony and reception). The only jaw-related incident was I snapped one of my rubber bands while laughing at something the vendor lady said. My fiancé picked the broken band out of my teeth. Other than that, I left the meeting very happy with myself.
Unfortunately, things went downhill from there. I almost didn’t make it through the MAC appointment because I got another hot flash while she was doing my makeup. My makeup artist, Melissa, was really nice. She gave my mom a fan (I think they normally use it to dry eyelash glue) and my mom fanned me while Melissa finished up. Once I cooled down, my mom went across the street to Orange Julius and got me a fruit smoothie. I felt better after drinking a little of that. We tried to Google whether I was allergic to NSAIDs, because I had taken Children’s Motrin as a preemptive measure before my makeup appointment (I’m not sure why I thought getting my makeup done would be painful), and we realized I haven’t really had a hot flash since I stopped taking the Children’s Motrin a few days ago. Google told us the same thing as before – having a hot flash isn’t a symptom of an allergic reaction…
As soon as the makeup artist turned my chair around so I could see myself in the mirror, I felt much better because all I could think about was how awesome my Beetlejuice makeup looked! Melissa did an incredible job!
Going out on Mill Avenue was really fun, but I was super worried I would get another hot flash because it was 80 degrees outside and I was wearing a full-on suit. Phoenix set a record this year for the latest day in October to be over 100 degrees. I was definitely uncomfortable and sweating under my costume, but it was the normal kind of hot, not a hot flash.
I was doing fine until we went into a bar around 11:00 PM. The bouncer told me I had to throw my milkshake away before going inside. I told him I just had jaw surgery so I was trying to stock up on calories. He replied that he just had jaw surgery at Biltmore Surgical Center too! But his surgeon was Dr. Shaw, not Dr. Day, and he was three months post-op. When I told him I was only two weeks post-op he seemed really surprised and said, “If I were you I wouldn’t be out tonight.” I told him I’m not drinking and I’m being careful to avoid walking through the super-crowded areas (so some drunk guy doesn’t bump into me and knock my jaw out of place). He looked at me and said, “That’s not what I mean.”
Honestly, that freaked me out and I kept thinking about his ominous words for the rest of the night. Everyone in our six-person group paid a $10 cover to get into that bar, so I felt bad when I asked if we could leave less than an hour later. I convinced myself the loud music was reverberating through my loose jaws and I felt bad all over. I’m sure it was just psychological though. We got back to my sister’s place around 1:00 in the morning, but I didn’t go to bed until 3:30 AM because we stayed up talking to my mom (who was getting on a plane back to Wisconsin in the morning), and after the drive home, it took me forever to remove the makeup and wash out the green hairspray.
Below are the Day 12 pictures I took in my Beetlejuice costume.
Day 13 Update: I definitely over-did it yesterday (Saturday). Today (Sunday) was miserable. I shouldn’t have stayed up so late last night. I woke up feeling like I had a hangover. That dulled my already non-existent appetite, so I barely ate anything. I ended up getting a forehead headache around 7:00 PM, and I wanted to die. I never get headaches, so when I do, I’m a total baby about them. I think the pain was making me clench down, which caused my molars to start to ache. I gave in and took some pain medicine (10 mL of Tylenol with Codeine). While I waited for it to kick in, I complained to my fiancé that it felt like I was back at Day 3 again. Learn from my mistake: don’t overexert yourself two weeks post-op!
Day 14 Update: Below are the pictures I took on Monday before handing out candy to the Halloween trick-or-treaters that came to our door. My fiancé said I must be feeling better because I actually curled my hair (for the first time since my surgery) and put my fake eyelashes back on!
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