I woke up at 9:00 AM, still feeling defeated from the night before. I took some Children’s Motrin right away and asked my mom to make me some oatmeal. Breakfast is pretty much the only meal I look forward to anymore, so I figured this time I would try and eat two ketchup bottles’ worth of it. I looked in the mirror and was bummed to see the left side of my jaw is twice as swollen as yesterday. I don’t think I was very disciplined last night about sleeping on my back, so maybe I accidentally slept on the left side of my face.
My fiancé must have stayed up super late last night because he slept in until 2:00 PM! I spent that whole time working on this blog. I ate blended broccoli cheddar soup for lunch, but I didn’t finish it because it kinda tasted like plastic. I wanted to get that taste out of my mouth, so I took my toothbrush and started to brush the front of my teeth. That’s when I realized I could fit the entire toothbrush head in my mouth! I was like “why on earth did they tell me I wouldn’t be able to brush my teeth??” I proceeded to happily brush away. Big mistake. One of the incisions in my upper gums started bleeding. My fiancé banned me from brushing until further notice.
Around 4:00 PM I started addressing our Save The Date envelopes. I quickly discovered that leaning forward made all of the blood rush to my face, which hurt like hell, so I had to take breaks every couple of envelopes to drain my face by lying on the couch. Progress was slow until my mom took over.
At my first post-op appointment on Thursday, my jaw surgeon, Dr. Day, told me to change my rubber bands in three days. When I went to do that, I pulled my top lip up to reveal the incisions in my gums. The left side had been hurting whenever I would smile or laugh and I finally figured out why – there is a small, white mass below the stitches. My top lip is partially attached to it, and whenever it is tugged, the mass disconnects from my gums and I start bleeding a little. I’m not sure if I messed it up even more by brushing or if it was already like that, but I am mildly concerned about the whole thing. If it doesn’t get better before my next post-op appointment, I’ll ask Dr. Day to take a look at it.
If you’ve been reading this blog since the beginning, you already know I’ve had trouble finding liquid meals that I can stomach (no pun intended). Well, I finally found something that tastes INCREDIBLE… warm, blended refried beans with a little bit of shredded cheddar cheese. OMG. SO GOOD. I ate two entire ketchup bottles’ worth! I finally felt like I had a sufficient amount of calories in me for the first time since the surgery!
Below are the Day 6 pictures I took. I think I’ve finally reached the point where my cheeks and chin are more swollen than my jawline. When I say “cheeks” I really mean the small area to the left and right of my nose. The neon yellow bruising from yesterday is still there.
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