The day of the surgery came and went and it’s now just over a week since I got the operation for my upper jaw expansion.
The first couple of days were not without their trying moments. One of the toughest parts is first waking up from the surgery. The surgeon warned me ahead of time of some of the challenges I would be facing but they always sound tame until you have to actually undergo them. One is the constant stream of nose bleeding that lasted well up to two days. Sleeping was my only respite and sleep I did for a full two days without eating. As you can imagine that will easily render one pretty weak by the time you do try and get up. My first attempt at getting up was quickly forced to a halt when I blacked out for the first time in my life and was well on my way to hitting the floor but not before Ty got a chance to catch me! That’s my man :)
The other tough part comes later on when the reality of my situation started to sink in a little more. One I have to stick to eating soft foods for the next 6 months until the bone has repaired itself. For those who know me well, not being able to eat like I normally do is a huge deal. It had barely been a week of eating pureed foods and I was already dreaming about bitting into a crunchy piece of toast!
Then there’s the growing space between my two front teeth. My orthodontist needs me to turn the key on my expander one to two times a day for a month to create a 5 millimeter gap. The surgeon already made 20 turns on the expander during my operation once he created the fracture in my palate. My orthodontist needs to see that gap to make sure he has the room he needs to straighten my teeth when it comes time for the braces once the expander is off.
I’m writing from the cottage and I can’t say I’m looking forward to going back to work tomorrow. Most of the swelling is gone and I currently have a 4 millimeter gap between my two front teeth (they are moving a lot faster than scheduled) but I still feel like hiding away in a hole.
